While I did tell you all about my plan to see every nationwide release of 2013, I left out a very key bit from that plan; to completely avoid any sort of reviews for movies (mainly Rotten Tomatoes) before seeing it. For the first three films I saw this year, my opinions ended up matching pretty closely with the overall opinions of each. Gangster Squad represents the first movie of the year for which I strongly disagree with the bulk of the reviews I saw for the film after seeing it, and as a result I’m going to devote the last section of my review to the issues other reviewers have taken with the film and why they did not ruin the experience for me. While it doesn’t do much that hasn’t been done before, Gangster Squad mixes a lively tone with shallow yet highly likable characters to produce a surprisingly entertaining film.
The Plot:
Los Angeles, 1949: A secret crew of police officers led by two determined sergeants work together in an effort to take down the ruthless mob king Mickey Cohen who runs the city.
The Players:
I feel the sudden need to buy a suit…
When it comes down to it, Gangster Squad isn’t exactly ground-breaking in its premise or its plot. Because of that, the effectiveness of the movie comes down to how well the cast could make us care about the bad things happening to the good characters. I’ll admit that there’s not a huge amount of development for anyone except O’Mara (Josh Brolin), but each of the six members of the gangster squad are given more than enough fun dialogue to make you give a crap whether they live or die. Sure, the sheer number of protagonists makes it pretty obviously that not all of them are going to make it out alive, but I felt like I liked them all enough for none of them to feel “expendable”.
Just have beautiful babies already!
I’d have to say that one thing I agree with people on is that Ryan Gosling is the stand out here once again. His nasally, 50′s style voice was a bit weird to me at first, but the guy just makes it so god-damn easy to pull off smooth that he could probably have landed Emma Stone in any number of fake accents. Speaking of Ms. Stone, I love her as an actress but I couldn’t shake the “been there, done that” feeling I got from her scenes with Gosling after their much superior pairing in Crazy, Stupid Love. I guess someone had to prevent it from being too much of a sausage fest, Mireille Enos couldn’t handle it all by herself.
You haven’t fired a Tommy Gun until you’ve fired it in slow motion
Finally we have Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen, who was featured just as prominently in the film as any one of the real main characters in every trailer that came out for the movie. I really don’t think Penn deserves the amount of negativity that’s been directed at his role here, but I consistently felt like Cohen was the most stereotypically written and overall weakest character of the entire film. He’s given many standard, badass-gangster monologues, but there were a lot of times when those lines felt way too much like somebody from 2012 trying to sound like a 50′s gangster than an actual 50′s gangster.
The Tone:
This meeting of The Handsome Club is now in session
One consistantly repeated sentiment I’ve seen in a lot of reviews for this movie is that it is trying to be something more than it is. While I did feel that at times (none more so than during Brolin’s over-seriousl voiceovers at the beginning and end of the movie), I still felt like the tone that Gangster Squad is pursuing more often than not is one of blood-soaked fun. It’s easy to look at anything from the time period and say that it’s just trying to be L.A. Noire (for you gamers) or L.A. Confidential (for you cinefiles), but if you’re someone like me who wasn’t comparing the film to either of those two, I think you’ll enjoy it far more as a stand-alone film.
As a final note, I think that I may just be a big fan of Director Ruben Fleischer. I have yet to see 30 Minutes or Less, but between this and Zombieland (Which I LOVE), Fleischer just seems to do a good job of managing characters that I have fun watching. As long as he keeps finding decent scripts and capable casts, I think he has a bright future ahead of him.
