Warner Bros
Gangster Squad
Tagline: No Names. No Badges. No Mercy.
Much like the forgettable Ben Stiller comedy The Watch, which had to change its name following the Trayvon Martin shooting (it was originally titled Neighborhood Watch), Gangster Squad has had a troubled journey to a movie theater near you. It was due to open last September but was postponed until 2013 because of the tragic theater shooting in Aurora, Colo. A key scene involving a gunfight in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre was subsequently deemed “inappropriate” and thus was removed, first from the trailer and then from the entire movie.
Set in the Los Angeles of 1949, Gangster Squad stars Sean Penn as the Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen and is the kind of role Penn revels in playing. He’s at the center of a whole host of nefarious activities and enjoys the protection of his own team of goons as well as local police and politicians. Is anyone possibly brave enough to step up and try and rock the status quo? Step forward, Sergeants John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who join forces to bring Cohen down. (Robert Patrick, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi and Michael Peña are also assembled by Nick Nolte’s Chief Parker to make up the team.) “Can you remind me of the difference between us and them?” asks Ribisi, to remind us that it’s one of those movies where the difference between good and evil is difficult to decipher. Emma Stone crops up in an almost obligatory romantic subplot as Gosling’s femme fatale, since their hook-up in Crazy Stupid Love clearly shouldn’t be a one-time deal.
Critics are pretty much split down the middle as to whether the film should be deemed a success. “Despite the flaws and the occasional corn, this is still one of the most exhilarating and entertaining action films in recent memory,” raves the New York Observer. “Gangster Squad is perfectly decent entertainment: it possesses a frequently witty script, a roster of likable, cool-looking stars, fizzy choreography and Sean Penn out-hamming Mr. Pricklepants,” zings Empire. But the Village Voice hammers it, concluding that “the lazy, trashy Gangster Squad is damning physical evidence that the war for the soul of Hollywood is in a bad way.” And the Hollywood Reporter makes a smart comparison, noting that “this lurid concoction superficially gets by thanks to a strong cast and jazzy period detail, but its cartoonish contrivances fail to convince and lack any of the depth, feeling or atmosphere of genre standard-bearers like L.A. Confidential.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qilrVR0miPU