Gangster Squad
Tags: neo noir, murder, violence, good versus evil, humor, action, revenge, entertaining

Plot synopsis:
note: work in progressIn 1949 post-WWII Los Angeles, gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) has become the most powerful figure in the California criminal underworld, and intends to continue to expand his criminal enterprise across the Western United States, forcing out his rivals in Chicago. The police have not been able to stop Cohen's ruthless rise, as Cohen has eliminated witnesses and bribed both the courts and the police, controlling both illegal and legal sides of L.A.The movie opens as Cohen has a gangster from Chicago killed by shackling him to two cars, which then proceed to rip him in half. He warns the gangster's partner to return to Chicago with news of what he's seen.The next day, Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) and his partner are at Los Angeles Union Station when they see one of Cohen's thugs, Mitch, approach a young woman and tell her he is holding auditions, and hands her a card to convince her he is legitimate. O'Mara realizes, however, that Mitch intends to rape her. They tail him to a building that is owned by Cohen. O'Mara's partner refuses to enter, forcing O'Mara to go inside by himself.O'Mara enters the building, telling the man that he is meeting someone. He gets on an elevator, accompanied by two thugs. Things go sour, though, when one of them sees his handcuffs and realizes that O'Mara is a cop. A fight breaks out, during which one henchman is killed and another loses his hand. O'Mara finds the room where the girl is being held captive. He bursts in and after a brawl, subdues the three men and rescues the girl.Although the gangsters are arrested, they are set free on a corrupt judge's order, and Cohen subsequently has them killed by locking them up in an elevator and burning down the building.O'Mara is personally selected by Chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) due to O'Mara's special operations background and training at Camp X during World War II to wage guerrilla warfare on Cohen, dismantling his crime empire and forcing him out of Los Angeles. With the help of his reluctant and pregnant wife, Connie (Mireille Enos), O'Mara recruits fellow officers in his squad. Initially he is joined by hard-headed detective Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), wire-tapper Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), and legendary gangster-killer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick). Kennard's partner, Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña), follows the squad and they reluctantly allow him to join. Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), O'Mara's close friend, turns down the offer, as he is disillusioned from the war and his time on the police force.Wooters has been keeping close to his old friend Jack Whalen (Sullivan Stapleton), who is his informant from within Cohen's operations. After meeting for drinks, Wooters becomes infatuated with Cohen's etiquette coach and girlfriend Grace Faraday (Emma Stone). Wooters and Grace begin a secret romantic relationship. After Cohen orders a hit on rival Jack Dragna (Jon Polito) that results in the death of Pete (Austin Abrams), an innocent boy Wooters knew, Wooters becomes motivated to take down Cohen. He saves O'Mara's squad after an unsuccessful hit on one of Cohen's casinos, and later joins them.With organization and better planning the unit strikes several successful blows at the heart of Cohen's criminal organization. The media refer to them as "The Gangster Squad". After wire-tapping Cohen's house, Keeler deduces the central location of Cohen's wire gambling business, the heart of his empire. The squad successfully burns down the business, but Cohen's men inform him that they didn't take any of his money. Cohen believes they are a group of honest cops, and believes someone ratted him out and tapped his house. As his men sweep the house for bugs, Grace runs away, fearing Cohen knows of her relationship with Wooters.The Gangster Squad is lured into a trap in Los Angeles's Chinatown by Cohen's head hitman Wrevock (Troy Garity), who was also responsible for Pete's death. Wooters interrupts the ambush just in time to save O'Mara, but Wrevock escapes. Karl Lennox (Holt McCallany), Cohen's right-hand man, kills Keeler in the unit's operation. Wooters asks Whalen to get Grace out of town, but Cohen reaches him first, looking for Grace, and kills him. O'Mara's house is later hit by a drive-by, and Connie gives birth to their son under the stress. Chief Parker tells O'Mara that, as a result of