I’ve watched quite a couple of gangster movies and most of them were really depressing and/or disappointing. However, this one was not.
Gangster Squad highlights the life of John O’Mara, one of the few clean cops left in Los Angeles who is still willing to fight for justice in a city practically owned by gangster Mickey Cohen. A cop with special ops training who served in World War II, O’Mara doesn’t take crap and let’s the audience know that right off the bat, whooping up some bad guys like he’s the man. Stuff gets serious when the chief asks O’Mara to wage guerrilla warfare against Cohen, with his only aid coming from a team that he’s allowed to choose.
O’Mara’s wife is pregnant and so he must battle between being a father and husband and being a cop. He must decide between his duties as a family man and his duties to the public and country. His integrity and determination is something to be admired and it shows. His supporting cast is solid, especially with Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen and Ryan Gosling as Jerry Wooters. The intensity and conflict are suspenseful and heartfelt. The action scenes are fun to watch and as I said, the supporting cast gets a big thumbs-up from me.
Once again, if you’re new to my blog, I’ve always ranked movies on a scale of 0-100 (I don’t know why, I just always have). Here’s the grading scale.
90-100 It’s a great movie and definitely one worth buying. (Iron Man 3, World War Z, 42, Just Go With It, Real Steel)
80-89 It was a pretty good movie and definitely one worth seeing, but it doesn’t quite scratch my top ten percentile. (White House Down, Jobs, The Truman Show, The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)
70-79 It’s okay but I’ve seen better. It has its moments, but it has its flaws, too. (The Usual Suspects, 21 Jump Street, Escape Plan, Captain America: The First Avenger, Dawn of the Dead)
60-69 It’s got plenty wrong with it but I still got enjoyment out of this one. (Pacific Rim, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Disaster Movie)
50-59 This movie isn’t intolerable but it’s not blowing my mind either. I’m trying really hard to get some sort of enjoyment out of this. (Along Came Polly, Aliens, Alien Resurrection, Full Metal Jacket, Thor)
40-49 This movie is just mediocre. It’s not doing anything other than the bare minimal, so morbidly boring that sometimes I’m actually angry I watched this. (Patriot Games, The Great Gatsby, Pitch Black, Alien)
30-39 Definitely worse than mediocre, the 30’s ironically define the 1930’s, full of depression, lack of accomplishments, poverty and just so dumb. (The Contract, Pride and Prejudice)
20-29 What did I just watch? Cliches, stupidity, nothingness, did I mention stupidity? Just…wow. (The Sum of All Fears, Thor: The Dark World)
0-19 Watching this movie resulted in one or more of the following: seizure, loss of brain cells, falling asleep/unconsciousness, feel you wasted your time/day, accomplished nothing for you, left the movie knowing less about it then you did going into it, constantly asking yourself why you came to see this movie, or near-death experience. In short, staring at a wall was just as entertaining as watching this movie. This movie deserved a sticker or a label that said, “WARNING: EXTREME AMOUNT OF SUCKAGE.” (Midnight Cowboy, Dark Fury, Alien 3)
My score for Gangster Squad: 86.
It’s the best gangster movie I can think of that I have seen. It portrays the times and life of gangster life accurately in my opinion and it continues to entertain throughout.
*SPOILER ALERT* IF YOU DON’T WANT THE MOVIE SPOILED, STOP READING!!!
*SPOILER’S EDITION*
Nothing to spoil. Sorry guys.
wordsofwistim 