Gangster Squad (2013) is based on the true story of how the LAPD create a group of cops, which includes Sgt John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), try and take down Micky Cohen's (Sean Penn) mafia group within the city. On this basis, this film would probably be right up my street with the idea that its based on a true story and that it includes a stellar cast, with rising stars like Emma Stone. However, I felt that throughout the film that, even though its based on a true story, it doesn't seem believable at all, would the LAPD really allow a cop to just set up a group to try and take down Micky Cohen who was the biggest mafia boss at the time. Also, I didn't particularly enjoy this film because it just seemed to pedantically go on and on with the hope that the visuals and the all star cast would be able to carry the film. To be honest, in a cinema of attractions point of view, the film would be really entertaining, with the stylisation of what it would have been like in the 40s and the inclusion of unnecessary gore, really in the first scene, a guy gets ripped apart by too cars in a homage to the old hung drawn and quartered way of punishment. But I did not realise that the script and whole story would of been so stale, I think its one of those films where there is a great cast but a bad script, like I think Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are great actors and Crazy, Stupid Love is a terrific film but Gangster Squad will be a film that will not live long in their memory.
The film does however, have some quite good performances from some of its principle cast, like Josh Brolin who has sort of revived his career in recent years into some kind of leading man from the shadows and obviously Gosling puts in a great performance but I'm not too sure what his accent is meant to be. I felt that the whole film is a way to see if they could pass off the film just on the back of its stars, like a lot of films nowadays. To be honest, the film did sort of bore me after a while and I stopped paying attention for maybe a minute but this didn't seem too much of a problem, as the plot was so basic and predictable, I probably didn't have to watch the film and I could guess what would happen.
On the other hand, there were parts in this film that I did actually enjoy, obviously being a fan Tarantino films, I would be fine with the violence within the film, like the punishment scenes performed by Cohen's goons and the cinematography of the film was so magical it just showed how far we have came in the world of film by showing that we can make a mediocre film look like a masterpiece in visuals. Also with audiences who don't mind recycled 40s gangster characters like the psychopathic mob boss and the disillusioned police officer who has a pregnant wife to worry about, then Gangster Squad will give the cinema time of your life. But if you are a person who actually likes it when directors and writers actually try to create a non cliché film out of a true story, well I have to say that Gangster Squad will disappoint you deeply, I had an open mind when watching this film and hoping that its going to be a good film with the great premise and the basis of the story, however, it just misses it for me. I will say this though, I really hope that the true story would be more interesting than this film.
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