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1949 Los Angeles, a Jewish mobster by the name of Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) was looking to stake his claim on the Wild West disregarding the pressures of the mafia in Chicago and New York. Wild eyed and raw with power Cohen seemed unstoppable, until what seemed like the last honest police chief, Chief Parker (Nick Nolte), put a plan into action– an assembly of elite but honest and tough cops to secretly take down Cohen’s operations piece by piece. Headed up by Sgt. O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and his friend Sgt. Wooters (Ryan Gosling), this gangster squad would have to work fast and dangerously to make their mark, not all would survive, and what about the dame in distress (Emma Stone)? Crossed somewhere between Dick Tracy, Bugsy, and Tombstone, Gangster Squad serves as a mish mosh of untimely art deco, zuit suit riot-esque Hollywood confusion. With throwbacks to the gangster films of days gone by, it’s a little hard to take this “historically inspired” film terribly seriously. Cheese whiz good guy rhetoric rings throughout, and the overall story reads like a predictable comic book. Still, if you’re up for a mindless popcorn chomper, this may have some legs…maybe broken at the knees, but still legs. Gangster Squad is rated R.