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01/22/2013 11:00 PMBased loosely on a true story about crime in Los Angeles in the 1940s, Gangster Squad is a film packed heavily with violence and mob movie clichés. Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland and 30 Minutes or Less), the film boasts a cast of well-known actors who do their best, but that alone can't overcome the film's drawbacks-mainly the extreme amount of violence that is portrayed and the fact that it's a mobster movie that does nothing new or better than any other mobster movie that's come before it.
Sean Penn (Mystic River and Milk) stars as Mickey Cohen, a ruthless mob boss who has a nearly unimaginable hold over the city that he views as a place he owns: Los Angeles. Corrupt and driven, Cohen is willing to commit monstrous crimes in order to continue his rise to greater power and wealth. He has Los Angeles all but locked up when he starts to aim higher by challenging mob bosses in Chicago, overrunning the man who helped him rise to where he is in the crime world, and desiring to have all bets (and the money that comes with those bets) in the western half of the country run through him. Cohen not only employs numerous thugs willing to carry out each of his orders, but he also keeps a steady stream of cops, politicians, and judges on the payroll, which makes any chance of taking him down nearly impossible.
Despite the odds against them, Police Chief Parker (Nick Nolte of Cape Fear and Warrior) recruits Sergeant John O'Mara (Josh Brolin of W. and No Country for Old Men) to put together a no-nonsense group of cops to attempt to destroy Cohen. O'Mara is a World War II veteran who can't put behind him the mindset of being at war. He is disgusted by his fellow officers' acceptance of crime, and, despite being a married man with a baby on the way, he's more than willing to go to war against Cohen.
O'Mara assembles a group of cops who are willing to go along with his plan in spite of his up-front admission that it will be dangerous and involve no glory. No one can ever know who was responsible for anything that happens as a result of their actions, but the men agree and form a quick bond with one another. Among the members of O'Mara's crew are local heartthrob Sergeant Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling of Drive and The Ides of March), streetwise Officer Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie of The Hurt Locker and Real Steel), old-school Officer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Walk the Line), young protégé Officer Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña of Shooter and End of Watch), and tech-savvy Officer Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi of Avatar and Saving Private Ryan).
O'Mara's crew is warned that they cannot simply kill Cohen because any other number of criminals would be more than happy to step up and take his place at the top. Instead, they must devastate his ring of crime by destroying the buildings where he conducts his business and stealing his cash in order to render him powerless. One by one, the crew starts checking off items on its list, albeit haphazardly and with a lot of luck and no finesse.
The performances in Gangster Squad are uneven and unimpressive, probably due more to the script than to the actors' abilities. Sean Penn portrays more of a comic-book character than an actual criminal, Josh Brolin is stiff, and the rest of the cast members seem to be included to merely fit stereotypes of mobster-movie characters. Even seeing Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone (Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Help), who plays Cohen's girlfriend and Wooters' love interest, together again isn't enough to add much to the film.
Rated R
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