Réalisation:
Ruben FleischerScénario:
Will BeallPhotographie:
Dion BeebeMusique:
Steve JablonskyActeurs·trices:
Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Giovanni Ribisi, Nick Nolte, Anthony Mackie, Mireille Enos, Michael Peña, Robert Patrick (plus)VOD (4)
Résumés(1)
Los Angeles, 1949. Mickey Cohen, originaire de Brooklyn, est un parrain impitoyable de la mafia qui dirige la ville et récolte les biens mal acquis de la drogue, des armes, des prostituées et – s'il arrive à ses fins – de tous les paris à l'ouest de Chicago. Tout ceci est rendu possible par la protection, non seulement des hommes de mains à sa solde, mais également de la police et des hommes politiques qui sont sous sa coupe. Cela suffit à intimider les policiers les plus courageux et les plus endurcis... sauf, peut-être, les membres de la petite brigade officieuse de la LAPD dirigée par les Sergents John O'Mara et Jerry Wooters qui, ensemble, vont tenter de détruire l'empire de Cohen. (Warner Bros. FR)
(plus)Vidéo (30)
Critiques (15)
Voici un film d’action simple qui revêt des allures de film de gangsters rétro où les acteurs sont éclairés comme des mannequins dans une vitrine. Une ou deux scènes captivantes, une cadence rapide, des personnages unidimensionnels, des filtres caméras séduisants et un Ryan Gosling terriblement mal dirigé. Pour que ce dernier cafouille, il faut que les talents du réalisateur se cherchent à la loupe ! Pourquoi avoir constitué une telle distribution pour ce scénario ?! Ça vaut entre deux et trois étoiles, mais je me limiterai à deux, car c’est de la profanation de l’œuvre de Sergio Leone et de Brian De Palma.
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An even bigger mistake than expecting Gangster Squad to be the new L.A. Confidential is to watch L.A. Confidential two days beforehand. I don't mind the lemonade game of gangsters, which mainly treads on a 'sunny' note because the actors fit the period suits exactly, cigarettes are smoked countless times, and there are plenty of excuses to get the Thompsons to bark. I can accept all that until Fleischer says he'd like to be the new DePalma and switches from funny conversational humor to serious mode, where he fails utterly. In fact, all the action scenes seem to have been shoehorned into the film as an afterthought, only one of the two female characters is anchored in the plot, and the police unit is carried by Brolin's charisma and Gosling's smile. To top it all off, it features a collection of annoying Hollywood clichés. A well-deserved fail.
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Six brave and incorruptible men against one serious candidate for plastic surgery and a stay in a psychiatric clinic. I wouldn’t have been bothered at all by Fleischer’s attempt to adapt this strange mix of gangster and noir motifs to the tastes of comic-book readers and gamers if the film wasn’t a failure on more basic levels: development of the characters, creation of dramatic tension, logic of action, consistency of atmosphere. The whole film consistently adheres to comic-book stylisation in the mould of Dick Tracy (from which Penn’s psychotic troll most likely escaped), and I won’t mention the ill-considered violence of numerous scenes, and the fascist methods of the “hunters” (who, unlike the protagonists of De Palma’s The Untouchables, obviously have no moral inhibitions) aren’t worthy of comment. However, the inclination toward heroic pathos is much more common than the deliberate parodying of the genre. Though they look good on the posters, they are also as flat as the posters as they pay the price for going from one extreme to the other. Neither the content nor the manner of storytelling offers anything that could draw us in or make us fear for the protagonists characters, or at least spark our interest in how the story will continue. As a brutally straightforward and straightforwardly brutal shoot ’em up (unfortunately with supremely unclear action scenes, including the fistfights), Gangster Squad can make for a pleasant evening, but it also leaves a bitter aftertaste. I consider the failure to make a better film with such an excellent cast, an Oscar-winning cinematographer and a highly capable soundtrack composer to be an act of Hollywood-style organised crime. 65%
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It’s shallow kitsch, without much in terms of wisdom from the screenwriter, but it’s still watchable, thanks mainly to the good cast, the nice visuals and the craftsmanship. Sean Penn’s main evil gangster, though, feels like self-parody; his attempts at looking insane and maniac were funny – but that also contributed to my experience as a viewer, which I would describe as satisfactory. It’s unlikely that I will watch Gangster Squad again (not alone, at least), but I didn’t feel any acute need to get as far away from the screen as possible.
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Shallow popcorn flick that lacks the soul, the atmosphere and that one memorable scene that have always made the gangster genre so attractive and rewarding to viewers. There are many moments, especially the last ten minutes, that were written following the manual "How to make an unwanted parody of a genre quickly and easily." The only thing that keeps it afloat is Josh Brolin’s manly charisma. On the whole, it's as routine and stupid as Zombieland, which I expected from Fleischer, so there's no question of disappointment. And please, don’t give me that “Inspired by a True Story” line.
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Annonces