Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and starring hot young things Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Josh Brolin (ok not so young but definitely hot in my books), this movie is gorgeous to look at. Dapper suits, proper hats, suspenders and tommy guns for the boys and Jessica Rabbit gowns for the girls, this pays homage to 1940s Hollywood noir but with a violent edge.
Irish immigrant and former boxer Mickey Cohen is the king of gangsters with big dreams to own not just Los Angeles but the whole west coast of America. The cops and judges in his pocket aren't doing anything about it, so the police chief sets up the Gangster Squad as a secret no-holds-barred . Josh Brolin and his disapproving but very helpful wife put together a crew of the last few cops with honour and the guts to take on the king. They can't just kill him or another head will grow in its place, so they set about smashing up his operations and taking his money with gleeful abandon and no solid plans. The ending ramps up the action even further, it was a super fun ending.
The film has something good to say about morals and fighting for what you believe in regardless of the personal cost, but ultimately the style wins over the substance. The violence is fairly brutal (including in the shocking opening scene) but incredibly well shot and not gratuitous. It looks pretty and the acting is solid all round. Goddamn what a cast actually now that I think of it - on the good side you had Brolin, Gosling, Robert Patrick (Terminator 2), Michael Pena (End of Watch), Giovanni Ribisi (Ted), Anthony Mackie (Notorious), Nick Nolte and on the other side Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen (slightly overacted in parts but I enjoyed it), Emma Stone as the gangster's moll, Aussie Sullivan Stapleton as a loan shark, Jon Polito and a host of familiar faces as the gangsters and crooked judges.
Verdict: It doesn't beat LA Confidential for smart Hollywood cops vs gangster noir, but it sure gives it a bloody nose in the process of trying.
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