It appears there has been a recent trend among the film industry to return to the old school gangster flicks that we saw much of during the 80s and 90s. With the last twelve months including releases such as Lawless, Killing Them Softly and Gangster Squad; fans of this class of film has definitely been treated to a number of films to wet their appetite. Its the latter of the 3 aforementioned films that I'm focusing on today; Gangster Squad. Starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Sean Penn the film tells the story of 1949's Los Angeles and the group of police officers brought together to take down the city's mob king, Mickey Cohen (Penn). The group, labelled the Gangster Squad is lead by Sgt. John O'Meara (Brolin) and features a collective of the few cops left in the city that still obey the law, even if by a more violent pattern. The squad features Gosling along with appearances from names such as Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, Michael Pena and Anthony Mackie and together they create an entertaining dynamic through the collaboration of their different characters. Brolin's O'Meara is an old fashioned, no-nonsense WW2 veteran whose pursuit of Cohen leads to twists and turns and more often than not, violence. Overall for myself, Gangster Squad was a very entertaining, stylish and well delivered story yet the film let itself down by never offering a plot twist that was truly unexpected. I think most people would be able to see the plots ups and downs coming and this is where the film, for me, lost points. In conclusion, the latest offering from Zombieland's Ruben Fleischer does have its cons but my enjoyment was not dampened by this and the film still makes for a good watch and a return to the classic style that makes these genre of films so cool to watch.
