TheRetroCritic

Some movies are basically pointless but they're so much fun it hardly matters. Pure popcorn entertainment all the way. Gangster Squad is one of those movies. Which is not to say it's not well made or interesting, it is, but it's not the kind of film that really will have an emotional impact on you or leave you thinking about it long after the credits have rolled. No, Gangster Squad is a playful homage to film noir and is all about being as cool, silly and entertaining as possible. It would make a good double-feature with Dick Tracy , to give you an idea. Hell, Sean Penn's Mickey Cohen is basically a Dick Tracy villain! His cartoonish performance is completely over the top but completely enjoyable. It just makes sense in Gangster Squad, it fits. You've got Josh Brolin playing it straight as the detective/family man who takes on the mob and is asked to gather a "squad" of misfit cops, Ryan Gosling is the mouthy, chain-smoking kid who has an affair with

For fans of sleazy 80's thrillers, the first 20 minutes of Drive are pretty much the most cream-worthy 20 minutes spent watching a movie for a very long time. Everything is simply perfect: the pace, the look, the tension, the music... it's so good in fact that the rest of the film in comparison is just disappointing. Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't disappointed by Drive: it's very good. I was only disappointed that it wasn't amazing, which it so very closely was. That is, until Carey Mulligan shows up. Understand I have nothing against the actress (besides the fact she's famous and I'm not quite sure why), It's just the character she's been assigned and the way the plot just takes that character for granted feels like a lazy touch in an otherwise spot-on flick. I don't buy that she'd willingly be with Oscar Isaac's character, I don't buy that Gosling's character would jump into such a life-threatening clusterfuck just fo