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Created Jan 15, 2013 08:54PM PST • Edited Jun 16, 2019 03:07AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   The first great movie of 2013 is Gangster Squad.

   Oh great, what we’ve got here is a movie featuring a bunch of Hollywood Liberals gunning down loads of people with weapons they’d like to ban in real life, all in the name of entertainment. Only in America.

   OTOH, what’s great is a richly produced, charismatically performed period-piece glamorizing Los Angeles’ glimmering period as America’s America. It’s also one hell of a popcorn movie. Munch on that.

   Star power in front and behind the camera mark Gangster Squad as a polished Hollywoodized product.

   Sean Penn is the ringer in the strong cast. We already knew he was an actor of the highest caliber. Now his roiling performance as L.A. kingpin Mickey Cohen moves him up into the realm of De Niro and Pacino, aka into the pantheon.

   Ruben Fleischer nails his first big-big budget exercise, after having earlier directed the rocking zombie comedy Zombieland. Working with Emma Stone again is another decision nailed. Or something.

   Gangster Squad ain’t politically correct or meaningful or even historically accurate. It is however entertaining as hell and gorgeous to look at. Is that so bad?

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Sean Penn’s Mickey Cohen ranks up there with the most inimitable gangsters in cinematic history, including De Niro’s Capone from The Untouchables and Pacino’s Cocaine Scarface. They even give him a “Say Hello” line as he blasts his way to infamy.

   Additional beefy performances from Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte and Anthony Mackie give the movie real heft. Then there’s the smooth charms of Ryan Gosling, squiring Emma Stone as The Moll. Gosling & Stone have become the 21st century Bogie & Bacall, sans the off-screen romance. Or so we’ve been told…

   Back to Brolin, others have said he needed to grow into the family chin. He has. I expressed a wish when reviewing Milk that his late career stardom continue. It has.

   A trio of distinctive character actors give the movie, um, character, while an aging macho man gives it even more gruff guff. Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Peña, Jon Polito and Robert Patrick, take a bow.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

   Sean Penn is perfect, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling really great.

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

   Emma Stone isn’t stunning. Playing a stunner however, she proves herself a stunning actress.

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Ruben Fleischer’s taste for violent entertainment works well here, given the heaping doses of stylish glamour he applies to it. Ideally he’ll further exercise his style muscle more than his violence muscle going forward. Nah, never happen.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    Gangster Squad features production values extraordinaire. The best credit? 33 Dancers. Smooth.

    Hollywood loves L.A., here picturing the City of Angels in a hazy light right before the freeways came. For instance, notice the car chase on dirt roads in what was soon to become a concrete jungle.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.0

    The movie opens with an underworld execution scene of pronounced savagery. However, it’s over in a flash, in keeping with the lightly stylized violence of the movie as a whole. That said, the movie fetishizes movie violence. For many of us, that’s entertainment. For others, steer clear.

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

18. Violence Savage 3.7

19. Rudeness Profane 3.5

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.7

    Why so surreal? Because of history that is liberally re-imagined, lots of pyrotechnics and 75 stuntmen.

    About that history: Mickey Cohen was a flamboyantly bad guy, but was damn near a boring salesman compared to how he’s depicted here.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Surreal 2.7

24. Physical Surreal 2.5