their failure, their careers with the LAPD are over. O'Mara gets Connie out of town, but refuses to leave with the job unfinished. Grace tells Wooters she is willing to testify against Cohen for Whalen's murder, prompting O'Mara, along with the remaining members of his unit, to go to the Park Plaza Hotel to arrest Cohen.Cohen and his men engage in a firefight with the police unit, with Wooters being wounded in the process after killing Wrevock. Cohen and Lennox escape, but O'Mara pursues them, which results in their vehicle crashing into a fountain. Kennard gets shot by Lennox, but manages to kill him with help from Navidad, before dying from his wounds. O'Mara prepares to arrest Cohen, but Cohen tempts him into fighting each other in a bare-knuckle boxing match, while a crowd of onlookers and journalists gather. O'Mara finally beats Cohen and has him arrested, ending his reign as a crime boss and the spread of the mafia into the Los Angeles area. The Gangster Squad was never mentioned in taking down Cohen, their surviving members remaining a secret. Cohen is sentenced to 25 to life, and is welcomed violently by Whalen's friends. Grace and Wooters continue their relationship, while Navidad and Harris become partners on the force. O'Mara quits to live a quiet life with his wife and son

Review: "Based" on a true story (What movie isn't these days?) the film and its fantastic cast promise much but come across as bland and boring.Set in Los Angeles in the 50's, Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) is a crime lord who has taken over and there seems to be nobody who can stop him.
The film is at its best when its loud and dumb but falters when it tries to be anything more than that.The cast seems like they're having fun, especially Sean Penn who has a field day with his role as the villain Mickey Cohen.
Then , Wooters falls in love for Mickey Cohen's girlfriend called Grace Faraday (Emma Stone , though Teresa Palmer, Camilla Belle, Aly Michalka, Lily Collins, Emmy Rossum, Amanda Seyfried and Maggie Grace auditioned for this character) This is a violence-ridden story full of action, drama , thriller and being pretty entertaining .
This superb recounting will appeal immensely to Josh Brolin , Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone fans.The flick was partially based on real events : In the movie, the Gangster Squad is assembled to go after Mickey Cohen.
Other films dealing with this famous gangster Mickey Cohen are the followings : Bugsy (1991) played by Harvey Keitel , Fallen Angels (1993) played by James Woods , The Rat Pack (1998) (TV) played by Alan Woolf , L.A. Confidential (1997) played by Paul Guilfoyle , and recent TV series Mob City (2013) played by Jeremy Luke , including similar characters to 'The gangster squad' being starred by Jon Bernthal , Milo Ventimiglia, Neal McDonough , Alexa Davalos , Jeffrey DeMunn and Robert Knepper..
Unfortunately the true story was not written this way.The cast is magnificent, with names such as Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Robert Patrick, Giovanni Ribisi among many others and the art direction and costumes is also excellent.
I had decent expectations for the film with a stout cast the likes of Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling along with a director whose last two films I enjoyed (Zombieland and 30 Mins or Less).
While this movie would have done much better in the 90's I don't feel it fits in this generation of film.You have Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen who decides he wants to be the king of Los Angeles and he will take out whoever is in his way.
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).
Sean Penn is positively frightening, and shines in his role as the villain, while Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling perfectly portray the face of their vigilante-style band of misfits; The Gangster Squad.If you are familiar with the story that this movie is loosely based from, you may be disappointed by the fact that it is QUITE loosely based indeed.
I feel that this makes is a likable, albeit somewhat predictable movie, but others who expect it to stick with the "real story" may not find it as enjoyable, despite the overall positive tone that the new adaption allows.Though the reviews seem to be a horse-a-piece, I recommend seeing it and judging for yourself, because it truly is an interesting thrill ride that will have you rooting for the good guys, tearing up from time to time, and cringing at the evil that Sean Penn is able to embody in an absolutely brilliant and stylish movie about good guys doing wrong to take down bad guys doing worse..
