Darkmatters Review: Gangster Squad

Gangster Squad (15)

Dir. Ruben 'Zombieland' Fleischer

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

"Ya gotta die of somethin'..."

I love Ryan 'Drive' Gosling - he's gorgeous and cool and so watchable that even in a misfiring cliched gangster-em-up like Gangster Squad you can happily just sit back and enjoy being in his charismatic presence...

Fleischer is a director who had put out two great fun flicks (Zombieland and 30 Mins or Less) and so hopes were high for Gangster Squad which rocks a plot very similar to The Untouchables - which I love...

"nice dress - shame about the acting"

Gangster Squad does an adequate job, the action scenes are mildly exciting, the plot averagely engaging, the love interest (Emma Stone) reasonably hot - and of course there's Gosling but somehow the final product comes off as OK where it had the potential to be 'blow the doors off cool'.

Plot: Sean Penn hams it up as bad guy Mickey Cohen, Nick Nolte is decent police chief who recruits hard-but-heroic Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) to put together a crack team to take Cohen down. The team includes Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie) and Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi) plus others. Will the plucky 'untouchable' team take down the most powerful crime boss LA has ever seen? HHhhhhmmm....

"look-at-my-face!"

Everything creaks along looking exceptionally stylish and cool, the cast go for broke but are hampered by a very hit-n-miss script. Some of the shoot outs work but unfortunately there is very little here that we haven't seen before and better.

Out of a potential 5 you have to go with a Darkmatters:

ööö - Good looking but lacks soul

3 – no classic but enjoyable / forgettable

Awesomeness ööö – You'll dream a dream of quality production values!

Laughs öö – limited light relief

Horror öö – not very nasty
 
Babes ööö – Stone is hot

Spiritual Enlightenment öö - Stand up for what you believe in, do not fall to corruption but just be warned that if you're a minor member of the team and have a family you probably won't survive!

"miss Stone reads the reviews..."