Review of Gangster Squad (2013) by Dave J — 15 Nov 2013

Tuesday, November 12, 2013.

(2013) Gangster Squad.

ACTION THRILLER.

"Gangster Squad" as the movie is called is the name of an underground group of law officers gathered together but have to work without their badges- they use instead 'above the law' tactics mostly by means of sabotaging and wrecking some of Mickey's joints, in this case it's against gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) put together by Sgt. John O'Mara played by Josh Brolin. These members put together mostly by John O' Mara's wife also includes Officer Darryl Gates(Josh Pence, Officer Coleman Harris( Anthony Mackie) Officer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick), Officer Navidad Ramirez(Michael Peña), Officer Conwell Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi) and Ryan Gosling as Sgt. Jerry Wooters.

It says right at the start that it's inspired by actual events but the truth of the matter is that those events could be like from 5 to 30% for upon watching it is more of a carbon copy of "The Untouchables" directed by Brian DePalma or the old rendition of "Fast Five" than as an original. The set up is down right ridiculous with ruthless gangster Mickey Cohen (Penn) wanting to expand his criminal organization tactics to the city of Los Angeles from Chicago. And instead of joining a formal rival gangster, he rather have them get blown away instead. It's like viewers haven't seen this scenario before, for we see this happen in gangster movies all the time. And because of this, it provokes Chief Parker(Nick Nolte)to take drastic action by putting together his own underground anti-Cohen group since much of the police force is suspected to be corrupted anyway which viewers are never really shown too much about this corruption except that they're. Some of the other remnants I also recognize is "Lethal Weapon" which the fist fight toward the end is dumb and unnecessary to the expert knife thrower from original "The Magnificent Seven" similar to the Steve McQueen character. The machine gun scenes are alright but still similar to "The Untouchables" since it happens to yet to another staircase but no baby in the carriage this time, but with way more flash and gun firing. Also notable is that this is also the second movie actor Ryan Gosling starred with actress Emma Stone in which she plays Cohen's girlfriend Grace who's only using Cohen to put her foot in the door to be an actress for the best way to describe this movie is depends on artificial substance, with no fire which there are times the actors look like they're play acting rather than acting.

2 out of 4 stars.