GANGSTER SQUAD **

The first thing that hits you about "Gangster Squad" is just how terrific it looks. This probably isn't how Los Angeles looked in 1949 but this is how LA looked in the pages of Life Magazine; "Gangster Squad" is done up to the nines and is dressed to kill. It's said to be inspired by real events and it's a kind of LA version of "The Untouchables"with an LA gangster named Mickey Cohen standing in for Al Capone. Cohen is a deliriously over-the-top Sean Penn. The Elliot Ness figure is Josh Brolin but as usual it's Ryan Gosling who steals the movie as an insolent, hot-headed young cop. It's certainly not very original and the violence is often so excessive as to be positively cartoonish. The critics didn't like it and the public didn't rush to it either but it's very enjoyable and, like I said, it looks amazing, (the DoP is Dion Beebe; the principal designer, Maher Ahmad).