That's wasn't dramatic enough for Fleischer, who invents a more cinematically appealing climax that includes the staple of testosterone-drenched movies: the fist fight. The real Mickey Cohen, like Al Capone, ended up running afoul of the tax code. Like The Untouchables, Gangster Squad plays fast and loose with history. The results are predictably bloody, although no one brings a knife to a gunfight. Eventually, Mickey decides he can no longer afford to absorb the losses he is taking and decides to take the fight to his enemies. Their many successes are conveyed via a montage replete with newspaper headlines. But, once they plant a bug in Mickey's demesne, things take a turn for the better. The Gangster Squad gets off to a rough start, with two of its members stuck behind bars (leading to a cartoonish jailbreak). He hand-picks his cohorts: fellow war veteran Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) a cop with a dim view of authority, Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie) a sharpshooter, Max Kennard (Robert Patrick) and his sidekick, Navidad Ramirez (Michael Pena) and a wiretapper, Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi). John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) gets the commission from Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) after he proves himself to be incorruptible. Standing in his way is the "Gangster Squad" - a group of six dedicated lawmen who work under the radar to bring down Cohen's empire by any and all means possible. Mickey doesn't think small and he calls himself Progress. He owns the dope and sex trades and has a plan that will give him control over all the illicit money funneling into the West. Mickey Cohen is building his underworld empire in the alleys and bordellos of post-war L.A. It's an inferior Untouchables knock-off and proud of it. Despite the talent of the cast, Gangster Squad isn't a "prestige" motion picture and its release date shift from September 7 to January 11 didn't damage its nonexistent Oscar chances. The good guys are stolid, sturdy men - paragons of virtue up against a feral villain who is so vile that even the notorious Chicago mob can't stand against him. Sean Penn, playing real-life mobster Mickey Cohen, hams it up expertly, channeling Al Pacino's Tony Montana without the accent. It's chock-full of "guilty pleasure" moments. Steeped in blood, gore, and violence, Gangster Squad delivers what fans of the gangster genre expect from a movie of this sort. Gangster Squad is an unashamedly pulpy thriller that borders at times on an exploitation flick but its determination to follow The Untouchables' template (without the benefit of a David Mamet script) makes it a little too predictable to be memorable. There's no Battleship Potemkin homage, but there is a nod to Sunset Blvd. How else to explain the kinship that exists between Fleischer's latest, Gangster Squad, and De Palma's classic The Untouchables (with a little Scarface thrown in for good measure)? The similarities go beyond the requisite plot points that exist in all gangland stories Gangster Squad unspools almost like a remake of The Untouchables, albeit with a souped-up ending and a relocation from Prohibition Era Chicago to post-WWII Los Angeles. There seems to be little doubt that Ruben Fleischer, the director behind the well-received Zombieland and the less well-received 30 Minutes or Less, is a Brian De Palma fan.
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