Gangster Squad Review Thread (Use Spoiler Tags)

[WyldeMan45]

The linchpin of the film is Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), a former boxer who became an associate of Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel, who was a charismatic figure who caroused around town with a gorgeous girl on his arm, and often with his attractive etiquette coach at his side. He once even took part in a Life Magazine profile. But he was also considered a sociopath whose vices included sex and extortion, and whose mood could darken on a dime. When innocent people got hurt, law enforcement hardened to the fact he had to be stopped.

The drama, based on a series of articles by Paul Lieberman, is the fact-based tale of the crime fighting exploits of a squad of elite Los Angeles officers lead by John O’Mara (Brolin) and Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Gosling) in the 1940s charged with stopping him. With Max Kennard (Cranston) a laconic LAPD officer from Texas who enforces the law ambitiously. Screenwriter Beall is a former South Central Los Angeles cop who wrote the novel L.A. Rex.