Langley Park Productions, Lin Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures,
Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, Holt McCallany, Robert Patrick, Mireille Enos
Mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) has taken over Los Angeles in this 1940’s crime drama. As it seems Mickey has bought out everyone from cops to judges to senators, two dedicated LAPD Sergeants put together a secret band of cops to try to take him down. Knowing Mickey can have them sacked from the force, disgraced, or even killed, their only hope is to take him down before he has a chance to put an end to them.
This based on the real story of the early days of organized crime in L.A. and the brave policemen who tried to put an end to the reign of terror of those who held the city hostage in their quest for power and control and all the money in the city. Very well done, with a bunch of really great talent, this is a fairly decent cops and robbers films like the days of old. With all the talent in this project, it just couldn’t suck, and it doesn’t. It didn’t however, blow my socks off, as I guess I’m just not really a fan of organized crime dramas like this. I loved the Godfather films, but those are so complete that nothing much can compare to those stories. But this is typical Saturday afternoon matinee stuff like the Untouchables and dozens of other films of that genre. This is pretty good in that genre, and if you’re a fan of those kinds of stories, this is a really good one. It has a perfect old film, but with modern equipment and technology and great acting. So I don’t want to discourage anyone from watching this who is interested in this type of film, but my rating is not real high, as for me, I’m just not into these kinds of stories. As far as I can tell, it’s rather as historically accurate as possible in this kind of story, and it does cut to the chase pretty quickly and has a lot of action and suspense. So make your own choice, as you probably will really enjoy this if this is your kind of story.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
