“Gangster Squad” is less a movie than a costume party run amok. Set in a late-’40s Los Angeles painted in cartoon colors rather than noir shadows, it is a hectic jumble of fedoras and zoot suits, stockings and cigarettes, and red femme-fatale dresses. The accessories of choice are guns of various calibers and styles, deployed to drown out — or perhaps to emphasize — knucklehead dialogue and inept storytelling.
This is post one of two on this subject. This is the review, and I have another linked list item coming up about this review.
And yeah, the entire review reads pretty much like that opening paragraph, some of it is worse. And it’s certainly scathing. He uses a lot of big (and meaningless in my opinion) words.
Personally, I enjoyed the film.