Gangster Squad (2013) - Review

The epitome of classically structured films, Gangster Squad is a perfect example of a film that's just plain, stupid fun.

Gangster Squad takes place among the hedonistic heavy drinking/smoking citizens of post-world war II Los Angeles. The city is in the vice-like grip of ruthless mob boss Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), and Chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) is under constant fire from the press and the public for doing very little about it. But then he does; Parker orders Seargant John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), a hard-hitting, honest, veteran cop to bring down Cohen by any means necessary - off the books, of course. O'Mara puts together the Gangster Squad, a rogue group of cops who use often violent and illegal means to put an end to Cohen's rule. Cue seemingly unrelated action sequences.

The bill is topped off by Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), a smooth talking war veteran, Grace Faraday (Emma Stone), the femme fatale who Wooters develops a relationship with, as well as Anthony Mackie and the rest of the gangster squad. Despite lackluster character development, the actors give largely strong performances with the material that they've been given.

Despite this, the characters are a largely shiftless bunch; a group of people who exist in a certain time who do things that doesn't really click with any sort of reason for doing so. However, the actors performances are all of a reasonable quality. Gosling and Stone, having already worked together on Crazy, Stupid Love are a formidable screen couple that have great chemistry, but with them in mind there is an unfortunate sense of stardom factor, in that we are seeing them as actors rather than the characters that they are portraying. And, albeit some slick dialogue, the script is painfully weak at times. Most aspects of the film serve dramatic tropes rather than it being the other way around. With it's near two-hour running time, it feels like a lot more could have been done with the time that the film was given.

It's many vices aside, Gangster Squad does have a few positive aspects going for it. Despite Ruben Fleischer having only directed one major project before (2009s Zombieland) his directorial skills are reasonably impressive and suit the action in a strange way; he executes the whole thing with a kind of reckless but controlled abandon. His style also contributes positively to the films more comedic tone at times, as this seems to be Fleischer's natural way of going about things.

Having read Paul Leiberman's excellent Gangster Squad: The True Story of the Battle for Los Angeles on which the film was very, very, very loosely based, I can safely say that this is not a film to be taken seriously in the slightest. It's a fun, stupid (in a good way) action-romp that looks great and is a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

And why should that be a bad thing?

3/5