Midway through "Gangster Squad," Jack Dragna (Jon Polito) lets up-and-coming fellow mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) just what he thinks of him: "I've seen your kind before. Think they can shoot their way to the top. Before they know it, they've ended up with their best parts stuffed in their mouths."
Sort of sums up the film.
"Gangster Squad" is a mobster flick set in 1950's Los Angeles. Mickey Cohen is a brutal criminal with an eye for glory and the fists to grab it. Sergeant John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) is the man determined to stop him. Unable to turn the tide on Cohen alone, O'Mara assembles a secret squad of decent cops.Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), the rouge; Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), the street smarts; Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), the nerd; and Max Kennard (Robert Patrick), the gunslinger. Together, they shoot and beat up every criminal they can find.
The cast, particularly Penn and Gosling, give it their all, hamming it up as only they can. Brolin is reliable as the determined leader, but his character's arc boils down to "Needed to beat the snot out of a Hitler surrogate - > beat the snot out of a Hitler surrogate." The rest of the squad receives little characterization. Emma Stone, who plays the femme fatale, is given very little to work with.
"Gangster Squad"'s violence is banal and dull. There's nothing cathartic or creative about it. It eats up run time that could have been better used for characterization, characterization that could have added meaning to the whole bloody affair.
Prop-wise, the characters inhabit a 1950's Los Angeles that is borderline parody. It's a weird post-Mad Men style of historical setting, where everyone dresses fabulously and is rarely roughed up. The costuming is so gaudy that it practically defines certain characters; the shoot-out climax of the film shows more change in Gosling's attire than it does his humanity.
I sound rather negative, which is kind of unfair. It's a shallow entertainment. If you're looking for well-dressed 1950's gentlemen shooting mobsters with the predictable casualties, "Gangster Squad" may be just the friday night fix you're looking for. And why not? Overall, I enjoyed my time in the theatre.
But if you demand substance on date night, stay away.