10 January 2013, Singapore – Decades before Tupac announced to the world that he didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose him; there was the Gangster Squad. Based on true accounts of a band of LAPD cops that worked outside of the law to bring down 1940’s mobsters in Los Angeles; without rules, and without mercy.
Directed by Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer, the ensemble cast looks fantastic in the film’s rich milieu of 1940’s LA. It is to the director’s credit that the film feels as contemporary as it does, given the period setting. The overall sense is that of a war movie, with a strong cast like in Oceans 11 to 13.
Speaking of looking fantastic, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are H-O-T hot! In their second pairing since Crazy Stupid Love, the two should get married and have babies already with this much on-screen chemistry. Costumers did a fabulous job dressing them in the film. That red cocktail dress seen in the poster will be the next IT dress at proms across the globe 2013. And Damn! it should be illegal to look as good as the Goz in a old-timey double breasted suit.
Those two swoon-worthy stars alone will be worth the ticket price. But you got major acting chops with Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Nick Nolte on the roster; and the hero’s legend of the team of badasses that took on a mob and won. Decent enough popcorn fodder for the post-holiday blues.
Doris Tian