With such a huge roster of summer movies this year and a bunch of highly anticipated Christmas releases, I totally forgot about THE GANGSTER SQUAD. Even though the initial trailer was pretty cool, every time I think about crime movies my mind jumps right to LAWLESS.
A new trailer for THE GANGSTER SQUAD has been released. It definitely pushes the right elements of the movie: lots of gunfire and violence and a good amount of Ryan Gosling and red-headed Emma Stone. I like Ruben Fleischer’s take on this material and it reminds me greatly of L.A. CONFIDENTIAL.
Plot: Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and–if he has his way–every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart. “The Gangster Squad” is a colorful retelling of events surrounding the LAPD’s efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all time.
With a phenomenal cast like this, I can overlook how bad the prosthetic nose on Sean Penn is. The tone looks just right and the action looks perfect. As long as this movie doesn’t end up as a watered down PG-13, I think we are all good.
THE GANGSTER SQUAD opens September 7th.