By-the-numbers. Hit-or-miss. Elementary. That pretty much describes the story of a squad of Los Angeles cops, led by Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling, striving mightily to bust up the rackets of crime kingpin Mickey Cohen, played in a lather by Sean Penn. Gosling gets the best lines, but in Will Beall’s screenplay – adapted from Paul Lieberman’s book and directed with a few nice touches by TV moveover Ruben Fleischer – even the best lines are not very good. The resemblance to Brian De Palma’s
The Untouchables is so pronounced it’s impossible to believe it was coincidental. You might as well throw in
L.A. Confidential, too. Also with Emma Stone as Cohen’s mistress and Mireille Enos as the Brolin character’s wife (113 min.)
By
Kelly Vance