In
January of 2012, I had the opportunity to visit Melbourne, Australia. This was
shortly after I started this movie blog, and I actually reviewed my third and
fourth movies while there—The Descendants and Tailor, Tinker, Soldier, Spy, the former still one of my most highly-ranked Buddies Forever
Movie Club films. This January I returned to Melbourne and made it a point to
see another movie with Australian Buddy Forever Josh Bell.
It
was a tough choice between Gangster Squad and Silver Linings Playbook. I say
tough because between Bell’s love of gangsters and playbooks, and my fondness
for squads and silver linings, well we just couldn’t seem to make up our minds.
Luckily time made the ultimate decision and we saw the later showing of Gangster
Squad.
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| Australia's Josh Bell |
Here’s how IMDb describes the film: “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 film is loosely based
upon true events and is essentially the story of how the mob, which has never
had a foothold in the city, was kept out of Los Angeles. Of course that story was glorified, embellished and given the Hollywood treatment, but the
material still proved captivating. I didn’t have high hopes for Gangster Squad
going in, and I left feeling I got what I expected. I’m not saying that it was
a great movie, because it wasn't, but it entertained me throughout.
The thing with Gangster
Squad, at least for me, was that it would have made a better television series
than a movie. Had the story unfolded organically over time and the characters
properly developed it could have been awesome. Instead, we got a turbo version
where everything was squeezed into a 113-minute timeframe.
As previously mentioned, the
story was appealing but ultimately it was rushed. The transitions for scene to
scene, no matter how much time had passed or travel was required, was
instantaneous. This warped the timeframe and I can honestly say that I have no
idea how much time the film covered. Did it take place over a few months or a
few years? I’m not sure.
While I liked the story, my
favorite part about the film were the performances. The cast was chalk full of
A-list actors, and even though their characters weren’t fully developed, they
were fun to watch. That applied especially to Sean Penn, who played the
boxer-turned-gangster Mickey Cohen. Penn is a great actor with a tremendous
range and it was exciting to watch him portray such a power-hungry, immoral and
capitalistic criminal. It didn’t turn out to be an iconic role by any means,
but it was a solid performance and showed that Penn has what it takes to play a
mean bad guy.
On the flip side were
protagonists Sgt. John O’Mara and Sgt. Jerry Wooters, played by Josh Brolin and
Ryan Gosling respectively. I was under the impression that the film would
center around the latter actor, but the filmmakers did a good job balancing him
with Brolin. I think both men are good at what they do, and that’s what they
were in Gangster Squad—good not great.
The same can be said for the
supporting cast, which included Anthony Mackie (who will play The Falcon in
Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Robert Patrick, Michael Pena and Giovanni Ribisi. They rounded out the Gangster Squad and each of their characters were
interesting, but due to poor development they didn’t really make an emotional
connection with the audience.
I will say that I was
impressed by both Nick Nolte and Emma Stone. The former had a small part as the
chief of police, but he made the most of his time onscreen. Nolte is getting up
there in years, which haven’t treated him too kindly, but it’s still fun to
watch him do what he does in suitable roles. Regarding Stone, I must admit
she’s becoming quite the sex symbol, which surprises me given past roles she’s
had. I’ve always imagined her as a good girl, but I’m becoming convinced that
just might not be the case. I also think Stone and Gosling had good onscreen
chemistry, much like they did in Crazy, Stupid, Love.
I
didn’t care too much for Gangster Squad, but then again I didn’t hate it
either. It was entertaining, and that’s all I ask for from a movie. Will it win
any awards? Certainly not (it’s more on par with Lawless), but if you’re
looking for some quick and cheap thrills for a couple hours Gangster
Squad should do the trick.
Buddies Forever Movie Club Rating: 58%
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