Despite the violence Jack and I enjoyed ourselves at this film noir-style story of 1949 rogue cops trying to rid L.A. of mobster Mickey Cohen's dominance. Jack was eager to see anything by Ruben Fleischer, the director of Zombieland and 30 Minutes or Less and he wasn't disappointed, though we were sorry it was missing the humor of the previous two.
The cast is all great. Josh Brolin (most recently blogged in Men in Black 3) stars as Sergeant O'Mara, leader of the pack, which includes Ryan Gosling (last in The Ides of March) as Sergeant Wooters, Anthony Mackie (The Adjustment Bureau) as Officer Harris, Robert Patrick (familiar due to a small part in Trouble with the Curve and other action roles unseen by me) as Officer Kennard, Giovanni Ribisi (I liked him in The Rum Diary, though it wasn't very good) as Officer Keeler (the brains of the operation), and Michael Peña (End of Watch) as Officer Navidad Ramirez. Cohen is played by Sean Penn (the last thing I liked him in was Fair Game) in a prosthetic nose (Cohen was an ex-boxer, which fits nicely into the plot). Emma Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man) and Mireille Enos (played twins JoDean and Kathy on Big Love) round out, so to speak, the ensemble as partners for Wooters and O'Mara respectively.
This is the first screenplay for Will Beall (story editor/writer on the TV series Castle) who adapted the book Tales from the Gangster Squad by Paul Lieberman (Lieberman's book is based on his 2008 seven part series in the Los Angeles Times), and Lieberman acted as an Executive Producer. The movie was supposed to be released last year, but a scene of bad guys firing into a crowded movie theatre was removed, rewritten, and reshot after the tragedy in Aurora Colorado, all of which delayed the release until this month. The gangster squad really did exist, though some liberties were taken, especially with the conclusion.
It's no secret to regular readers of my blog that we love period details, and this one, designed by Maher Ahmad (dozens of credits including Zombieland and 30 Minutes or Less) is terrific: cars, sets, props, and the rich cinematography by Dion Beebe (won an Oscar and his guild's award for Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Oscar-nominated for Chicago (2002), and nominated by his guild for Collateral (2004) and Nine, among many of his credits). The location shots of Los Angeles, whether real, computer-generated, or shot out of town, are spectacular as well.
Steve Jablonsky (apparently best known for composing soundtracks to several Transformers movies and the series Desperate Housewives) gives us an exciting score that you can stream from this link.
Though not for the faint of heart, as the mayhem isn't exactly cartoonish, this is still good and we recommend it for those with strong constitutions.
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