Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
3/4
"Gangster Squad" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 06/17/2014
A hard-nosed cop sick of the apathetic and corrupt police department is selected to head a special team charged with driving an underworld boss out of business and out of town. Gangster Squad was not particularly well received upon its release, but I suspect that the post war setting and visual style of Film Noir meant that many critics were expecting another Chinatown or L.A. Confidential. But it's called "Gangster Squad" for god's sake! If you watch it for what it is, namely a comic strip action movie with some nice vintage fashions, it's a pretty entertaining gangster flick that's more Dick Tracy than Sam Spade. In fact the whole feel of the film is more that of a western than a cop film and seems in places to be trying to be The Magnificent Seven with Tommy guns. It never addresses …
Rating of
1.5/4
Watch the films this one copied instead.......
Matt - wrote on 05/20/2013
Take The Untouchables, L.A. Confidential, Chinatown, etc, and throw 'em all in a blender but get rid of the all the great qualities of those films while dumbing it down to an incredible level with cheesy gimmicks to appeal to people who can't watch anything that requires the least bit of thought or taste and you have "Gangster Squad". Don't get me wrong, it IS entertaining. But I also find godawful B movies entertaining so that isn't saying much. The problem is that we've seen this film before several times but done MUCH BETTER. No truly memorable characters, cheesy dialog, Penn and Nolte are ridiculously over the top with their cartooney accents, poor plot/character development, all plague what could have been a very good film had they found a REAL director to take charge instead of …
Rating of
2/4
two great actors yet a poor movie
smeagol - wrote on 03/26/2013
With a great actor like sean penn & ryan gosling in this you would assume it would be a great film about gangsters. but it was a big let down, it has a very simple script sean penn is the mob boss bad guy and gosling is a cop who joins a group of cops with a mission to take him down.
you don't see much of what they done to cause penn so much trouble a lot is left to the viewer to figure out, there is no depth at all to the film. the love interest for gosling was pointless and led nowhere.
most of the scenes and dialogue was laughable. the ending was really poor, the last scene of the movie was just corny rubbish, the casting of the lead cop who runs the squad was poor he was just lifeless but so was everybody else to be fair.
real shame to see quality actors star in such a poor …
Rating of
2.5/4
Gangster Squad review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 02/07/2013
Ruthless business minded gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) takes over LA. Chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) informs dignified competent Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) that he can put up a team to stop Cohen. He, together with his wife's suggestions, recruits Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), wire-tapper Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), sharpshooter Max Kennard (Robert Patrick). Kennard's partner, Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña) and suave Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling). The rival of Mickey Jack Dragna (Jon Polito) and many others suffer from the wrath of the gangster. Everything feels rushed from the get-go in terms of story-telling. An appropriate build-up and clever dilogue, this could have been a modern day The Untouchables.
Soundtrack was fair but the screenplay could have …
Rating of
4/4
A great start to 2013
Lee - wrote on 02/04/2013
Being a fan of the gangster genre i was only too pleased when i saw the trailer for this, expecially considering who was starring in it. Sean Penn who remains in my top 10 favorite actors of all time list, was phenemenal in his portrayal of real life gangster Mickey Cohen although i have to admit his makeup in the film seemed a little 'Dick Tracyish' his performance was awesome as usual. This film actually gets me quite excited for this year's round of films as last year i didnt put anything on the 'Best of 2012 list' till at least July when 'The Dark Knight Rises' was released. Gangster Squad comes out in January and smack dab it is number one already in 'The best of 2013 list' Like i said, a sign of good things to come i am hoping.
Tommyguns, 20's era, assortment of the coolest …
Rating of
2/4
lastonetoleave - wrote on 01/13/2013
Gangster Squad (2013) :The story of a group of police officers who form an elite squad with the intention of keeping 1950’s Los Angeles free of Mafia influence. This squad, though, will have to make tough decisions in their attempt to fight crime, and the Mafia plays dirty, so the squad may have to do the same. Be warned, this film contains a lot of violence. The first time we meet gangster, Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), he is having a man ripped apart by two cars. While I like Josh Brolin, I just feel like the part of the leader of the squad, Sarge, was just too big of a role for him. I did like Ryan Gosling as the slick police officer, but the film mostly wastes such talents as Emma Stone and Robert Patrick giving them one dimensional characters to work with. Overall, the film had an …
