A Most Unusual One-Sheet

What do you think?

Gangster Squad

In Gangster Squad, director Ruben Fleischer's noir wannabe send up of the gangster genre that was once the bread and butter of distributor Warner Bros., Sean Penn plays Mickey Cohen, a nefarious mob leader.  Played with a twitchy menace, with an over-the-top bombast that all but begs to be called into comparison with Al Pacino's manic screeching in Scarface, Penn utilizes all his actorly grace notes into a gleeful cartoonish creation.  As a sadistic overload with all intent of taking over 1940s Los Angeles, his Cohen is something straight out of Dick Tracy, with an all knowing wrinkle and tongue in cheek nod so unreserved and mannered he may as well be twirling a mustache and patting a black cat as he cuts into his dialogue.  He's clearly having a ball, acting without a net nor the slightest bit of directorial cues, which may have been fine if the film surrounding this display of showmanship, had settled on a tone or a cue of it's own.  The film, written by former cop Will Beall, instead wants to have it both ways-- at once a cartoon full of the cacophony of machine gun blitzes along with a L.A. Confidential-lite morality tale of corruption all set in the glamor of high-end showbiz window dressings.  Without a net of its own, Gangster Squad turns silly and sour, and as a true disservice to any cartoon entertainment, becomes, seemingly against all odds, dull.

The film was originally set for release last September but was pulled out of respect to the horrific tragedy in Aurora, Colorado due to its excessive violence and a first cut sequence of a melee taking place inside a movie theater.  Reshot and retooled for our convenience, it likely wouldn't have mattered much of a lick since Gangster Squad leaves only the slightest bit of a taste, edging into near irrelevance as quickly as its unraveling.  Fleischer, director of horror comedy Zombieland, certainly has a flair, but not the resolve to coalesce Gangster Squad into a film that matters.

Our hero, Sgt. John O'Mara (played by Josh Brolin, with an indignant seriousness) is portrayed as one of the few honest cops of the LAPD, circa 1949.  Under corruption in a town ruled by Cohen's nefarious efforts, O'Mara is obsessed with bringing him down, going so far as seeking guerrilla-like missions.  The smidgeon of a backstory is provided in that he's a WWII vet, perhaps still looming to bring down the big bad even as the war as past, as his pregnant wife and quaint lifestyle isn't enough to settle his adrenaline.  Another war vet is viewed at first as amusing counterpoint in the freewheeling Sgt. Jerry Wooters (played by Ryan Gosling in a twee accent and introduced as comedic jig), whose withdrawn nonchalance to the excessive violence is only sparked after he hooks up with Cohen's gal Grace (Emma Stone-- a tad too nice and girl next door-ish for a gangster's moll) and finds himself as well as she in apparent danger.

In a riff on nearly every B-action movie of the 80s, a team is secretly assembled-- headed by O'Mara in an effort to take on Cohen and his gang and make Los Angeles safe again.   This golden era A-Team includes a tech expert (Giovanni Ribisi), a gun-slinging novelty (Robert Patrick), his immigrant protege (Michael Pena) and the always welcome Anthony Mackie, for, well the movie doesn't quite explain.  The squad goes to great (and needlessly violent) measures, encompassing the films silliest problem as the good guy team starts to question their efforts and ponder if their actions are any better than the real villains.  That matters little as both detectives and gangsters are saddled with such a pedestrian script that makes all parties seem relatively dim, each discovering clues as screenplay dictates in what shrewd investigators or bad guys should realize long before.  Without insight or scope or dimension, the actors are all seemingly left to their own devices, and it's true that the alpha cast all appears to be a different films, left directionless by Fleischer to delight in their own disparate actorly delights.

At least the films looks good in its ridiculousness, as cinematographer Dion Beebe (no stranger to theatrical eye candy, as evident by his Oscar-winning lensing of Memoirs of a Geisha or to astute LA-driven crime dramas, as in Collateral) lustfully and colorfully brings bits of zest and texture to the surface only film.  Same is said to the artful production designers and costumers who stage old school elegance and fun set pieces with an aplomb that's missing from the page.  Sadly, even as mere window dressing, Gangster Squad can't quite quell its own insipidness, as it nears parody towards its predictably bloody and uninvolving conclusion.  D

Men in Black III

Maybe they just needed to go back in time after all.  Men in Black III is a loose and mostly agreeable chapter in the unnecessary summer sequel hall of chambers, and serves as a brisk lesson on the right way to proceed on a movie series long ago felt dormant.  The action begins as an aggressive alien named Boris the Animal (played with hammy brio by Flight of the Conchords Jermaine Clement), a baddie that Ray-Ban wearing g-man Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) caught and imprisoned back in 1969, breaks of his intergalactic prison, goes back in time and defeats his foe, causing a ripple in the time-space continuum, and a fear for Earth as a whole.  Agent J (Will Smith) must travel back in time, save his partner and the world, while meeting all kinds of new strangeness in the different world of the late-1960s.  What sounds like pure desperate gimmickry, actually saves the Men in Black series, not just from the diminishing returns from the sequel released ten years ago, but from franchise filmmaking getting back its popcorn roots and craving to entertain its audience.

Something seems different right from the start; there's something about the rapport between a more with it Jones and Smith that feels sharper, funnier and more in control.  There's a sense they both want to be here, not just the usual coasting for a lofty paycheck sort of deal.  Jones' Agent K seems even crustier; Smith's Agent J ever more blathering from the mouth-- I intend both as compliments, as the relationship between the two neutralizing alien crushes grows stronger, and surprisingly more poignant towards the films finish.  Director Barry Sonnenfeld (who directed the two first films) and screenwriter Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) do exactly what should be done for franchises long in the tooth-- they keep the pacing brisk, the timing sharp and hold the chemistry of their actors above the onslaught of visual effects.  Bonus points for bringing along Emma Thompson, as MiB's chief, Agent O as her wondrous comedic timing, along for the ride.  Even more bonus points for making a seemingly desperate plot contrivance the prick the series needed.

For once Agent J is back in 1969 (the moon landing plays a part in the story), there's a fresher angle in store than first thought.  The first grand notion was the introduction of younger Agent K played by Josh Brolin, in a delightful performance that not only greatly mimes Jones, but opens the character...albeit softly.  Agent K, it appears, was always a bit stodgy, but Brolin is granted to free the character and the film applies a nicely balanced before and after that informs the character and his relationship with Agent J.  That's hardly the point-- this is popcorn candy summertime fun, and the film does a good job of handling the mixed bag of comedy and science fiction in a way that harkens back to the glory days of Ghostbusters-- there's a nice nod to the counterculture as Agent J walks into Andy Warhol's Factory not knowing exactly who the aliens and humans are; an even niftier turn in a stalwart cameo by Bill Hader.  There's an even sweeter addition in the character of Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), a soothsayer who can predict the outcome to millions of possibilities of the future.  His gift, or curse, gives slight weight, but mostly adventure as Men in Black III heads to his Cape Canaveral finale.

Whatever the case may be-- low expectations jelled by a sprightly script and engaging interplay of actors, or Men in Black III caught me on a good day-- I enjoyed the outing, and maybe, just maybe there's still another adventure left for them.  B