Reviews for this film from our members:
- Dragan Antulov @ Draxblog VI [Croatian]
- Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Jason Bailey @ Flavorwire
- Excerpt: Opening disclaimer aside, this is not a film ‘Inspired by a True Story’; it’s inspired by movies, by the way classic crime pictures look and feel and sound, which is then revved up and kicked out as pure flash. Those who are calling it shallow and cartoony and clichéd are missing the point. It is all of those things, purposefully — gleefully, even.
- Chris Barsanti @ Film Journal International
- Excerpt: A wolfish Sean Penn as crime boss Mickey Cohen heads up a stellar cast for this bloody, meat-headed gangster flick whose sheer velocity and breathless illogic give it a campy sheen that should broaden its appeal.
- Luke Bonanno @ DVDizzy.com
- Excerpt: Valuing style over substance, it looks nice, but sounds dumb, its problems too glaring to blame on re-edits, delays, or historically weak timing. There are far worse movies out there, but not many are as disappointing as this one.
- Luke Bonanno @ DVDizzy.com
- Excerpt: Amidst films like Texas Chainsaw 3D, A Haunted House, and The Last Stand, it’s tempting to invoke the always humorous gag of declaring an early release the best movie of the year so far. But I’d be surprised if Gangster Squad hangs onto that shallow honor far into February.
- Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Not good, and not entertaining; and it really should have tried to be one of those things.
- Daniel Carlson @ Pajiba
- Kevin Carr @ 7M Pictures
- Excerpt: There is a certain level of shoot-‘em-up entertainment value to the movie, but overall, it’s a pretty forgettable ride.
- Bill Clark @ FromTheBalcony.com
- Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Sean Penn seems to have wandered out of Warren Beatty’s 1990 “Dick Tracy” and screenwriter Will Beall (TV’s ‘Castle’) takes liberties that O’Mara never fought for.
- Philip Concannon @ Phil on Film
- [New – 9/26] | Carlos del Río @ El rincón de Carlos del Río [Spanish]
- Excerpt: “Gangster Squad” es una copia muy mala y muy descarada de “Los intocables de Eliot Ness”, de Brian De Palma.
- Jim Dixon @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: The line between homage and cliché is blurred in “Gangster Squad,” the third feature film directed by Ruben Fleischer. Clearly Fleischer has seen a lot of movies, and so has Will Beall, the only credited screenwriter. Quentin Tarantino would be twisting familiar elements into unexpected shapes. In “Gangster Squad,” there’s more a sense of déja vu.
- Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: [These characters] are caricatures with only as much personality as their fedoras and weapons allow.
- Candice Frederick @ Reel Talk
- Dustin Freeley @ Movies About Gladiators.com
- Excerpt: Gangster Squad isn’t sure what it wants to be. So, it’s a cartoon, hyperbole, hacky noir, and filled with Tommy Guns.
- Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Garish and bullet-riddled, it’s a completely forgettable flick.
- Vadym Grygoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
- Roderick Heath @ This Island Rod
- Excerpt: Gangster Squad can be said to embody many traits of classic pulp, if one is talking, specifically, of the bad traits. The basic premise of this film and its story permutations spins so far away from history, both on the journalistic level of historical reportage, and that of social and personal period reality, that it could almost be taking place an alternative universe.
- MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Blustery postwar mythologizing about the violent birth of the modern metropolis, all pulpy-bright even when it’s night…
- Benjamin Kramer @ The Voracious Filmgoer
- Glenn Lovell @ CinemaDope.com
- Brent McKnight @ Beyond Hollywood
- Excerpt: Gangster Squad is fun in a cartoonish way, but in the end, you wish there was something more.
- Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
- Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: Not quite gang-busters…
- Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
- Excerpt: A half-serious, half-spoofy, entirely half-hearted mess that attempts to throw what it can at the audience and see what sticks.
- Tiago Ramos @ Split Screen [Portuguese]
- Jamie S. Rich @ DVD Talk
- Excerpt: Faux jazz-age glitz cut together with handsome actors playacting in their childhood fantasies and Sean Penn’s audition tape for the Pacino role in the Dick Tracy film. It’s a two-hour commercial for flash bulbs, fake blood, and fedoras.
- Marcio Sallem @ Cinema com Critica [Portuguese]
- Tom Santilli @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: Gangster Squad, I’m afraid, is destined to go down as a movie released at the worst possible time, evoking the worst possible set of emotions needed to enjoy it.
- Amir Siregar @ Flick Magazine [Indonesian]
- Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: As an old-fashioned gangster picture tempered with noir overtones “Gangster Squad” is feast for the eyes.
- Matthew Sorrento @ Film International
- Frank Swietek @ One Guy’s Opinion
- Excerpt: A dumbed-down version of ‘The Untouchables’ done in floridly violent comic-book style.
- Jean-François Vandeuren @ Panorama-cinema.com [French]
- Phil Villarreal @ Becauseitoldyouso.com
- Excerpt: Count me among those who bail. Gangster Squad may be a poor movie, but it’s a top-a-the-heap gangsta pitcha.
- Andrew Wyatt @ Gateway Cinephiles
- Excerpt: Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad feels like a listless chore, more absorbed with genre box-checking and wallowing in dull, repetitive violence than with actually engaging the viewer.
