Gangster Squad
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: January 11, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
23
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJan 30, 2013
Gangster Squad is a gang war drama built on Western conventions, a rootin' tootin', Camel-smokin', whiskey swillin' shoot'em up. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedJan 8, 2013
The best thing about Gangster Squad is how they got the 1940s accoutrements right. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 7, 2013
The cops play things as dirty as the crooks in Gangster Squad, an impressively pulpy underworld-plunger that embellishes on a 1949 showdown between a dedicated team of LAPD officers and Mob-connected Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) for control of the city. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJan 10, 2013
Penn's over-the-top tirades and bullying threats are still there - it's a wild and woolly performance that isn't always as menacing as perhaps the actor intended it to be. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 10, 2013
Gangster Squad provides a welcome burst of heat and color, even if those qualities are more illusory than real and subject to a fast fade. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 10, 2013
For all the guns and gore, it's as breezy and uncritical as a tale from the True Detective magazine that the cops can't help reading. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJan 10, 2013
Instead of expanding their sights, Fleischer and Beall narrow them, into a repetitive and increasingly exhausting series of shootouts. By the end, those guns might as well be held by extras, rather than some of the most talented actors of our time. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 7, 2013
Made up of synthetics rather than whole cloth, this lurid concoction superficially gets by thanks to a strong cast and jazzy period detail, but its cartoonish contrivances fail to convince and lack any of the depth, feeling or atmosphere of genre stand-bearers like "L.A. Confidential." Read full review
60
Total FilmJames MottramJan 7, 2013
Typified by Penn's blustery performance, Gangster Squad is sleek, stylish but superficial. Easy on the eye, even easier on the brain, it doesn't last long in the memory. Read full review
60
EmpireNick de SemlyenJan 7, 2013
Sean Penn's not been this fun since Jeff Spicoli and there's plenty of rip-roaring action, but Gangster Squad proves a minor entry in the annals of LA noir. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 11, 2013
Penn is always entertaining when he's playing characters drunk with depravity. Gangster Squad could use more of him. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenJan 11, 2013
The irony is worth noting: Back when it was really 1949, Hollywood made noir with teeth; this is nougat with pretensions. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJan 11, 2013
It's the cinematic equivalent of Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name: You know in your heart it's a crappy song, and every wince-inducing line is an affront to your intelligence, but hey, it's on the radio, so you turn up the volume and sing along anyway. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickJan 11, 2013
A cartoonish 1940s shoot-'em-up that's impossible to take seriously. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 10, 2013
Josh Brolin plays the leader of the gangster squad as a kind of dedicated dunce, which is appropriate considering their clumsy antics. Ryan Gosling has more nuance as his right-hand man, but Emma Stone is completely out of her element as a slinky film noir heroine, a walking anachronism. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigJan 10, 2013
In the last five minutes the film shifts gears and offers a tribute to law enforcement. But this tacked-on resolution is as sticky and fake as Sean Penn's make-up job. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirJan 10, 2013
As a capable imitation of better movies by Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma and Roman Polanski – it's reasonably successful entertainment. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisJan 10, 2013
Gangster Squad is an almost movie. It's almost terrible. It's almost entertaining. But it's missing the shameless insanity of a wonderfully bad movie, and the particular vision, point of view, and coherence of some very good ones. So it sits there in between - loud, flashy, and unnecessary. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 10, 2013
A triumph of production design but a pretty dull kill-'em-up otherwise. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackJan 9, 2013
Despite the unrelenting action and the terrific cast, Gangster Squad comes up more scattered than successful. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 9, 2013
It never really comes together in a satisfying way, and given the talent involved, that adds up to a big disappointment. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJan 9, 2013
To be fair, this tawdry dose of pulp fiction ("inspired by real events") is not a complete waste of time. It offers the marginal pleasure of an all-star cast slumming their way through a thicket of routine plotting, almost laughable dialogue and the constant blaze of tommy guns. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJan 9, 2013
Brolin and Gosling are both supposed to be playing World War II veterans who bring their knowledge of battle into the tough turf of the streets, but that's just a concept that the sketchy, half-baked script tosses out there. Read full review
42
Film.comStephanie ZacharekFeb 27, 2013
The violence is so indifferently presented that it has no kick; it’s not grim or graphic enough to shock, but it doesn’t rev us up, either. The picture’s various shoot-’em-up sequences are so generically conceived and shot that each one is indistinguishable from the next – by the movie’s end, they may as well all collapse into an exhausted heap. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJan 10, 2013
Very few will remember it in a few months, which is probably just fine with the folks who made it. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 11, 2013
The period thriller Gangster Squad plays like an untalented 12-year-old's imitation of Brian DePalma's "The Untouchables." Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJan 10, 2013
The soul of the era is missing, and with it any reason to care. In Fleischer's hands, the high-stakes shootouts are as stylish as a GQ spread, but it's nearly impossible to figure out who's zoomin' who. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJan 9, 2013
Though based partly on actual events, Ruben Fleischer's ludicrous shoot-'em-up plays fast and loose with the facts, and plenty else besides. Read full review
38
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 10, 2013
Slick, sick, self-consciously stylish and defiantly shallow, Gangster Squad is one of those movies you can't talk about without invoking other (often better) movies. A lot of movies. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJan 10, 2013
It begins as energetic, clichéd nonsense and ends as irritating, clichéd nonsense. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinJan 9, 2013
Gangster Squad aims for the pop-operatic intensity of "The Untouchables," but ends up feeling like a savage, simple-minded comic strip. Read full review
30
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 19, 2013
The over-all result is a misstep for Fleischer. [21 Jan. 2013, p. 78]
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJan 10, 2013
Mr. Beall, a former LAPD cop, has written a script so devoid of feeling that the cartoons blur into thin line drawings, while what's been done with the marvelous Ms. Stone - i.e. next to nothing - is downright criminal. Read full review
30
Village VoiceNick PinkertonJan 8, 2013
The proximity of horrible headlines scarcely matters - released on any day of any calendar year, Gangster Squad would be a crime against cinematic sensibility. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 10, 2013
This movie made my ears hurt. Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and James Ellroy could have turned this pulp into insinuating jazz. What's here is a cartoonish bore. Read full review
25
The PlaylistCharlie SchmidlinJan 8, 2013
In lieu of any sharp insight into the period and its notorious figures, the film's brash, ultraviolent encounters instead build a showy exterior with nothing of import left standing. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineGlenn Heath Jr.Jan 8, 2013
Ruben Fleischer's film is a perfect example of Hollywood hypocrisy, something to be ignored diligently. Read full review
10
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJan 10, 2013
His (Fleischer) first feature, "Zombieland," was a half-witty genre parody. This one might be described as genre zombie-ism: the hysterical, brainless animation of dead clichés reduced to purposeless, compulsive killing. Too self-serious to succeed as pastiche, it has no reason for being beyond the parasitic urge to feed on the memories of other, better movies. Read full review
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