Gangster Squad - Like Watching Someone Play L.A. Noire

I went to see Gangster Squad last week and didn't have many expectations going in to the film. I knew Ryan Gosling was in it. I knew Ryan Gosling was pretty. I knew Emma Stone was in it. I knew Emma Stone was pretty. That's pretty much good enough for me (Josh Brolin really isn't my type).

Anyhow, Gangster Squad is the story of how a group of Los Angeles cops go off the clock and take down Mickey Cohen, a notorious L.A. gangster and not a nice Jewish boy like myself. The squad was started by Police Chief Parker (played by Nick Nolte), who selects Sgt. O'Mara (Brolin) to go outside the law and take down Micky Cohen (Sean Penn) by any means necessary. O'Mara selects few folks, including Sgt. Wooters (Gosling), and they go on a rampage taking down Cohen's business'. There's no spoilers in this blog post, but if you click on the Micky's wiki page above, you can see what happens to him.

I was pleasantly surprised by this flick. The cast that they assembled was really good, and it was a pleasant surprise to see Giovanni Ribisi pop up on camera. Emma Stone was gorgeous, as per usual, and Ryan Gosling's accent made me giggle whenever he spoke. I'm not quite sure what he was going for, but it was start contrast to Drive, where he spoke about 3 lines of dialog throughout the film. Drive, by the way was on of my favorite movies of 2011.

If you play video games or know someone that does, ask them about L.A. Noir. Watching Gangster Squad was very similar (in tone) to playing the game. You get a sense in both that the characters are all flawed in some way or another and Sgt. O'Mara specifically reminds me a lot of Officer Phelps from the game. Both come back from the war, and they don't know how to re-insert themselves in to normal, day to day life.

I give this a solid 3.5/5 and one of the only reasons I ding it is because at parts the story sagged a little. I'd have liked to learn more about Micky Cohen's rise to power. Plus there was a part of the movie where it looked like they either changed film types, or shooting styles, and it was a smidge jarring (most of the film looked a bit grainy to me, but the last few scenes were crystal clear).

Anyhow, go see it. It's lovely. And Emma Stone is Emma Stone, or Ryan Gosling is Ryan Gosling, wherever your interests lay.