I love this movie so much

Let's be realistic.

Don't Believe the Hype

Absolutely brilliant

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".

I'm not sure what to think of 'Gangster Squad' to be honest. On one hand I was impressed with the production, particularly the action scenes which were enjoyable and very well made. Set in 1940s LA, the attention to detail was meticulous, from the cars to the clothes and even the wallpaper and furniture.On the other hand, I thought it was dull and repetitive. There's nothing special about 'Gangster Squad' that makes it stand out from other gangster movies, it's too generic. That said, I thought the cast did a decent enough job at making it somewhat interesting, especially Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen.Overall, 'Gangster Squad' isn't a bad movie, but it's not a particularly good one either. I enjoyed it to a certain extent, but largely thanks to the action scenes which only account for a fraction of the running time.

GANGSTER SQUAD is a light, fast-paced gangster action movie set in Los Angeles, 1949. It offers something a little more superficial and action-packed than the heady delights of TV's BOARDWALK EMPIRE, and is of course the inferior piece in every respect, but nonetheless it still packs the punch thanks to a strong storyline and fun performances from the majority of the cast.The film is a walking cliché of course, and to describe it I would say that it's THE UNTOUCHABLES meets MUNICH with a touch of THE RAID sprinkled in at the end. The director is a bad choice - the goofy Ruben Fleischer also handled the comedy misfire ZOMBIELAND - but somehow the movie still works. Josh Brolin is a delight as the hard-assed cop and Ryan Gosling is effective as his more laidback younger sidekick. There are nice character parts for Robert Patrick (the best he's been in ages) and Giovanni Ribisi, and the only misfire is an overacting Sean Penn, virtually unrecognisable behind heavy prosthetics and chuckling away like a comic book villain.GANGSTER SQUAD has plenty of action to recommend it, and it's well shot throughout, although a little dark in places. The storyline has plenty of humour and even though the events and situations that arise are familiar, they somehow work thanks to the entertaining script. It's no masterpiece, and indeed is nothing more than a forgettable popcorn flick, but it's one that delivers the goods nonetheless.

My senses were assaulted by the miserable excuse for a film today.New words have to be invented to describe how mind-numbingly dreadful this piece of garbage is.There is no cliché or stereotype you can think of that is not present here.Professional lox, Josh Brolin, scowls throughout the movies in what he apparently thought was how a supposedly tough cop acted.The other actors failed to even meet the low standard set by Brolin.The exception is Sean Penn whose portrayal of Mickey Cohen was redolent of ham but leagues ahead of the rest of the performers.Although I had never seen "Gangster Squad" before, the script was so hackneyed and trite that I knew how every scene would end as soon as it started.They even stuck an Abbott & Costello gag in there ("Post Office is a kid's game", "Not the way I play it")Senseless and ludicrous gunfights abound here. One gunfight scene had a hood holding and firing a Thompson sub-machine gun in each hand without a bit of recoil from the very powerful gun.This film is unbelievably bad. Not in the so-bad-it's-good way either but in the dreadful I-can't-wait-for-it-to end way.There is not one redeeming quality to this film.Every copy of this film should be gathered up and burned.