From Real Life Based Stories to Movie Screens: Reviews of Gangster Squad

From Real Life Based Stories to Movie Screens: Reviews of Gangster Squad

The gang era of the 40’s; killing, illegal gambling, and human trafficking presents the power of the one who runs the city. From Tommy guns, Uzis, and long-barrel pistols to shoot-outs and gang related violence, the gang lords will always go against the law to prove their strength, until some concern, law-abiding and honest law enforcers pledge in bringing the peace back in the streets. Gangster Squad is an elite police squad led by Detective Sergeant John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) fights to save the city of Los Angeles from the most-feared, power-hungry East Coast mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). Gangster Squad fits the normal tale of good battling evil. Based on Paul Lieberman's seven-part Los Angeles Times series "Tales From the Gangster Squad", Gangster Squad includes brutal and gruesome scene to provide the audience a realistic feel of the story. Robert Ebert writing from rogerebert.com, James Berardinelli commenting by way of reelviews.net, and Peter Travers reviewing for rollingstone.com all gave Gangster Squad an unsatisfactory rating. The critics agree that director Ruben Fleischer recreated the same “violent comedies” theme from his last movies.

Normally, movies are being compared by critics to another for almost having the same theme and characteristics of the story. Unfortunately, Gangster Squad is being viewed as another resemblance of some gang era film. Reel Views reviewer is not so much please for the movie’s originality:

”The similarities go beyond the requisite plot points that exist in all gangland stories; Gangster Squad unspools almost like a remake of The Untouchables, albeit with a souped-up ending and a relocation from Prohibition Era Chicago to post-WWII Los Angeles.”