Gangster squad is a new gangster movie directed by Ruben Fleisher best known for Zombieland (2009). The movie is exactly as its title states; it’s about a gangster squad. The film is comprised of Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin), Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), detectives Coleman Harris (Anthong Mackie) and Conway keeler (Giovani Rabisi). These people are all called together to go undercover as the gangster squad by the chief of police Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) to go undercover and get the gangsters. Primarily they go after Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) while Grace Faraday (Emma Stone) joins the film as the love interest for Wooters (Ryan Gosling).
You can see the full review for Gangster squad here
Gangster Squad Blu Ray Review
What do you get in the Blu Ray?
- Commentary with Director Ruben Fleischer
- The Gangland Files
- The Set Up
- Rogues Gallery (Mickey Cohen)
- Tough Guys With Style
- Deleted Scenes
How is the viewing experience?
I quite enjoyed viewing Gangster Squad on Blu Ray over it’s cinema release for one main reason, it’s sharp! Gangster squad as a movie bases itself heavily on the style of the 1940’s, the clothes, the fashion, the women, the men, the cars and the drinks of the time. The world created by Fleischer for this film on Blu Ray really stands out. One significant improvement I thought was what I thought was frame rate lag which I mentioned in my review from when I saw the film in the cinema. This frame rate lag during this scene didn’t seem to be as present on the small screen so went unnoticed.
If you like Gangster Squad you’ll like this Blu Ray purchase, I on the other hand don’t enjoy the film as much as others may, but I do like it’s clear, crisp quality during the home viewing.
I think this movie was better as a Blu Ray purchase or rental than the cinema experience, which is strange considering the film has so many stylistic features. It’s just a shame the storyline lacks the same style.
1. Commentary with Ruben Fleischer
Always good to hear what the director was thinking during each of the scenes and the behind the scenes inputs they have.
2. The Gangland files
The Gangland files is sort of a companion for the film which has all types of fun facts and information about the movie. It all pops up on screen in a square during the movie viewing. There is not only facts that are written in the squares but also short snippets from the cast making comments. I would have just preferred a commentary from the cast over this because I like their inputs into the scenes rather than random facts. But some of them are interesting to read if you’re interested in gangland history and Mickey Cohen information that is. It picks up on different keywords like segregation or central avenue mentioned during the film and tells you about it. It’s interesting at times.
3. The Set Up
This part of the Blu Ray talks about the real life characters the film was based on including Mickey Cohen and the rest of the Gangster Squad. It’s interesting to see how the actual Gangster Squad was in real life and the type of people that were in the squad. It’s also interesting to see how many creative liberties they took with the characters for the movie even the extent of changing O’Mara’s child in the film from a girl to a boy!
This part of the Blu Ray does well the set up the context the film was based on but I didn’t really see the translation from true life characters to Gangster Squad characters. As I said with the acting performances in the review the actors were playing characters rather than real people and this part of the Blu Ray made this clear to me. While Emma Stone’s character Grace wasn’t real at all, but completely made up! It seemed though that even so, Grace as a character was quite developed in the film, while others were actually real people like O’Mara never really developed at all.
4. Short Feature then and now locations
Basically just shows locations from the 1940’s, tells you what happened to them and if they are around still what they look like now.
5. Tough Guys With Style
Talks about the costume design, the outfits and the styling on the film. The style set in this film I think was the best thing about it, without it the film wouldn’t have much. The costume designer and the work she did to make everything match to the characters personalities at the time really did a good job in Gangster Squad.
6. Deleted Scenes
Good, but I could easily tell why each was left out, they all had awkward ending dialogue or didn’t add to the characters story well.
Overall
Some interesting things in this Blu Ray, but you really have to be interested in Gangster Squad and really have to be interested in the time it was set to enjoy it.
