The Playlist  News

What Are You Seeing This Weekend? 'Gangster Squad' & 'A Haunted House' Headline In Theaters

There really is no rest for the wicked. Blood and brain matter, lechery, and crude allusion spew out of this weekend's cinematic lineup by the gallon. There's gangster genre violence, imitative violence, monster violence, violence against children, bullying violence, historical violence, and the vio...

The Playlist  News

Creating A New 1940s Los Angeles, Responding To Aurora & More From The Cast & Crew About 'Gangster Squad'

For his third directorial effort following the genre mélange of action comedies “Zombieland” and “30 Minutes or Less,” Ruben Fleischer has taken a leap forward in scope and ambition, while taking the narrative back to 1940s Los Angeles. Inspired by the seven-part LA Times articles by Paul Lieberman,...

Thompson on Hollywood  News

Weekend Recap: 'Only God Forgives' Teaser, Naomi Watts as Princess Di, Twenty-Somethings on 'Girls,' and HBO/Hulu Changes

Film Comment posted the "50 Best Undistributed Films of 2012," beginning with "Our Children" (Joachim Lafosse, Belgium/Luxembourg/France/Switzerland), followed by "Memories Look at Me" (Song Fang, China) and "First Cousin Once Removed" (Alan Berliner, U.S.). Read their full list here.

The Playlist  News

We're Going To War: 6 Clips From 'Gangster Squad'

You might have missed it, but last month, Warren Beatty's underrated and colorfully over-the-top "Dick Tracy" made its bow on Blu-ray. So why are we bringing up that 20-plus-year-old movie? Because watching these six clips from "Gangster Squad," we're getting a similar vibe of a scenery chewing, vis...

Thompson on Hollywood  News

Weekend Recap: Director Interviews with Stone and Coppola, January Releases, and More Best of 2012

Thompson on Hollywood  Reviews

Weekend Preview: Catch Up on Oscar Viewing, Plus 'Gangster Squad,' 'Clandestine Childhood,' 'Quartet' and 'Struck by Lightning'

Per usual, January is not a fertile ground for strong new movies. Arrivals this weekend will be fighting for attention amidst the Oscar chatter. Dustin Hoffman's delightfully escapist "Quartet," which had an-Oscar qualifying run, leads the pack at 78% Fresh. Despite its abundance of movie stars, the...

Leonard Maltin  Reviews

GANGSTER SQUAD

"Gangster Squad" represents a missed opportunity. Director Ruben Fleischer and screenwriter Will Beall have discarded a great real-life story (uncovered by journalist Paul Lieberman in his book of the same name) and given us an overblown comic strip instead.

Indiewire  Reviews

Review: Why 'John Dies at the End,' Now on VOD, Is An Ideal Alternative to 'Gangster Squad'

Thompson on Hollywood  Reviews

'Gangster Squad' Early Reviews: Action-Packed and Over-The-Top, Movie Stars Playing Cops and Gangsters

Ruben Fleischer, director of "Zombieland," "30 Minutes or Less" and now "Gangster Squad," is facing some less-than-stellar early reviews for his would-be-noir thriller about the LAPD vs. gangster Mickey Cohen in 1940s Los Angeles, based on Paul Lieberman's book of the same name..

The Playlist  Reviews

Review: 'Gangster Squad' An Aggressive, Opulent & Ultimately Wearisome Look At 1940s Los Angeles

Manifest Destiny lies beside its essential hubris in the period actioner “Gangster Squad,” but beyond the swaggering idealism seen through eponymous hoodlum Mickey Cohen (played by Sean Penn), the film's saturated grab bag of glossy homage proves its final shortcoming. With his third feature, “Zombi...