When a film ultimately fails, it is because its characters are wooden or stereotypical, the storyline is boring, and the only question it might raise is, "was this intended to be sleep therapy for a study on insomnia?" Set that film in 1949 and make it about gangsters and cops, and you've got Gangster Squad, a film so inept that Ruben Fleischer should win an award for managing to make a violent action movie that could put an Olympic sprinter to sleep in mid-stride.Josh Brolin stars as Sgt. Something-or-other, a no-nonsense cop who is recruited by the grizzled police chief (Nick Nolte, who eats sandpaper, apparently) to stop a gangster from taking over Los Angeles.
It becomes exhausting to try to care about what's going on in the film because the characters haven't got a shred of credibility between them; the only enjoyment comes from Robert Patrick, himself packed tightly into the stereotype of the sharpshooting old westerner.Sean Penn's utterly ham-fisted Mickey Cohen is taken down, but who cares?
The film never makes you care about the struggle against him or the city under his rule; he's ruthless, he's tough as nails, and he's every other stereotype of the evil gangster that Sean Penn could look up the day after he got cast and decided to cram into the character.
What should have been an excellent period film with gangsters and cops with some depth and character exploration is instead ripe with brevity, with everything thrown at the screen wrapped in a stereotype with so little substance, you can almost see through Mickey Cohen.Check out my profile for links to my other reviews!.
It's only the second release week of 2013 and already we have a strong contender for "most inconsequential film of the year." Shot and edited without any idea of how to make it exciting, written like what a 12- year-old might think a tough gangster movie would sound like, and looking surprisingly modern for a period piece that takes place in 1949 and is "inspired by true events," "Gangster Squad" is a perfect example of mediocrity hitting the big screen.In fact, the only interesting thing about this movie is how it came to be released in January and not in September like was originally planned.
Nobody can touch him, everyone thinks, but since we know the film is about the titular squad, we're pretty sure that he can, at the very least, be upset, if not fully removed from the equation.The gang: John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), a family man and our protagonist/narrator; Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), a ladies' man and nothing more; Rocky Washington (Anthony Mackie), someone who really hates heroin; Max Kennard (Robert Patrick), the fastest draw in the Wild West -- seriously, he sounds like he's from the 1840s, not the 1940s; Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña) a rookie cop nobody takes seriously because he's Mexican; and Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), another family man and the one tasked with listening in to a bugged television set.Does that not seem like some sort of dream cast?
The dialogue is so cheesy and unfitting that it feels like it was written by someone who maybe watch a gangster film once in high school and is trying to remember what the characters sounded like, there's more slow motion than in a Zack Snyder movie, but used without any purpose.
It stars Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick and Michael Pena.
An all star cast get to play good guys and wise guys in The Untouchables tradition, even if that in itself can't quite lift the film to the higher echelons of gangster movies past and present.There's absolutely nothing new here, it plays out as expected.
If you're reading this after its theatre release and preparing for an evening viewing it on TV, don't, watch a programme about paint drying instead.It's awful.Shot throughout as if it's an Instagram it's very obvious that style is more important than substance, yet Zombieland, Ruben Fleisher's, 2009 movie debut was cracking and hilarious.This is neither.Why Sean Penn (who nearly pulls off the role of "ruthless mob king, Mickey Cohen" in 1949 LA) chose to take on this role is anyone's guess.
It's highlighted by it's all-star cast including Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, Anthony Mackie and Michael Pena.
If you don't take it too seriously and are just looking for a good time it's a lot of fun and packs some killer thrills and beautiful visuals.The film is set in 1949 Los Angeles when Mickey Cohen (Penn) was the most powerful gangster in the California criminal underworld.
The chief of police enlists a brave detective (Josh Brolin) to assemble of secret team of officers and surreptitiously take down powerful Los Angeles crime Boss Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn).
