¨I always
knew I’d die in Burbank¨
Gangster
Squad walks a really thin line between being a terrible film and an
entertaining one. First of all it has a really great and talented cast; it also
has a good production design and is very stylized reminding us of some epic
gangster films. On the other hand the film only looks gangster-like on the
surface; it is not really a serious neo-noir gangster film but more of a light
comedic gangster movie. This is director Ruben Fleisher’s follow up to his hit
comedy Zombieland, and in a way it does feel like a satire of sorts of gangster
films, but in some strange way it fails to find its own personality. You never
know if you’re supposed to take the movie seriously or not because something is
missing in the mix between drama and comedy. One critic defined the film better
than I could by claiming it is ¨LA Confidential without the script.¨ It has the
look and the tone of a serious gangster film, but the script which was loosely
adapted by Will Beall from Paul Lieberman’s book just fails and the dialogues
seem cartoonish at times. The violence is pretty heavy as there are plenty of
glamorized gunfight scenes and a large body count. Sean Penn plays the villain
a little over the top, but it works if you view the film as this sort of spoof
of the gangster genre. And really in my opinion this approach is what works
best because it is entertaining if taken lightly as a spoof. I feel sorry for
those who went into this film with high expectations because they will mostly
be disappointed, unless they can live with a mindless popcorn action flick with
some good performances.
The story
takes place in 1949 Los Angeles where Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), a mob king from
Chicago, has taken over the city and is planning on controlling all criminal
activities there with the help of corrupt officers and judges. He will
eliminate whoever stands in his path. Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) on the
other hand is a WWII veteran who is determined to do what he can to clean up
the city. When Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) hears about O’Mara’s heroics he
decides to assign him with a special underground task: to form an elite squad
of police officers that will take down the mob King. Thus O’Mara begins his
quest to find the right officers for his special team with the help of his wife
Connie (Mireille Enos) who is worried about his wellbeing and wants him to be
protected as best as possible. O’Mara chooses Officer Coleman Harris (Anthony
Mackie), Max Kennard (Robert Patrick) and his partner Navidad Ramirez (Michael
Peña), Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi) who’s the brains in the operation, and
finally Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) who decides to accept O’Mara’s
proposal after a member of the mob kills a kid he knew from the streets.
Together these officers begin to try to intercept and disrupt Cohen’s
operations working as an underground hit squad. Wooters also happens to be
having an affair with Cohen’s love interest, Grace (Emma Stone), which could or
could not be a good thing. And so the action begins as the squad tries to
disrupt Cohen’s reign and clean up the city.
As I
mentioned before this is an entertaining film which sometimes borderlines on
the bad side considering it does have some pretty bad writing and
underdeveloped characters. But it did work for me as a sort of spoof and light
hearted film with a very stylized look to it. It has some fun action sequences
with some strong performances, especially from the always reliable Ryan Gosling
who continues to reinvent himself in every movie. I absolutely loved him here
once again. Josh Brolin gives a pretty solid performance when he is not asked
to do the voice over bit (it was a bit annoying at the beginning giving it a
sort of fake Sin City vibe to it). The rest of the cast is pretty good although
not getting enough screen time or storylines to develop their characters. Sean
Penn plays the stereotypical bad guy a little over the top, but I enjoyed his
performance as well (it wouldn’t have worked if you were expecting a serious
gangster drama film). In the end Gangster Squad did work for me and I was
entertained with this shoot-em up gangster film, but I know it isn’t for
everyone.
http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario