Folks, I love me some good gangster movies. That’s gangster with an “er” not an “a”. I don’t want to hear about how you thought Get Rich or Die Tryin’ was the best gangster movie you ever saw, because it wasn’t. It was a “gangsta” movie, and by extension, not a real movie at all.
Now where was I? Oh yeah. Gangster Squad. While I’ll admit the title seems like something a group of 8 year old boys would come up with, you have to keep in mind this movie is set in 1949. It was a simpler time. A time when men wore suits every day of the week because, if they were headed down to the service station to get a soda pop and a Charleston Chew, they were gonna look respectable dammit. Wives were still considered property. Gangs of kids could be seen playing stick ball in the streets yelling “Gee whiz gosh golly mister!” at every car that drove by. You could buy a Tommy gun at your local pharmacy or hardware store ( I assume?), and tobacco companies hadn’t quite figured out how to get the cancer into cigarettes yet. But more importantly, it was a time when Mickey Cohen ran the streets of Los Angeles
Gangster Squad is based on the true story of real life Mob boss Mickey Cohen, played by real life actor Sean Penn. Cohen likes to spend his time like most mobsters, making money by running illegal guns, drugs, gambling, and ladies of the night, and shooting coppers. It doesn’t hurt that he employ’s an army of thugs and dirty cops for protection. But Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) have different plans for Mickey. They head up a clandestine group of LAPD officers determined to clean up the streets of L.A. by any means necessary.
Now let’s all take a moment to enjoy the gangstery goodness of Gangster Squad.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gViqCxibW6A”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gViqCxibW6A]