Despite having ceded its release date to a fellow Warner Bros. film, "Argo," it appears the studio has not given up on its drama "Gangster Squad." Directed by Ruben Fleischer ("Zombieland," "30 Minutes Or Less") and featuring the all-star cast of Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, Giovanni Ribisi, Anthony Mackie, Emma Stone and a prosethtic-laden Sean Penn, a trailer has just arrived, likely ensuring the picture will arrive in 2012 after all. When? Well, that would be a question that won't be answered yet.
The synopsis of the film is thus:
Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and–if he has his way–every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It's enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen's world apart. "Gangster Squad" is a colorful retelling of events surrounding the LAPD's efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all time.
And the verdict? Well, to be honest, we haven't had 100% faith in this one, specifically because its release date has been bumped twice now (first minor tweak was here) which suggested that WB wasn't exactly sure what to do with with the picture. Would it be a drama? An action film? Well, it's hard to tell, and Jay-Z might sell the trailer to millenials who don't like "old-timey" films, but to be honest it makes for a pretty hard to read trailer, tone-wise (and those CGI shots/Zack Snyder-ish camera moves seem out of place, but do seem very Fleischer-esque ). And this might be exactly why the film doesn't have a release date yet. It looks… interesting, but honestly, we'd love to see just a trailer played a bit straighter, please. But with a trailer arriving before the mid-year mark, we assume a final release date will be just around the corner. Summer? If there's an open slot, it won't surprise us.
Watch the trailer below. [Apple]
This looks sweet!
Ryan's voice is fucking annoying…..but I'm watching this just to see Josh Brolin and Sean Penn work their magic.
LMAO, Gosling trying way too hard as usual with the voice. He sounds ridiculous. And every single line in the trailer was a cliche.
Kind of disappointing by that trailer. Hopefully the film will live up to expectations.
This had me at the shot when they're doing the walk from a burning car and when it blows up they turn and look. Maybe the '40s was a more innocent time before the action hero guy was too cool to look back when shit blew up behind him. I missed the part of this trailer that sucks.
There is a screenplay review for this on scriptshadow. I am really looking forward to it. If anyone have it, Please send it to me – [email protected]. Please. Also On the Road. Thanks.
anthony mackie looks a bit token there huh
Meh…this looks utterly generic and mediocre. Count me in as another who is officially tired of Gosling's phony accent. Then again, I'm just tired of Gosling period.
I was quite excited for this given the cast & how hot the script was, but the trailer just screams LA Confidential retread. I only started to really get into it at the end, the scene in the movie theater & Gosling confronting the guy with the rifle at the very end. I think what we've got in the past 24 hours is Ben Affleck definitely made the right choice going after Argo instead after being asked to direct this.
LOL this looks mediocre at best. And WHAT is Gosling's voice?
Nothing says neo-noir like contemporary hip hop. What exactly were the people in charge of this (underwhelming) trailer thinking?
What an awesome still hanging on above. ;D Totally reminded Lawless. Couple of cool trailers came out lately, plus Argo. But where/why no Jesse Eisenberg? He worked with this director in his other two films. Sean Penn's face also reminded Guy Pearce's face in Lawless. This film maybe on purposely copying the texture or genre from that film in 1987 by Sean Connelly gang (forget its name).
I love Gosling more than your average person (yes it's possible) but his voice is really really really really starting to irritate me. That faux-accent has got to go.
The Trailer makes it seem like it's trying to hard to be contemporary so audience won't feel out of place.
Here is a review from an advanced screening. I was honestly underwhelmed by the film.
In short, it's a very, very stylized film and its aesthetics reminded me of Sin City and Watchmen. The film uses a lot of slow motion, a lot of which takes away from the film, in my opinion. It's very action-packed and the first half hour is excessive violence. In short, it's style over substance, in my opinion.
I was worried that the film would be out of the range of the director based on his previous works, and that belief was reaffirmed in the first act of the film. This isn't a conventional, atmospheric and stylish LA noir. It's only stylish in the sense that there's a lot of slow motion and constant, jarring flashbacks, but it's not what I expected from a drama piece that in the 1940s.
The film is also more comedic than I expected, and the comedic undertones take away from the film itself. The audience was cheering and clapping all the time, and it's the kind of film that is definitely entertaining but nothing special. It's very straightforward, very predictable, and obviously an enjoyable experience, but I really expected something serious like LA Confidential. This isn't that kind of film — even people around me and with me that enjoyed the film said this was more like Sin City and Watchmen because of it's excessive slow motion.
I don't want to bash the film. This obviously didn't work for me, because I expected something a little more serious, but this was way too stylized and in some ways, a film that didn't take itself seriously.
The characters are also caricatures, really nothing special. Sean Penn, however, was great, and even though he was playing a caricature himself, he was very enjoyable as a mobster. There were several lines that reminded me of the brashness of some great screen gangsters. I love Ryan Gosling – Drive is my kind of film so maybe that's some indication why this was a little excessive for me – but even his character felt like an extension from his previous performance in Drive. Their characters were the only ones that stood out for me. The film revolves around Josh Brolin's character, so he and Sean Penn are the leads. Ryan Gosling is given significant weight too, so he's up there as well. The others are part of Josh Brolin's assembled "Gangster Squad."
The film looked complete for the most part, although there were some CGI things that needed fixing. It's also funny because as a temp track they used music from Inception and The Dark Knight, which obviously will be taken out as the film gets scored, but that was interesting in and of itself.
But most of people's tweets from that same screening loved it as this reviewer said cause it was very entertaining.
Ill throw my two cents in and say this does look pretty badass. I'm not sure which film is rather see now, this or Lawless, another film that's had many release dates. Anyone hear anymore about Sean Penns appearance at Cannes? Could it still be for this film. He looks to be a scenery chewing highlight!
Seems from the trailer very much like an attempt at a modern spin on De Palm's The Untouchables: same basic storyline, starry ensemble, rather loud, broad tone……..never a huge fan of the Untouchables but it's certainly entertaining, this seems to be going for a similar vibe.
Yes, please.
Looks more like a summer movie, not an oscar one. But still great.
Looks fucking awesome.