Gangster Squad

[valda]

You should have come upstairs, EthanRunt.

We asked the staff and they told us it was full. Staff were kinda douchey.

That old chesnut

First of all I really thought I was going to pass out in Wimbledon, it was like a furnace in there.

So anyway, it sounds a bit strange to say I reallly enjoyed something, when I had to hide my eyes through loads of it . I don't handle fist fights and stuff very well, and there was a whole heap of then going around. Great cast, but most of them seemed somewhat underused to me. Gosling and Stone didn't really that many scenes to stand out, so I guess it was Brolin as the stand out guy, who seemed really right in that role. Maybe RG is a bit too pretty for such a role I expected this to be more like LA Confidential, but it wasn't anything like that, it was more like a comic book style if you know what I mean. 8/10

[akh43]

Saw this last night at Showcase Manchester, It was very good! Great start to the year hopefully many more to come! but the Manchester area seems to be the first go on SFF/SKY ect....

The cinema it was shown in is proper old school, you enter through the back at the top and all the seats recline on bouncy springs (funny seeing people that haven't been there before and sit down to fast and go flying back! haha)

8/10 Thank you please..........

I saw this at Showcase last week and it was packed, we finished up 3 rows from the front, in the old days it rarely was full, I agree Manchester always seems one of the first to go nowadays.

Loved the film and a really good start to the year, much better than last year's first film Margin Call. The only downside was where it was shown, Showcase is my least favourite cinema in Manchester, the seats are so uncomfortable I always leave with neck ache as no support and can never get comfortable no matter how much I try. The one good thing is its free to park and easy enough to get to. Saying that, i'm back there again tomorrow for Les Miserables.

[AYBG]

Eugh.

http://ihyfm.fmuk.org.uk/gangster-squad/

[Lindseytonge]

Good film worth a watch 8/10

[Livi92]

Very good film, a little predictable, but for the cast alone, I'd give it an 8/10. I particularly thought the chemistry between Gosling and Stone worked great! The ending was a little ridiculous, but overall I loved it!

[kevinknapman]

Fair warning: I get quite picky in the following paragraphs.

This is the perfect example of when you shouldn't read the book that a film is based on beforehand. I say 'based on' but Gangster Squad appears to based on a synopsis of Paul Lieberman's fascinating account of the attempt of East Coast gangsters to take over crime in Los Angeles and the policeman that were given the job of stopping them, rather than the book itself. The setting, the loose idea of the gangster squad, a couple of their methods and the real life names of certain characters is all that survives from the adaptation. Instead a series of events that never actually happened make up the bulk of the finished product, with characters made up and real life people killed off when in reality they lived to a ripe old age. Now I'm no philistine when it comes to film-makers taking artistic license but was it really too much to ask for some reality to sneak in here or there, to honour the efforts of the real people involved. Apparently so. So I'm not too fussed about them making up the Emma Stone character, as romantic interest for Ryan Gosling but resent how much of an involvement her character has in the ultimate downfall of Mickey Cohen [spoiler]Her testimony putting him prison for the murder of Jack Whalen. Wrong on two counts. Mickey Cohen never went to prison for murder, but like Al Capone before him, for tax evasion. Jack Whalen also died in a restaurant shoot-out. Though Cohen was present.[/spoiler]
I also think killing a real-life member of the gangster squad off, when in reality he continued to have a distinguished career long after many of the others did, just so the film can justify a final revenge attack on Mickey Cohen's hotel stronghold is incredibly disrespectful to him and his descendants [spoiler]Conway Keeler played by Giovanni Ribisi. In real life, he was the last living member of the squad and a lot of the book is from his testimony which he'd initially refused to give, only breaking his silence in 2003. He almost died from a heart attack in 1965 at the end of the Watts riots. That didn't end his life but it was the end of his career as a policeman. He finally died less than a year ago at the end of the January 2012. A notice sent to the police department began 'Sorry to report that retired sergeant Con Keeler, one of the last men standing....'. So, if you'll excuse my language, f*ck Hollywood for killing off a man for the sake of a cheap narrative trick[/spoiler]
The omissions are equall baffling. No room for Bugsy Siegel, one of the most famous of the east coast gangsters, who travelled west with Cohen and Jack Dragna. He was important enough to have his own life adapted to film many years ago (with Warren Beatty in the lead and Harvey Keitel as Cohen) but apparently not important enough to feature here. Jack Dragna gets assassinated in his home by Cohen's men, when in reality he died 5 years after Cohen went to prison from a heart attack. Cohen's OCD is also a fascinating character trait that gets ditched (he washed his hands a lot). One of Cohen's bodyguards Johnny Stompanato has a fascinating story of his own. In reality he was killed by the daughter of his girlfriend, actress Lana Turner, in 1958. Here he becomes an insignificant victim in the final shootout.

