Rating: 2/4
Gangster Squad
(Note: The Poster that I have for this Film is the old Poster that the Film had before it got pushed back to January 11th, 2012 because of the Colorado Theater shooting (and because this was the only on I could find legally.)
So the premise here is that the Film takes place 1940s or 1950s and resolves around a group of Officers that teamed up together and called themselves "The Gangster Squad". It also relies around Mickey Cohen, played by Sean Penn ("Mystic River", "Milk"), about him taking over certain territories for himself to get rid of most of the Gangster Squad Men and get the whole coast to himself. How hypocritical of him. I honestly will say that I did have some fun watching a lot of the silly action that was going on in the Film most of the time and the romance between Ryan Gosling ("The Notebook", "Blue Valentine", "Crazy, Stupid Love") and Emma Stone ("Easy A", "Crazy Stupid Love", which ironically involved a love interest with Gosling and Stone.) but then at the end it just kind of oozed out of me. It oozed out like Ketchup on a wet Sponge, like Grass on a wet Kitchen Sink, like the performance of Sean Penn here who, honestly, I thought was a bit miscast here. I mean, don't get me wrong compared to 2006's "All the King's Men" he's Orison Welles from "Citizen Kane", but here he's kind of handling it a little TO well with the part. He seems to be always shouting out demands and always yelling all the time in the Film. That was a bit descent for me at first in the Film because this was probably how his Character acts in the Film. But then as the go on and on with who he is it gets kind of annoying with the way Penn is handling the Character. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone where at least looked like they where having some fun doing this. I actually really appreciated how Stone handled her Character in the Film and I appreciated how Gosling handled his Character in the Film as well. The Film, also, always said and advertised that this was based on a true Story. I, once again, say bullshit to that. This Film is basically A live-action Cartoon because a lot of the Action and drama that happens is very clichéd very over the top, and very cheesy. I mean we've seen all of this type of stuff before. We've seen how when there was the massive shooting in Chinatown, from what I recall, how the Gangster Squad handles it. We see this kind of relationship before with Gosling and Stone and how it turns out in the end. We've basically seen this whole Film before. It basically felt somewhat like a satire to me in that case. I mean think about it NOBODY has done this kind of stuff in real life, unless someone like Mark Steven Johnson directed some of this but not credited. So look, a harmless little Film with some good performances and silly action style but also with a silly premise and an out of control Script. It could have been more A LOT more. A LOT more.
Gangster Squad
(Note: The Poster that I have for this Film is the old Poster that the Film had before it got pushed back to January 11th, 2012 because of the Colorado Theater shooting (and because this was the only on I could find legally.)
So the premise here is that the Film takes place 1940s or 1950s and resolves around a group of Officers that teamed up together and called themselves "The Gangster Squad". It also relies around Mickey Cohen, played by Sean Penn ("Mystic River", "Milk"), about him taking over certain territories for himself to get rid of most of the Gangster Squad Men and get the whole coast to himself. How hypocritical of him. I honestly will say that I did have some fun watching a lot of the silly action that was going on in the Film most of the time and the romance between Ryan Gosling ("The Notebook", "Blue Valentine", "Crazy, Stupid Love") and Emma Stone ("Easy A", "Crazy Stupid Love", which ironically involved a love interest with Gosling and Stone.) but then at the end it just kind of oozed out of me. It oozed out like Ketchup on a wet Sponge, like Grass on a wet Kitchen Sink, like the performance of Sean Penn here who, honestly, I thought was a bit miscast here. I mean, don't get me wrong compared to 2006's "All the King's Men" he's Orison Welles from "Citizen Kane", but here he's kind of handling it a little TO well with the part. He seems to be always shouting out demands and always yelling all the time in the Film. That was a bit descent for me at first in the Film because this was probably how his Character acts in the Film. But then as the go on and on with who he is it gets kind of annoying with the way Penn is handling the Character. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone where at least looked like they where having some fun doing this. I actually really appreciated how Stone handled her Character in the Film and I appreciated how Gosling handled his Character in the Film as well. The Film, also, always said and advertised that this was based on a true Story. I, once again, say bullshit to that. This Film is basically A live-action Cartoon because a lot of the Action and drama that happens is very clichéd very over the top, and very cheesy. I mean we've seen all of this type of stuff before. We've seen how when there was the massive shooting in Chinatown, from what I recall, how the Gangster Squad handles it. We see this kind of relationship before with Gosling and Stone and how it turns out in the end. We've basically seen this whole Film before. It basically felt somewhat like a satire to me in that case. I mean think about it NOBODY has done this kind of stuff in real life, unless someone like Mark Steven Johnson directed some of this but not credited. So look, a harmless little Film with some good performances and silly action style but also with a silly premise and an out of control Script. It could have been more A LOT more. A LOT more.