To celebrate my 24th, I decided to relish in some Ryan Gosling ogling. The latest release including him in its cast is Gangster Squad. Unfortunately for me, he doesn’t take his shirt of. Fortunately for me, that’s not the point of the plot.

The story revolves around the aptly named ‘Gangster Squad’, a group of L.A. policemen who are chosen to go against Mickey Cohen, a common crook and gangster (told you it was aptly named) who terrorises Los Angeles in the late 1940s.

“Determined to put a stop to Cohen, Chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte), the head of the Los Angeles Police Department, creates a secret police unit with the sole mission of stopping Cohen. Respected police officer Sergeant John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) is placed in charge of recruiting additional officers. With the help of his wife, Connie (Mireille Enos), he recruits Sergeant Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) and detectives Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña) and Max Kennard (Robert Patrick).” (Source: Wikipedia)

On top of their secret missions and bloody punch-outs with numerous crooks, the Squad must also deal with Jerry’s involvement with Cohen’s girlfriend Grace (Emma Stone) and the arrival of a new bad, Cohen’s secret plan that will threaten to ruin all their chances.

The movie might be long (I admit to checking my watch a couple of times), and the emphasis on the good cops vs bad cops/gangsters is mainly portrayed through soppy family shots of the cops and scenes of retributions that look like a lot of fun (what cop has never wanted to set fire to money instead of stealing it from the bad, and, you know, giving it to the poor! – or just beat the hell out of a suspect?). But the plot still flows quite naturally, there are no massive hang ups in story and you don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything.

A good movie to watch, although if you’re squeamish I recommend waiting for the DVD release.

__

Pictures from: shockya.com, llnwd.net, fwooshflix.com, hdwallpapers.in