Gangster Squad (2013)

Starring: Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Peña, Robert Patrick

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Rating: C+

I'm going to predicate this by saying that while I'm not exactly giving this a good review, I did enjoy it.  Gangster Squad was definitely over hyped and possibly even wrongly promoted, and as such going into it I was expecting one type of movie and got something a bit different.  This is a movie created by the guy who did Zombieland, and as such it's a movie like Zombieland kind of trying to be a movie like Godfather or something similar.  As such, it kind of ends up in between the two, to the detriment of the film, although throughout it it still manages to be entertaining and fun.

Gangster Squad is the kind of true, but not really, story of Mickey Cohen (Penn) and the police officers who formed a squad, the Gangster Squad, to stop him.  The head of this squad is Sergeant John O'Mara (Brolin), a decorated war hero who doesn't fit into the L.A. police scene simply because he won't take bribes and wants to persecute Cohen and his thugs.  O'Mara is joined by detective Coleman Harris (Mackie), wire-tapper Conway Keeler (Ribisi), gunslinger Max Kennard (Patrick), and his partner Navidad Ramirez (Peña).  His friend, Jerry Wooters (Gosling), who has rejected an offer to join the squad, meanwhile is carrying on an affair with Cohen's lover, Grace Faraday (Stone).

Okay, so let's see.  The action was fun, I enjoyed it.  With the exception of the Chinatown incident it all really flowed well and was, while not exactly believable, definitely entertaining.  There were a few moments that were a bit hockey, and a few add ins that made me feel like the film was trying to be the 1960s Batman - more than once I almost expected a "POW" to be displayed across the screen - but for the most part it was fun.  The humour was good too and really on key.  It wasn't an overly funny movie, but there were definitely a number of points when someone would say something that made me smile or chuckle a little.

I really liked the relationship between O'Mara and his wife, played by Mireille Enos, and really wanted more of it.  From the get go I felt the love and chemistry between the two of them and I worried about what was going to happen to each of them, and between each of them, more than any other character.  Actually, with all honesty, the only other characters that I really cared about here were the ones played by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone - although more because I like the actors themselves than because of any development of their relationship.  I do think that Gosling's Jerry was developed, and I really enjoyed the character, but Stone's Grace was less developed, and their relationship... somehow, despite the fact that I already know the two as a couple from Crazy, Stupid, Love and know that they can have amazing chemistry, the two don't really have chemistry here.  It's lacking, which sucks.  I want to see more from the two of them as a couple in this film so that I could really love them as a couple.  And now I just want to go watch Crazy, Stupid, Love again.  I will stick this out there, though, if you're filming a movie with Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn in it one of them should appear shirtless and the other should not.  I'm sorry, Gangster Squad, but you made the wrong decision there.

Man on a Ledge (2012)

Starring: Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Anthony Mackie, Génesis Rodríguez, Ed Harris

Director: Asger Leth

Genre: Psychological Thriller, Crime, Action

Rating: C+

I suspect I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I should have.  By which I mean, I enjoyed this movie when I realize that it wasn't really all that good.  It's fun and the action is good and the tension is definitely there - although, I'm absolutely terrified of heights, which I suspect played a lot into that.  This movie really freaked me out, but I'm like that.

Man on a Ledge follows Nick Cassidy (Worthington), a former cop and an escaped convict.  He was imprisoned for stealing a $40 million diamond from David Englander (Harris), which he swears he did not do.  At the start of Ledge Nick checks into the Roosevelt Hotel under a false name, goes to his room on the 21st floor, and steps out onto the ledge.  When negotiators arrive, he insists that he will only talk to negotiator Lydia Mercer (Banks), a negotiator who is on leave of absence following a failed negotiation leading to the suicide of a policeman a month earlier.  Unbeknownst to the police, while Nick is distracting them his brother Joey (Bell) and Joey's girlriend Angie (Rodríguez) are on the building across the street, planning on breaking into Englander's vault to prove Nick's innocence.

So... yeah.  The plot is a bit much, and at no point does it enter into believe-ability.  From how he escapes from prison to the whole heist, and the general plan to clear his name, is just all over the top.  It's just... yeah.  It's kind of all over the place.  I think the idea in general was an interesting one, but the way they did it was a bit preposterous and just too much.  You have to suspend your disbelief a lot in order to follow it, although I will grant that it does play in rather nicely to the theme of "corrupt cop" that movies tend to like.

I think the thing that makes this movie really work for me, however, is the dramatic tension between Banks and Worthington.  Regardless of how believable the rest of the film is, I really believed her character.  Her motivations were real, her struggles were real.  She really wanted to help him, whoever he might have been.  I believed that, although I think it went too extreme at the en.  The whole "corrupt cop" plot didn't work well and kind of jeopardized the loveability of Banks' character.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

Starring: Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rufus Sewell, Marton Csokas
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror
Rating: D

I think my favourite part about Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was the fact that I was lucky enough to be able to see it for free. Actually, I think the only part of this movie that I enjoyed was the fact that I was lucky enough to be able to see it for free.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter follows the life of the 16th president of the United States, from the time of his mother's death to the night of his own assassination, nearly fifty years later.  Following his mother's murder Abe (Walker) takes it upon himself to avenger her; little does he realize that her murderer, Jack Barts (Csokas), was a vampire.  Once this news became apparent to him Lincoln is recruited to hunt vampires by Henry Sturgees (Cooper), a man who knows a lot about vampires and the rules for hunting them.  In the course of his vampire slaying, Abe realizes that Henry's way of hunting vampires isn't enough; he would be far better off taking the office of the President of the United States, where he can fight against the hordes of slave-owning, southern vampires that threaten the nation.

I don't know where to begin with this movie.  The special effects were over done.  I understand that the use of CGI and the like is deemed to be necessary in movies like this, and can add a lot to fantasy and science fiction based movies, but in Abraham Lincoln it was just too over the top.  The viewer shouldn't feel like something as simple as a man twirling an axe had to be CGI-ed.  He's just doing a variation of staff twirling, it's not that complicated.  The CGI in the fight scenes is also over the top; while I understand why it was necessary in some points, its over use gave the movie this really weird feel to it - almost like it was trying to be like a steam-punk, vampire based version of The Matrix - except, not as cool.  There were a few moments when the fights were awesome, but a lot of it was just... once again, it was too fake and fluffy.  Many of the action sequences could have been done without, in favour of actually explaining some of the story.

A major plot point to the film is the fact that the vampires, lead by leader Adam (Sewell), are taking over the south of the United States, making the American Civil War a fight for humanity as much as a fight against slavery.  In my opinion, this whole aspect of the plot was left largely undeveloped; instead the filmmakers decided to spend a lot of time having Abe fight CGI-ed vampires in the start of the film, do a quick montage to go 'oh, hey, here's a viable plot - and then have him fight some more CGI-ed vampires.  As such, the film really isn't evenly balanced and the villain isn't given his proper due - or any real explanation.  The acting itself isn't bad, and I especially liked Dominic Cooper, but the actors themselves aren't really supported by anything.  Possibly the worst part is the fact that some of the plot twists are made blatantly obvious in the start of the film, so that when they're revealed later on the viewer has to question just how slow Abe has to be in order to not have figured them out.  Oh, also, back on the CGI note, the eyes of the vampires are really disturbing; in my opinion, Sewell's eyes were possibly the freakiest part of the entire film.  This is definitely a movie that I would recommend avoiding; having now seen it, I'm even considering flat out avoiding the book as well.  In conclusion, I do have to say that I'm sorry for having recommended this movie on Friday.  Now I'm saying skip this movie.