rehor-masarova
I watched this movie in 2018, cause i found it randomly just now. All i wanted was some good characters, a good plot and maybe some well directed action, i am kinda twisted on the movie :)
I thought that the first half was very inconsistent, because there is so much happening and you are not really into the movie, and there are like 2 action scenes, all in the dark and not very well directed, so the first half does not really work.
As for the characters, i did not really care for them, at least in the first half, because there is A LOT of them introduced all at once basically and i did not found a relationship with them. In the latter parts of the movie, i started to like them, but then the movie ended, but once they have more screen time, i liked them and started to know them at least a little bit.
As far as the action goes, there is quite a lot, but most of the action i did not care for, basically the only good action scene, in my opinion, is the final shootout in the half, that is all in slow-motion and there are some really decent shots. Otherwise it is not very good looking or entertaining.
The actors in this movie are all famous, but their performances are just fine. Josh Brolin is good and basically everyone is good and i did not have a problem with anybody, but i really thought, that Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling were really good. All around the performances worked and the cast was put together well.
The story was good, if it really happened this way, than i really admire all the heroes in this movie. I really wanted to see Penn defeated and so i was rooting for the good guys.
I just feel like this movie is too short and does not take the time to completely develop the characters. I can imagine it being reworked into a tv show. As a movie, it works and you will probably have fun with it, but will forget it the next morning. I really think if it was longer, it would have been better and had better fledged out characters. But after all, i enjoyed it for the story and the cast and one memorable action scene.
Now let's see how Venom turns out :D
NoPantsBatman
Gangster Squad is a team of "vigilante" cops composed by Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), Officer Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), Officer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick), Officer Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña) and Officer Conwell Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), with one goal only, to take down Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). It's a flick full of action, gunfire, crime and with a pinch of romance.The director Ruben Fleischer succeeds to make me feel like I was living in the 50's, surrounded by the mob vibe. The corruption, the disregard for human life, the car shootouts, the simple yet complicated life, the charisma that society emanated. It's 1 hour and 53 minutes of a reality that I never experienced and a part of me wish I did. It goes from the mob brutality to the simple 50's life, back to mob violence, back to the 50's point of view. It's a good set of events, making you live in it.The character development was left a bit on the side, which was not bad, since in this movie I just needed to know who were the bad guys and the good guys to fully understand the plot. And, to that, nothing was left to chance.The movie has the classic Hollywood play in which goes to a point where everything seems lost, with no solution, only to be solved by an unexpected gift. That move is a little outplayed, from my point a view, but it certainly works to create the mood of impotency.Even though I loved the 50's/mafia environment provided, and that this is based on a true story, I just can't help but feel that it all looked so simple and easy for the Squad, without any real challenge from the "villain". It's entertaining, for sure, but it killed a crucial part of the mood for me. I have to give it 6 out of 10.
Mr. Keep it Short+Sweet Layman's Terms reviewer
Ever since No Country For Old Men came out (which is a really well-made, compelling film), casting agents have been way too nice to Josh Brolin causing what I term the Josh Brolin effect.While he is certainly a good actor, he has been given too many roles since NCFOM where he has been badly miscast and has watered down or hurt what may have been some pretty good movies Gangster Squad included (Let's see...also Oldboy, Jonah Hex, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, AND AND some brilliant minds thought he would make a great Thanos, Whatttt???). He looks tired, he drags on and some might even say his acting in said movies is unconvincing of the characters he plays like he just reads the script and says "All right lets do this and get it over with so they can throw me in some other movie I probably don't belong in". Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Pena and most certainly Robert Patrick all outshine Brolin in Gangster Squad in significantly smaller roles. Then there's Sean Penn's overacting, how he didn't get a 3rd best actor academy award or even a nomination is beyond me. When this movie was released you see all the star power involved and you say to yourself "Damn, I gotta go see that!" then when it ends at least I was saying to myself "Thank god for trailers cause at least Josh Brolin and Sean Penn were not in any of them".
darosslfc
Gangster Squad was one of the biggest let downs I've experienced at the movie theaters. With the names: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Anthony Mackie, Michael Peña, and Giovanni Ribisi attached to this project I assumed that this film would be a huge hit. But do you know the saying about assumptions? The film is based on the story of Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), an east coast gangster who brought organized crime out west to LA, and John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), a cop hired to assemble a team to take down Cohen by any means possible. This included using violence without punishment from the law. This premise bodes well for a good gangster flick but doesn't deliver on any front.The acting was fairly bad, the plot was unoriginal, the dialogue poor, and the directing terrible. There were only a few scenes in the film that I actually enjoyed, but most of the time I was either cringing in my seat or stifling a laugh. Gangster Squad had its release pushed back because of the movie theater shootings at the Dark Knight Rises. They had to do extensive re-shoots because a scene in the movie depicted gunmen coming out blazing from behind a theater screen shooting into the crowd. Rumors stated that removing this scene was like pulling a thread from a sweater. But regardless of what the movie could of been it ultimately was a flop.
AD
