Eastwood had the .44 Magnum, Pacino had an M16 complete with M203 Grenade Launcher and Schwarzenegger had an entire armoury but no weapon is as famous as the Tommy gun. And it’s back (prepare yourself for the worst pun of the year)….with a bang in Gangster Squad. There’s more Tommy Guns than you can count here as Josh Brolin heads up a rock solid cast as they attempt to get L.A.’s biggest mobster outta town and shut down his “business”.
First things first, Gangster Squad is one cool looking movie. It’s got a fantastic noir style to it and it is just a joy to behold on the bigscreen. The level of detail on display is staggering from cars, costumes and amazing sets which all spring to life and are entirely convincing. It would have been easy to over style this, but it’s pixel perfect and really sucks you in to the time period. It doesn’t stop there though.
Cool looking movies require cool looking actors and director Ruben Fleischer has certainly assembled a cool bunch here, especially Ryan Gosling who is just dripping cool from beginning to end. The rest of the Gangster squad all have contrasting personalities which play off each other incredibly well. Josh Brolin though not only leads the Squad, but leads the way in terms of performance. His hard nosed, bad ass cop attitude is played brilliantly. And while it may be a stereotype of the genre, it’s a top notch performance. This is the kinda cop we all wished we knew.
Sean Penn plays the bad guy, Mickey Cohen and while he does have some moments of brilliance, he takes his time fitting into the role of the man who runs L.A. primarily due to his accent which seems a bit all over the place in the beginning, but it eventually settles down. It’s not a major distraction, but its noticeable. But when he’s warmed to the role, Penn plays it very well indeed. Emma Stone looks great here with a really mature performance as Grace Faraday who double dates one of the Squad as Mickey.
There’s quite a large cast here and things do feel a little unbalanced as the movie predominately revolves around Brolin, Penn and Gosling. It’s not a major problem, but given the cast are so likeable and you genuinely care for them, it’d be nice to get a bit more of them. That aside, Gangster Squad moves along at a pretty thunderous pace with gripping scenes and enough blood and dismemberment to keep everybody happy. In particular, the opening few minutes are really memorable. Just don’t have a mouthful of popcorn.
The action set pieces and shoot outs are exciting and will have you on the edge of your seat at times as Tommy Guns light up the screen time and time again, and yes you even have the genre specific gangster holding two Tommy guns. It’s all rather brilliant.
Gangster Squad really hits the target. Full of great performances, lots of action and a fantastic visual style, this comes highly recommended.
