Gangster Squad

[areaseven]

Coming to theaters on September 7 is Gangster Squad, based on the true story of the L.A.P.D.'s battles with the East Coast Mafia in the 1940s and 1950s. The film is directed by Reuben Fleischer (Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less) and stars Ryan Gosling (The Driver in Drive, Stephen in The Ides of March) as Sgt. Jerry Wooters, Josh Brolin (Jonah Hex, young Agent K in Men in Black 3) as Sgt. John O'Mara, Sean Penn (Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jimmy Markum in Mystic River) as Mickey Cohen, Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man, Wichita in Zombieland) as Grace Faraday, Anthony Mackie (Sgt. Sanborn in The Hurt Locker, Tupac Shakur in Notorious) as Det. Rocky Washington, Giovanni Ribisi (Wade in Saving Private Ryan, Parker in Avatar) as Det. Conway Keeler, Robert Patrick (T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Evil Cop in Wayne's World) as Det. Max Kennard, Josh Pence (young Ra's al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises, Chief Moore in Battleship) as Daryl Gates, and Nick Nolte (David Banner/Absorbing Man in The Hulk, "Four Leaf" Tayback in Tropic Thunder) as Chief Bill Parker.

I love a good mobster movie, and this looks as promising as L.A. Confidential.

Official Site

[areaseven]

New movie poster is up.

[areaseven]

Gangster Squad was originally scheduled to open on September 7, but due to the Aurora shooting, the scene involving a shootout in Grauman's Chinese Theatre was removed from the final cut and the main action sequence was re-shot on August. The film was just released yesterday, but things aren't looking so good with the reviews:

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 34% - "Though it's stylish and features a talented cast, Gangster Squad suffers from lackluster writing, underdeveloped characters and an excessive amount of violence."

Roger Ebert: 2 out of 4 stars - "[Mobsters* is] still a marginally better film than Gangster Squad, and that's faint praise indeed."

(*Mobsters is already the worst mobster film ever made, having a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.)

Edited January 15, 2013 by areaseven

[aerocombatpilot]

Opening this weekend in the U.S.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzrcFNTsRkw

I got hooked on the original "untouchables" with Robet Stack when it came out on DVD. This kind of reminds me of that show..looks good!!

[the white drew carey]

Is this a pseudo-prequel to 80s film The Monster Squad?

[anime52k8]

Gangster Squad was originally scheduled to open on September 7, but due to the Aurora shooting, the scene involving a shootout in Grauman's Chinese Theatre was removed from the final cut and the main action sequence was re-shot on August. The film was just released yesterday, but things aren't looking so good with the reviews:

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 32% - "Though it's stylish and features a talented cast, Gangster Squad suffers from lackluster writing, underdeveloped characters and an excessive amount of violence."

Roger Ebert: 2 out of 4 stars - "[Mobsters is] still a marginally better film than Gangster Squad, and that's faint praise indeed."

I really wanted this to be good. L.A. Confidential is one of my all time favorite films and I was hoping for something along that line.

[areaseven]

I really wanted this to be good. L.A. Confidential is one of my all time favorite films and I was hoping for something along that line.

Bad or not, I'm still watching this. I hope the Blu-ray version will have the deleted theater shooting scene so we can see if the deletion really made an impact to the final product.

[areaseven]

Finally got to watch this movie, and I have to say that it's a disappointment. What's supposed to be a potentially good mobster flick ended up being a Tombstone ripoff set in the 1940s, with Josh Brolin trying too hard to be Wyatt Earp and Ryan Gosling being a watered-down Doc Holliday. The dialogue is mediocre at best, the gunfights seem rushed and the ending feels forced. Even the deleted theater shooting scene wouldn't save this movie from being a strict rental at most.

Looks like it's back to watching L.A. Confidential, The Untouchables and Public Enemies.