The very opening scenes where a poorly cast Sean Penn condemns a failed peon to death by quartering and Josh Brolin raids a brothel, convey the entirety of the film: Poorly staged and overlong set pieces lacking thrills or purpose.Mr Fleischer lacks the vision needed to bring Gangster Squad to life, though equal blame rests on the shoulders of the writer who can never quite establish the grandiose scale that he aims for.
Gangster Squad had a lot going for it with a fantastic cast of actors in the prime of their careers and great period setting for a film.
Strangely, the film boasts a popular cast with the likes of Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin and Nick Nolte.It establishes its characters and premise pleasingly enough, but ultimately it fails to deliver through a lack of humour, narrative baggage, clichés and a slew of boring stock characters.
The characters all had varying interesting aspects about them to endear them to the audience, notably Ryan Gosling and his love interest with the gangster's lady friend Emma Stone brings an exciting element to the film.There were a lot of fantastic action scenes and shooting in abundance as can be expected from a gangster film.
Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, Michael Pena, & a bunch more recognizable faces that you can't quite put a name to but you know you've seen them in a lot of other stuff.
Initially intended to be released in September 2012, the high-gloss crime-action-movie "Gangster Squad" directed Ruben Fleischer and ensemble cast, led by ultra-evil looking actor Sean Penn as legendary mobster Mickey Cohen and solid-counterstriking actor Josh Brolin as Sgt. John O'Mara, enriched by an emerging love-story between actress Emma Stone as Grace Faraday and Ryan Gosling as Sgt. Jerry Wooters before its fulminate fulfillment in "La La Land" (2016) years later.A movie, which revives Film-Noir classics as "White Heat" (1949) starring James Cagney and more recent homages as "L.A. Confidential" (1997) directed by Curtis Hanson (1945-2016), without reaching the processors narrative qualities by falling into traps of making it a graphic novel adaptation looking thrill-ride of 105 Minutes (excluding end credits) to ensure participation of comic-book-movie spoiled international audiences, which did not fall for the obvious-manipulative nature of the picture, resulting in a U.S. domestic box office failure with just 46 Million Dollar in revenue by 60 Million Dollar production expenses.Furthermore and unfortunate due to a real-life U.S. movie theater shooting / massacre in a preview of "The Dark Knight Rises" in July 2012, the original cut of the film had been condemned by Warner Bros.
executives did the best they could to fix the picture around the lost sequence, which resulted into a fast-paced scene-to-scene continuity-neglecting editorial under supervision of highly experienced editors Alan Baumgarten and James Herbert, utilizing razor-sharp cinematography by Dion Beebe and state of the art digital enhancements with further strong emphasize on color corrections making "Gangster Squad" visual splendor to watch, even though the concluding confrontation of the characters Mickey Cohen and John O'Mara came out bloody and realism-seeking, yet the final choreography of the fist fight seems under-developed, missing a finish upper-cut punch with visual extravaganza of the opening phantom-camera high speed capturing of actor Sean Penn boxing / working a sandbag, leaving the picture in a state of over-sugared happy endings of short-lived entertainment.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC).
'Gangster Squad' directed by Ruben Fleischer has the few ingredients that I was missing in that film, which make the genre 'mob story inspired by real characters' much more enjoyable to me.
In the middle it does better.The story of 'Gangster Squad' is set in the post-war LA, and this certainly helps as the place and the period seems to gather interests because of the classical 'noire' thrillers that it inspired followed by a number of successful movies (starting with The Maltese Falcon, of course, set and filmed in 1941).
Ryan Gosling just seemed to play his role off and same can be said for Emma Stone.Overall, Gangster Squad was very entertaining and an ideal escapist film, despite some flaws.
Now all the actors do a good job in this film with Sean Penn being a great villain and Josh Brolin, Anthony Mackie and Robert Patrick being my favourite members of the Gangster Squad.
The final addition is sergeant Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), whose affair with Cohen's girl, Grace Faraday (Emma Stone), brings him a bit too close to the key target of the operation...With a plot so incessantly reminiscent of "The Untouchables", Rubin Fleischer's movie feels much like a remake of an outdated classic, even though the characters are somewhat different.
