Gangster Squad

Ruben Fleischer’s last two films were 2009’s one viewing only Zombieland (seriously, watch it again and you’ll see what I mean) and the more recent fun but flawed 30 Minutes Or Less. His latest film, Gangster Squad, falls somewhere in the middle. It’s one of these films (kind of similar to Lawless) where the cast (Brolin, Gosling, Nolte, Stone, Penn) makes you sit up and pay attention, but the films execution is lacking. Ironically execution, well executions, is the operative word to describe the film as we follow a gang of police officers and detectives as they take on Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) and his cronies in 1950’s Los Angeles with violence and murder (from both sides) being their common language. This isn’t a bad film, but it’s too by the numbers. The central premise of a rag-tag group coming together to fight the bad guys is hardly an original story, but Fleischer doesn’t add anything new to his film in order for it to rise above the pile marked average. All the characters are underdeveloped and the storyline doesn’t appear to have much of a plot (apart from Cohen is a nasty piece of work. Natch). At least all the male actors have a chance to shoot guns and flex their muscles in the numerous scenes of carnage, as poor Emma Stone as the token female (despite being one of the central peeps in the piece) might as well have had “Wallpaper Dressing” next to her name on the credits. As for the aforementioned carnage the violence is all over the place with Fleischer seemingly unsure what should be comic and what should hit home. Even a grisly opening scene of a murder via car tug of war appears to have been darkened in the edit so as to lessen its impact (I doubt DOP Dion Beebe was happy with that). Basically this is just a classic example of wrong director for the genre in question. Fleischer’s background is in comedy and you can see that as the film progresses. It’s almost like he doesn’t know if this should be taken seriously or not. It turns into a long lost relative of Dick Tracy with its vivid hues and over the top characters, with Penn’s ridiculous makeup and gravelly voice being the prime example. This promised much, but within 113 minutes or less, you’ll be disappointed. See what I did there?.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict

The appointment of a director whose main skills like elsewhere mean you have a film which is as messed up as Sean Penn’s makeup. Rating: 5/10.