On a more understandable level, the amount of shootouts and car chases that are made up, far outweighs the real-life incidents. Hard to criticise them too much for wanting to make the film more thrilling so I'm not as bothered by that. But they do go a little too overboard.

I'm sure many will look at the issues I have with Gangster Squad and say 'it's just a film, it doesn't matter' but I think it does matter. If you're going to make a film based on a book, why ditch about 90% of what happens in it. Including plenty of fascinating details. I think Ryan Gosling's story to Emma Stone about being shot down over the Pacific during WWII is about the only true detail that is used. I would have had less issues with the film if they dropped the 'based on' credits and made the characters fictional ones loosely based on real-life people. It was obvious from the beginning that they wanted to make a cartoonish version of events more inspired by the Hollywood idea of gangsters than the reality. Which is fine but at least be honest about it. Honour Lieberman's book and the testimony of the real people involved. I would probably have enjoyed it a lot more, as it is an entertaining enough piece of escapism. Instead it annoyed me the more it went on as it just made everything up and ignored the rich collection of anecdotes that actually happened. I'm surprised I had the reaction I did to it and perhaps I wouldn't have if I hadn't read the book.

So what of the film taken on it's own terms then, ignoring that. It's fine and entertaining enough. Brolin is good, Gosling is fine, as is Emma Stone though she gets too little to do, though Penn is pretty awful. The period detail is solid (at least they p*y attention to getting that right) and the action is impressively staged. But it's a dumb shallow movie, with one-dimensional characters. I came out thinking that as a depiction of gangsters, it was about as realistic as the Bug's Bunny cartoon 'Racketeer Rabbit' (youtube it, it's fantastic). The book and the Gangster Squad themselves deserved better.

[weliveandbreathewords]

Very interesting read Kevin!
Think Ill be indulging in the book to find out what REALLY happened!
Suppose I should have guessed that it was only loosely based, most films that say 'Based on a true story' have been chopped and changed to the hilt!

[EthanRunt]

It says "Inspired by" at the start, which says it all.

[kevinknapman]

It says "Inspired by" at the start, which says it all.

That doesn't 'say it all' in the slightest. It also says 'based on the book by Paul Lieberman' at the end which is barely true at all. Change the names of the characters to fictional ones then, if it's 'inspired by' a true story. Having that at the start is just them covering their arses and it's not good enough to justify how disrespectful the film is as a whole to the real people involved.

[prettyxcool]

Many thanks to the amazing funthing, I got to see Gangster Squad at a MSN and Capital One private screening at Cohen's Den at The Aubin Cinema. Surprisingly easy to get to, just a few minutes walk from Shoreditch High Street Overground Station.

On arrival, we were greeted by some actors from the Gangster era, and offered some quite strong cocktails, either made from brandy or whiskey! Those dressed to impress were given a bottle of Laurent Perrier Champagne, and on the seats were popcorn, water and a jar of Rhubarb and Custard sweets. The Aubin Cinema is strangely configured, a massive screen with three rows of about 15 seats right in front of it and then about another 3 rows of 5 seats on the right hand side next to the projection room, so everyone was sat very, very close to the screen, much too close, but the seats were very comfortable. However, the air-con seems to be on high so it was absolutely freezing. Afterwards, on my way out, I noticed some blankets draped over some seats, wish I had seen them before, I could have used them.

Thought the trailer made the film better than it was. The film was ok. A lot of violence. Cliched characters and very over the top action. However, the era was portrayed very slick and beautiful, so nice to look at. Ryan Gosling still has such expressive eyes, that he hardly needs to act. Shame I did not feel the chemistry that he and Emma Stone had in Crazy, Stupid Love. Their romance was very flat, but I suppose they did look good. It also felt more like a comic book story, than real life. After reading KK's fascinating review, now I know why, and I too agree, they should have done a better film to credit the Gangster Squad. It looks like they used "inspired" as a disclaimer to what they did to history and the story.

We were video'd and told not to post anything from the theatre!
http://video.uk.msn.com/watch/video/msn ... /28barepau

6/10