Ruben Fleischer, director of the excellent Zombieland is returning with a slick looking period crime piece about gangsters in 1940s Los Angeles. It sounds suspiciously similar to Curtis Hanson’s brilliant 1997 film L.A. Confidential, but with a freaking superlative cast on board I’m more than willing to give Fleischer’s Gangster Squad a serious look in. Sean Penn stars as real life gangster Mickey Cohen with Josh Brolin as the head of the titular squad out to foil him. The supporting cast includes Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, and Giovanni Ribisi. And it’s got Ryan Gosling in a pinstripe suit expertly handling Tommy guns, which is the real selling point here. The rest is simply a bonus.
Image by: Kevin Winter via Getty
