Wow! Such a good movie.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

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). It's a flick full of action, gunfire, crime and with a pinch of romance.The director Ruben Fleischer succeeds to make me feel like I was living in the 50's, surrounded by the mob vibe. The corruption, the disregard for human life, the car shootouts, the simple yet complicated life, the charisma that society emanated. It's 1 hour and 53 minutes of a reality that I never experienced and a part of me wish I did. It goes from the mob brutality to the simple 50's life, back to mob violence, back to the 50's point of view. It's a good set of events, making you live in it.The character development was left a bit on the side, which was not bad, since in this movie I just needed to know who were the bad guys and the good guys to fully understand the plot. And, to that, nothing was left to chance.The movie has the classic Hollywood play in which goes to a point where everything seems lost, with no solution, only to be solved by an unexpected gift. That move is a little outplayed, from my point a view, but it certainly works to create the mood of impotency.Even though I loved the 50's/mafia environment provided, and that this is based on a true story, I just can't help but feel that it all looked so simple and easy for the Squad, without any real challenge from the "villain". It's entertaining, for sure, but it killed a crucial part of the mood for me. I have to give it 6 out of 10.

Ever since No Country For Old Men came out (which is a really well-made, compelling film), casting agents have been way too nice to Josh Brolin causing what I term the Josh Brolin effect.While he is certainly a good actor, he has been given too many roles since NCFOM where he has been badly miscast and has watered down or hurt what may have been some pretty good movies Gangster Squad included (Let's see...also Oldboy, Jonah Hex, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, AND AND some brilliant minds thought he would make a great Thanos, Whatttt???). He looks tired, he drags on and some might even say his acting in said movies is unconvincing of the characters he plays like he just reads the script and says "All right lets do this and get it over with so they can throw me in some other movie I probably don't belong in". Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Pena and most certainly Robert Patrick all outshine Brolin in Gangster Squad in significantly smaller roles. Then there's Sean Penn's overacting, how he didn't get a 3rd best actor academy award or even a nomination is beyond me. When this movie was released you see all the star power involved and you say to yourself "Damn, I gotta go see that!" then when it ends at least I was saying to myself "Thank god for trailers cause at least Josh Brolin and Sean Penn were not in any of them".

This mafia crime-drama set in the 1940s Los Angeles, Sean Penn plays Mickey Cohen, an infamous mob boss who terrorizes the city, along his crew. With the law enforcement out powered by the evil kingpin, the only man that stands in the way of him and his crew is John O'Hara (played by Josh Brolin), a devoted father and husband, and World War II veteran who ensembles a squad of detectives. This squad includes Sergeant Jerry Wooters (played by Ryan Gosling), a detective who is in relationship with a beautiful hot shot named Grace Farraday (played by Emma Stone), Coleman Harris (played by Anthony Mackie), Conwell Keeler (played by Giovanni Ribisi), Max Kennerd (played by Robert Patrick), and Navidad Ramirez (played by Michael Pena). Together, this group is determined to bring Mickey Cohen and his crew to justice and save their city from his tyranny. This film is directed by Ruben Fleischer who made the hit horror-comedy 'Zombieland' and the action comedy '30 Minutes Or Less'.For a crime drama dealing with a 1940s mafia tale, with a cast full of A-list actors, you would expect it be a powerful film with a groundbreaking story and a mesmerizing screenplay. Unfortunately, this is not that kind of film, nor does it come anywhere near this. While I wasn't expecting it to soar on the level of 'Goodfellas' or 'Casino', after all that would be an expectional achievement in cinema; I was hoping this is would something memorable. Sadly, this film fails to dig deep into its genre. With the story centered a Los Angeles crew set on taking down an infamous crime boss, the film suffers from characters that fall short of development, and a plot that lacks depth. The main antagonist Mickey Cohen is brilliantly written, and Sean Penn gives a strong performance in this role. The character is very well convincing as the sadistic criminal mastermind he is. The rest of the characters are a bit thin. Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, and the others do manage to treat their characters with solid performances, but they are not enough to fully support their characters. The plot is quite solid and consistent throughout most of the way. The problem with the plot is that it veers away from depth and realism, and instead, relies heavily on action more than development. There's a very little emotional resonance throughout the story that the plot doesn't feel much like a film-noir, but more of action packed flick, filled bloody gun shootouts; and there is plenty of them. Gangster Squad is not a complete cop-out, but it certainly is not the crime movie it needs to be. It feels more like action movie disguised in the gangster genre than an actual gangster flick. Ruben Fleischer is probably not the best director for this film, judging by his previous works. With the both of his previous films being comedies, it doesn't seem he quite knows how to nail the crime-drama genre properly. After all, from comedy to crime- drama is not an easy transition.

Gangster Squad was one of the biggest let downs I've experienced at the movie theaters. With the names: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Anthony Mackie, Michael Peña, and Giovanni Ribisi attached to this project I assumed that this film would be a huge hit. But do you know the saying about assumptions? The film is based on the story of Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), an east coast gangster who brought organized crime out west to LA, and John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), a cop hired to assemble a team to take down Cohen by any means possible. This included using violence without punishment from the law. This premise bodes well for a good gangster flick but doesn't deliver on any front.The acting was fairly bad, the plot was unoriginal, the dialogue poor, and the directing terrible. There were only a few scenes in the film that I actually enjoyed, but most of the time I was either cringing in my seat or stifling a laugh. Gangster Squad had its release pushed back because of the movie theater shootings at the Dark Knight Rises. They had to do extensive re-shoots because a scene in the movie depicted gunmen coming out blazing from behind a theater screen shooting into the crowd. Rumors stated that removing this scene was like pulling a thread from a sweater. But regardless of what the movie could of been it ultimately was a flop.