January is notorious for releasing poor films to the year’s opening audience. When director Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”) delayed release of his anticipated gun-heavy crime drama to January after the Aurora, Colo. shootings, fans and critics were split between those hopeful for the re-shot film to break the early-year curse and those doubtful about its true promise. And those skeptics were right to have their doubts.
“Gangster Squad” reminisces on period crime films of old with a menacing portrayal by Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen, the notorious American Mafia kingpin of the 1940s and 1950s. A Brooklyn type, Cohen takes Los Angeles by storm with an underground army of gangsters and officials alike that allow him to have control of the city at his fingertips. Penn, sporting a striking prosthetic nose similar to Freddy Krueger’s, handles the role likewise with Krueger’s menacing ferocity.
The remaining actors follow suit. LAPD chief William Parker (Nick Nolte) orders Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) on an undercover mission to risk death in a fight to send Mickey Cohen out of Los Angeles. O’Mara recruits an unusually random group of officers and detectives (Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Peña and Robert Patrick) to aid in his suicide mission.
Each member of the group has his own side story, from Brolin’s character’s concern over his wife’s pregnancy to Ribisi’s character’s courageous abilities in technological warfare. Gosling’s story remains one of the most prevalent, involving a mistress of Mickey Cohen’s (Emma Stone) who, in a decision that would be ridiculous with any actor besides Gosling, irrationally risks her life in an affair with him that persists throughout quieter parts of the film.
The actors hold their own with their given characters, significantly Brolin and Gosling, who deal with personal moments in strong disposition. However, the setup is where most of the film tops off, leaving the remainder of our time with underdeveloped but likeable characters in an entrenched standoff between six officers and an army that would give Al Capone a powerful grin.
The never-ending action sequences of “Gangster Squad” follow a standard routine, where the group meets in hiding to plan its next foiling of Cohen’s master takeover, go out to produce several fatalities with their diverse talents, then return to hiding to prepare for the next plot. Though the squad gains more success as the film progresses, the procedure of making small dents in Cohen’s bustling fortress of crime becomes weary and tired by the halfway point. The crew face casualties as they proceed, which are mainly resolved through continued use of their handguns.
It isn’t as though “Gangster Squad” presents mediocre action sequences. Oscar-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe (“Memoirs of a Geisha”) creates original scenes of mid-century mobster shootouts that consistently prevail as the most entertaining parts of the movie. Unfortunately, these extravagant gunfights remain practically the only entertaining part of the movie, encased in a few predictable plot devices and cliched lines in every situation where the actors aren’t too busy being shot at to speak.
“Gangster Squad” has an immense amount of potential, but leads itself down the course of many action films by sacrificing logistics and storytelling for the nearest bloodline to a box office lineage it can find. Putting stars like Gosling and Brolin together, who deliver lines smoothly and intensely when needed without many flaws, the film found a winning formula but didn’t execute it properly. Among similar early-year entries to film series of warfare, such as “A Good Day to Die Hard” next month and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” the month after, “Gangster Squad” found an appropriate family.
One notable aspect that “Gangster Squad” succeeds in that may separate it from these franchises is its production design. The film includes extensive detail and work to exemplify the feel of the late 1940s in the flamboyant street settings and nightclubs the film takes place in. From the classic cars to the elegant dresses worn by the movie’s women, Stone exceptionally, the class and demeanor of the times exude from the film in all forms. Brolin and company wear cool 1940s suits to perform their cool 1940s violence as they run about the decorated town.
Fans of the stars, the style and the skirmishes in “Gangster Squad” will find something to be amused by, but not a lot. The actors do their best with a weak script that leaves their respective characters with simplistic stories and corny quips without much direction to go off of. “Gangster Squad” expresses exhilarating entertainment for those looking for a cinematic experience. But those looking for more of a profound movie to engage in will likely leave disappointed.
– Sebastian Torrelio
Email Torrelio at storrelio@media.ucla.edu.