It's been a while since my last review and this was due to the lack of films that I had been watching because of work being done to my house. But I decided to take time out and watch GANGSTER SQUAD, Director Reuben Fleisher's third feature after the great Zombieland and the not so great 30 Minutes Or Less, but was Gangster Squad any good?...Check Out my review after the jump...
I
did not enter into the world of Gangster Squad expecting a film along
the lines of L.A Confidential or Mulholland Falls, a dramatic 50s set
crime thriller with an intriguing plot, I entered Gangster Squad
expecting to see a cop film with a ton of action dressed up in 1950s
period costumes, guns and vehicles. And that's what I got although I
have to say I do sometimes like a little bit of plot in my action
films, which was something missing from Gangster Squad, well it wasn't so much as missing but pretty much stolen from Brian De Palma's far
superior 1987 film, The Untouchables about a group of men who lay
down the law by any means necessary to prevent the flow of alcohole
into Chicago and nailing gangster, Al Capone. Gangster Squad is about
a group of cops assigned to rip apart the criminal empire of Mickey
Cohen, the scourge of L.A circa 1949, and they do this by any means
necessary. The plots are almost identical and GS even features a
shoot out on some stairs which in The Untouchables was used as homage
to the Russian classic Battleship Potemkin. It was all too familiar,
like it was really struggling for originality then just thought “You
know what, fuck it, lets just copy The Untouchables, L.A
Confidential, The Godfather, Billy Bathgate and the video game L.A
Noire because I seriously can't think of anything original to write
for this film”, that's how it felt watching Gangster Squad.
Not
only that but director Rueben Fleisher (Zombieland) seems to have
decided to make it look like a comic book ala Sin City or The Spirit
(which is shit) and this became very annoying because it was all
dressed up in this CG shine. Gangster Squad was on a relatively low
budget compared to most modern Hollywood film with and estimated
$60mil budget, when The Untouchables was made for $25mil and looks
fantastic, sounds fantastic and has characters who you could get
involved with because you knew the actors were really behind the film
especially DeNiro's Al Capone. With Gangster Squad there didn't seem
to be any heart in the performances, well apart from Giovanni Ribisi,
the rest of them didn't seem like they cared for the movie, Gosling
in particular, who after Drive, seems like this film was just a
paycheck, what happened to the days when actors cared for their art,
for the words written for them? Take for example Sean Penn, an actor
who I do kind of dislike, for me he seemed to only make films to win
awards, but with Gangster Squad, much like De Caprio in Django
Unchained, seems to be having a bit of fun with his role as Mickey
Cohen, and I have to give the man credit because he's the most
animated of the cast even if he is a little over the top.
The
great Robert Patrick is woefully underused as an aging remnant of the
last days of the wild west, which is odd because it would have been
50 years previous that the final days of lawmen wore chaps and gun
belts, he's barely given anything to do, Michael Pena who was
absolutely fantastic in David Ayer's End Of Watch is pretty much
introduced and then given almost noting to do for the majority of the
film, the same with another top actor, Anthony Mackie who when he's
introduced, seems like he's going to be a mean feature of the team
but again he's pushed to the side lines where a not being arsed
Gosling gets front and centre attention, then we Emma Stone, the
beautiful Emma Stone, looking stunning as Mickey's moll who strikes
up a relationship with Gosling, She is given the least amount to do,
her character is utterly pointless and wastes Miss Stones wonderful
talent. Finally we have Josh Brolin, the former Goonie turned actor
impressionist, the dude is on fire in almost everything he does, he's
great in Gangster Squad because he can probably see that there is
nothing really of merit in the film so tries his damnedest to try and
save the already slipping film. His character comes across more like
a 40s Dirty Harry and it's kind of fun to watch him perform as a
badass.
Had
Gangster Squad had a stronger more original script with characters I
could relate to, I think it could have been something special,
instead we get a retread of previous, more superior films, with too
much style and very little substance. Action wise the film is OK,
there's some nice shoot-outs, including one in Chinatown and a 'mob
hit' outside a club but it's ruined by CGI car chases and a bloody
silly final fist fight between Penn and Brolin which could have been
avoided had Brolin's character, who was pointing a gun at him prior
to the fisticuffs, shot Cohen in the face. I don't get that with
movies, when it comes down to the good guy vs the bad guy and the
good guy's gun has two-three bullets left and the bad guy doesn't
have a gun, why remove the upper hand in favour of punch up when you
can just shoot the twat in the knees and be done, I think this is
made to round up the run time of a film. There's one film that I can
think of that does have the protagonist actually shoot the perp at
the end, it's a James Woods film called COP, which, now I think about
it is actually a 40s detective drama set in L.A updated to the 80s.
It's a very good film so check that one out if you can.
Overall,
the film just didn't work for me, like I said earlier, had the film
had a stronger script, a more experienced director and a natural
look, I think the film could have been special, the problems and
flaws that it does have lower this to B movie status which isn't
where a film like this should be. Thinking about this film, I think
it would have also been more effective had it been shot in black and
white, it would have given the film a more noirish feel but instead
we get this weird washed out paint look that makes everything look
artificial which was one of the things that ruined the film for
me....oh and Sean Penn's silly fake nose. There are worse gangster
films but with a cast of this calibre this should have been far
better.
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