Sunday 3 February 2019

Gangster Squad (2013 Ruben Fleischer)


Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn and Emma Stone in The Magnificent Seven again (The Monuments Men), relocated to seedy 1940s Los Angeles. Will Beall (himself a 90s LA cop) wrote it from Paul Leiberman's novel.

Another nice slice of rich photography from Dion Beebe with production design by Maher Ahmad and Melissa House.

Such is the adherence to formula that Stone is of course sleeping with the bad guy, and it ends with Lethal Weapon. Plus, you start to think 'I wonder which of the Seven will make it through to the end?' The others are Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Pena and Robert Patrick (the literal cowboy sharp-shooter), and Mireille Enos, Brolin's wife, who hand picks the team.

Title is crap but the Gangster Squad (formed in 1946) was real. Some nice forties dialogue in violently entertaining movie, well edited by Alan Baumgarten and James Herbert.




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