Gangster Squad

 I watched Gangster Squad last week.  While no means ground-breaking, it is definitely a good, fun movie.  I'd definitely recommend this over Broken City which recently came out on DVD as well and didn't hold my attention as much as this film did.  This is a pretty formulaic gangsters vs. cops film.  Sean Penn is Mickey Cohen, the big gangster in Los Angeles. Mickey is firming up his territory and getting rid of his competition to do it, with no regard for the public or innocent lives.  Its this recklessness that leads the Chief of Police (Nick Nolte) to task John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) to take him down.  What follows are some exciting car chases, shootouts, shootouts, and more shootouts.

All the actors are good here. Sean Penn is threatening behind this ridiculous nose they gave him, Josh Brolin is solid as always, and Ryan Gosling does his pretty boy shtick   One thing that I did find strange was that Ryan Gosling uses a high pitched tone throughout the whole movie.  It wasn't good, nor bad, just unnecessary.  The rest of the Gangster Squad is rounded out by the likes of Anthony Mackie, Robert Patrick, Michael Pena, and Giovanni Ribisi, all whom are pretty good with their characters.  Each member of the squad, like any cop movie, serves a certain purpose. You have your technology guy, your sharpshooter, the rookie, the hotshot, the leader, and your shakedown guy.  Whats nice is that all of the team members get a moment to shine to serve their purpose as well as a moment to overcome it. So there is some character development.   All in all , this is an enjoyable film, but nothing new is offered for people who love gangster films.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Trailer