Gangster Squad: Meets the Archetype

“The worst thing a movie can do is remind you of a better movie.” I think Roger Ebert came up with that quote, but now I'm stealing it because rarely does it apply more aggressively than with Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad. This is the epitome of a film that exists squarely in one genre (gangster, obviously) and if it was the only movie to ever be made in that genre, we would find it terrific. But how many great, classic, wonderful gangster films have been made? There were very few moments in Squad that didn't immediately remind me of scenes from Goodfellas, L.A Confidential, Scarface, Miller's Crossing, Casino, Untouchables, and others. And simply put, Squad doesn't stand up to the comparisons.

 This isn’t to say Gangster Squad is a bad movie, because it isn’t, as long as you recognize its shortcomings immediately and accept them. Walking in, I figured this would probably not be the next Scorcese masterpiece, and within 5 minutes, I was sure it wouldn’t be. But the second you say to yourself "This is just a Hollywood action picture—let's have it!"then you'll probably enjoy Gangster Squad just fine. It lives to entertain the audience and lasts in their collective memories for as long as it runs; and then maybe until they reach their cars in the parking lot, and not a second more.

But….is that enough? Personally, I'm getting tired of films that play it safe, that exist only to slightly entertain and make a quick buck. On the way out of the theatre, my beautiful girlfriend said "It's really simple…kept reminding me of L.A. Confidential, but it wasn't nearly as clever." She couldn't be more right. There was even a scene that used the same song as the opening of Confidential. But they should've avoided every comparison to that epic modern noir as much as they could—L.A. Confidential's script is ingenious, deceptive, intricate, complex, brilliant, and surprising. Gangster Squad's script, by Will Beall, is completely routine. Everything is here, exactly as you'd expect it; the wife who doesn't want the cop to risk his life, the bad guy who kills his own men, the recruiting of team members scene, the rookie, the rogue, the "unexpected" death of a good guy, the action montages, the chase scenes, the shoot-outs. I could almost see the producers going through the screenplay with a fat yellow marker, going "Check…check…oooh, double check!"

But I have to keep reminding myself that not every movie can be as original as, say, Cloud Atlas. Hell, not every gangster thriller set in Los Angeles can be L.A.Confidential, either. And so, on the merits of lowered expectations, Gangster Squad delivers by being a fast-paced, well-acted, perfectly acceptable action drama, with just the right amount of quips and one-liners. The action scenes are shot with finesse and are occasionally hilarious (in a good way—I mean, seeing Sean Penn pick up a tommy gun and yell "Here comes Sandy Claus" is obviously not meant to be taken with the upmost seriousness). The acting ranges from likably low-key (Ryan Gosling, doing what he does best) to over-the-top badass (Penn, again, doing his best Al Pacino impression—the Pacino of not just Scarface, but Dick Tracy, too). And while the movie never gets bogged down by it, there are some decent scenes of romance, comedy, and excessive violence as well.

When all is said and done, Gangster Squad is a good film, perhaps the best you'll see in the cinema doldrums of January. But it's simply not as good as it could've been. Two things, more than anything else, hold it back. The cinematography is clearly lacking with Flescher choosing to shoot with what appears to be a RED digital camera instead of traditional film, which looks great for small indie flicks, but a period piece set in LA needed something bright and punchy rather than muddy and drab. And, above all else, the screenplay let's the flick down something fierce. It is, as my lady would say, "just too simple." It takes what could've been an interesting and complicated true story (ho ho—Mickey Cohen was actually busted for tax evasion, not from a massive shoot-out and a public boxing match to the death) and turns it into easily digestible Hollywood fast-food. It often feels incomplete as well, and there are several aspects of it that you don't realize are missing until it's over—the romance between Gosling and Stone, for instance, seems to exist completely on the cutting room floor; and the private lives of almost every other member of the Gangster Squad are ignored completely.

Ultimately, I guess the best way I can describe Gangster Squad is that it's the kind of movie your Uncle Terry would tell you that he saw last night and really enjoyed, and then if you asked him about it half a year later, he wouldn't remember it at all. Who was it that said "A great film needs to have three good scenes, and no bad scenes"? Gangster Squad has three really good scenes, but just as many bad ones. Take that as you will.

Final Note: Gangster Squad was originally set for a September release, and was pushed way back to January because of some massive re-shoots that needed doing. There was originally a scene set in a movie theatre where the mobsters burst in with machine guns and blast the place up—after the nightmare tragedy of the Dark Knight Rises shooting in Aurora, Warner Bros. wisely delayed the film, and the scene was re-shot to be an action set-piece in Chinatown. I'm bringing this up not because it's great gossip, but for two reasons: one, the filmmakers did a remarkable job of making the new scene fit seamlessly; and two, this was actually a decent and smart thing a major studio did. Leaving the scene in would've tarnished and tainted the film for years, and Fleischer deserves credit for backing this decision up, instead of fighting it.