Gangster SquadThe most important accessory for a secret police force called "the gangster squad" is most likely going to be a hat rack.Fortunately, this action movie features enough hat hooks for all of the squad's fedoras.Dateline: Los Angeles, California, 1949, underworld boss Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) tightens his grip on his territory by slaying interlopers from the Windy City.Downtown, Police Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) assigns army vet Sgt. O'Mara (Josh Brolin) to a task force intended to take down Cohen and his cronies.But to bring the crime baron to his knees, O'Mara needs a team of legit cops to do it (Ryan Gosling, Giovanni Ribisi Anthony Mackie, Michael Peña, Robert Patrick).Inspired by true events, Gangster Squad has slick shoot-outs, snappy repartee and smart set design.
A few good men get rounded up by a common ideal to take back their city, starting with getting rid of head gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn).By the time this film runs into its 30 minute mark, you'd see all the shades of Brian De Palma's Untouchables, where instead of Capone, we have Cohen, who got introduced to audiences in a more sadistic fashion, making De Niro's scene with the baseball bat look like a stroll in the park, setting the violent tone that's to pepper the film at every opportunity.
And given today's standards, who would blame Fleischer in making this ultra-bloody, especially when it boils down to fisticuffs and the bloodying of any pummeling to the face, and expending plenty of lead through vintage machine guns, which pushed back the film's release after the infamous Aurora, Colorado massacre which required scenes to be reshot.Then we have Josh Brolin as Sgt John O'Mara, given the green light by weary police chief Parker (Nick Nolte) to go under the radar and assemble a crack team of his own to use any means possible to wrest control from Cohen, and cripple the gangster's operations, with a Mission: Impossible styled disavowing hanging over their heads should any of them be caught.
Dogged by an inherent sense of righteousness and honour, O'Mara assembles the titular crack squad consisting of marksman Max Kennard (Robert Patrick hidden behind thick makeup), his unofficial understudy tag-along Navidad Ramirez (Michael Pena), intelligence Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie) with throwing knife skills that got severely underused, and then the Romeo of the lot Sgt Jerry Wooters, whose romance with Cohen's moll Grace Faraday (Emma Stone, literally a flower vase role) brought about an edge to the team.And just like the Untouchables, with its stylish art direction and production values to recreate the aura and romanticism of its early American era, the drama unfortunately centers around a handful of its leads, without giving much of the other supporting characters screen time to get to know them beyond their single-ability that brought them to the fight.
From the director of Zombieland and 30 Minutes or Less, Ruben Fleischer makes his first foray into serious filmmaking with his police and gangster movie Gangster Squad, delivering a highly violent and stylist flick that is tonally mixed.In 1949 the criminal underworld of Los Angeles has been taken over by an east coast gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), a man who made his way to the top by using violence and cruelty and maintains control by bribing the police, judges and politicians.
While the movie may include a few clichés too many, or Ruben Fleischer (who directed Emma Stone in "Zombieland") may rely a few times too many on modern film tricks like slow motion and dizzying camera angles, "Gangster Squad" is the best entry in the genre in decades..
Sean Penn is well cast as the evil boxer turned gangster and his ugly looks fit the part.It's a good start to the year for action movies..
The film brought us a different approach than the latest gangster movies, which were about the personal life of the characters, by concentrating less on the characters and more on the story.Set in 1949, Gangster Squad is the true story of a secret police squad, assembled by Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), to bring down Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), who controlled the whole city of Los Angeles, and was expanding his operations all the way to Chicago.Director Ruben Fleischer and the producers did a job well done, giving us a movie full of action and violence, with a touch of the characters' emotions nonetheless.
Gangster Squad is a team of "vigilante" cops composed by Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), Officer Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), Officer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick), Officer Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña) and Officer Conwell Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), with one goal only, to take down Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn).