Gangster Squad

An occasionally fun but mainly narratively incoherent mess that grossly under utilises the stars attached to it. A mish-mash mess of genres from neo-noir to crime heist to romance; at times it felt like 2 to 3 separate stories running together. The ridiculously suave Ryan Gosling and incredibly gorgeous Emma Stone are both wasted here with roles that are thankless and flat. Sean Penn basically chews every scene he is in, and Josh Brolin is a one-note hero. A lot of the blame can be pinpointed to the messy, incoherent script by Will Beall. Reuben Flesicher did a competent job directing with some good shots and effective use of slow-mo, but his pacing and framing can use more work. I don't think the Chinatown reshoot can be blamed for this but the gratuitous use of violence is really unnecessary. Classic case of great stars, poor script. LA Confidential was a way better depiction p Mickey Cohen and 40s LA Mob.