As most of you remember (or don’t), this movie was supposed to come out late 2012, but because of the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, they had to go and reshoot, because it was synonymous with a scene in the original cut. The build up, the anticipation, the movie trailer with Jay-Z’s ‘Oh My God’ playing every other commercial break on TV – the hype was real, but like all movies that get crazy hype for months on end, could it live up to it? This is why we go to the movies.

            Another movie that was based on a book that I had no idea about – this movie was based on the life of Mickey Cohen (played by Sean Penn) and his tirade on the city of Los Angeles with his growing takeover. There have been a lot of movies based on notorious gangsters like: John Dillinger in Public Enemies (Johnny Depp starring Dillinger), Floyd Banner (loosely) in Lawless (starring Tom Hardy & Shia LaBeouf), and a host of many who were already named were involved with the upstart of the FBI as depicted in J. Edgar (starring Leonardo DiCaprio). I’m sure there are many others, but those titles came to my head first.

A lot of people saw the title of this film and thought that it was some kind of corny and gimmicky thing for no reason – but little do they know it was based on a book. Mind you, I didn’t either, but it just goes to show that there’s more behind the name. The look of this movie felt like it was directed by Zack Snyder (Sin City, 300, The Watchmen), which means that it looked like it was taken right out of a graphic novel as opposed to just a novel itself. The dialogue, the action, the story and the dramatics; you take all of those things when it came to this movie, and you would have thought you were reading a comic. When you compare Gangster Squad to the other ‘gangster movies’ that have come out, they have that grainy look, it’s less colourful, and it’s more on a serious note.

This was an entertaining movie through and through. Although this movie was based on true events, you know that it was over-emphasized by Hollywood standards – that’s just what happens. Sean Penn looked more badass than what we would regularly see him as, and it helps when you’re being supported with an all star cast (literally, the names were everywhere: Michael Peña, Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, etc.).

This is definitely one to just go and watch for a good time. I don’t see much wrong that would make this movie terrible in some people’s eyes, but we all can’t think the same, which is why this is my opinion, this is my review, and alas

That’s My Word & It STiXX