The Verdict: 7.0/10 Good
+ Increased emotional investment in characters; I cared who lived and who died
+ Oh Ryan Gosling, you beautiful scoundrel, you…
+ A script that does a decent job of setting an enjoyably fun atmosphere
- Occasionally takes itself too seriously, avoids moral pitfalls
P.S. You’ll notice that the theater mass-shooting scene from the original trailers was not only taken out of the trailers following the tragedy in Aurora, CO, but entirely cut from the film
Critical Consensus:
Rotten Tomatoes: 32%
IMDb: 6.8/10
Metacritic: 40/100
Other Reviews:
The Bishop Review: 4/5
Mercifully Short Reviews: 7/10
Dan the Man Movie Reviews: 6.5/10
Marked Movies: 6/10
CinemaWolf: B-
Fast Film Reviews: 2.5/5
The Focused Filmographer: 2.5/5
FlixChatter: 2/5
The Code is Zeek: 2/5
Average: 5.9/10 – Passable
Yay. Better than a lot of stuff I’ve read. Still need to see it. I’ve gone too long without going to the theater now and should feel bad and hate myself lol.
Like I said, it wasn’t anything mindblowing but I just thought it was a lot of fun to watch. Don’t Expect the Godfather and you’ll probably at least not hate it
Yea I’m disappointed with the reviews so far for this one but your’s has shed some light! I’m seeing it tonight and pretty excited, even though I’ve lowered my expectations quite a bit.
I’d say lowering your expectations will help you enjoy this more, it’s not trying to be The Godfather so I didn’t feel like I needed to judge it on that level
See I loved it when I first saw the trailer, but the more i read about it, the less I want to see it. Maybe I should take your advice and not read reviews huh? (though I do agree with you on tomatoes – nothing ever seems to please the guys and girls there!)
I am a huge fan of Ryan Gosling……. so may be swayed!
lol, not reading reviews definitely helps sometimes. Human Psychology is weird like that, I hope you enjoy this too
It’s nice to hear a positive review of this Andy. I really fancy it. My expectations have been lowered but I’ve been interested for some time now.
I was sort of confused when I first saw how low the Rotten Tomatoes Score is, my only thought is that people were expecting it to be some sort of complex, period-piece crime epic. People keep saying it’s shooting too high, but I just didn’t see it that way I guess
Good review Andy. I didn’t hate this one, but I had a good enough time with it to at least recommend it for some stupid fun. No harm in that, is there now?
Sometimes stupid fun fits the bill just nicely
I wouldn’t nominate it for any awards, but I still would rather see this again than something like Killing Them Softly (which I scored higher)
Nice review! This hasn’t been something I’ve had any interest in, I just had the feeling that it wasn’t going to live up to its promise. Maybe that kind of attitude is the perfect one to have and I may be surprised by it!
Yeah, As long as you’re expecting it to be fun and not anything deep or complex I think you’ll at least enjoy it.
I always avoid reviews and sometimes even trailers of movies I want to see, especially trailers which tend to give away sooooo soooo much! Which is why I most often read the introduction and look at the rating in the end when I go for a review.. it’s kind of cheating but, I’m afraid to be influenced by others way too much at the moment. Glad you liked it though, Gosling and Stone are my favorite onscreen couple!
That sounds like a good system
I think my favorite Onscreen couple would have to be Jim and Pam from season 4 of The Office, but Gosling and Stone are definitely up there for the movie circuit
Oh, don’t get me started with TV couples.. I can’t even.. no. Don’t. *error*
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Thanks for the shoutout. I didn’t like how they could’ve made Penn an even greater villain but only chose to give him semi-cameo appearances in the first half.
Gangster Squad could’ve been more. It wasn’t bad…but not spectacular either.
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I wasn’t as taken with this film as you were, but I get why you enjoyed it. (And thanks…I saw what you did there.)
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Decent entertainment Andy. I thought it was okay but it could have been much better. I thought most of the characters were woefully underwritten but the look and feel was spot on. Totally agree on Penn’s performance, though. I don’t think he deserves the criticism he’s received either.
Good movie. On another unrelated note, my brother met Ryan Gosling yesterday. Lucky bastard.
Nice! Did he get a pic to remember it by?
My brother is always too afraid to ask for a picture. He lives in Ashland, Oregon so he runs into quite a few actors, especially around this time with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival going on.
Thanks for the link. Well, as you already know, I didn’t think highly of this movie nor Gosling. I still don’t get his appeal at all, but I actually think Josh Brolin is pretty effective here and he’s not the kind of actor I usually go for.