Rating of
2/4
mitchellyoung - wrote on 02/06/13
Gangster Squad isn't a particularly bad film, just purely mediocre. It's well-shot and presents some interesting and occasionally poetic visual moments, but it doesn't do anything new or different. White Heat, The Untouchables, Bugsy, and a host of other 1940's gangster films brim with freshness and insight and Gangster Squad only recycles tired cliches from those films into a muddled action film that isn't all that exciting. What results is a cast of cookie cutter characters (the grizzled police chief, the jaded rogue cop, the idealistic police sergeant,and Sean Penn as the sarcastic Micky Cohen, buried under pounds of bad makeup) who don't present any substance for the audience to care about and a plot that gives the same.
