Gangster Squad (2013)

WARNING: THIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

As mobster movies go, the first five minutes of this one should set this off as one of the best I’ve seen in my movie-loving years. A stylish monologue is where we meet our main characters, and as Sean Penn beats a punch bag and looks thuggishly into the camera we hear Josh Brolin recount his days in the war and the plight of the good man against the bad. All of this within the first three minutes, but the real action begins as we witness the brutish criminals led by Italian-American-accented Penn tear a guy in half as he’s chained between two vehicles. With this he declares ‘Mickey Cohen owns Los Angeles now’, and boy can you not help but believe him. That is, of course, until John O’Mara (Brolin), the vigilante reluctant-hero of the piece enters the story and we see the damage he can do, when so inclined. This involves beating senseless a couple of scumbag criminals and sticking another’s hand between the floor and the elevator shaft – cue horrible scream and a ‘this-shit-just-got-real’ moment. Suddenly the audience is left wondering if Mickey Cohen does own Los Angeles, or if the real fight has just begun… (which, considering it’s a nearly-two-hour-long film, is a fairly good assumption to make)?

Here we have our rough-round-the-edges Gangster Squad. From L-R: Giovanni Ribisi, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Michael Pena and Robert Patrick. 

As Cohen's influence over Los Angeles grows and seeps into law officials who love their “whores” just a little too much, O’Mara, with the prodding of the chief of the LAPD who tells him rather inspiringly that he “want[s] to talk about the war for the soul of Los Angeles”, takes it upon himself to bring together a rag-tag team of vigilantes whose sole aim is to drive Cohen out of LA before he can “own the West” through the central book, which controls all western gambling and puts Cohen in a pretty sweet position both in terms of money, prestige, and position on the law vs. criminals scale. All of this happens against the backdrop of personal relationships, which play a big part in the characters decisions and motivations – namely that of Brolin and his heavily pregnant wife, as well as Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, whose on-screen chemistry oozes sex-appeal.

Of course, with the havoc the ‘gangster squad’ are wreaking, while not actually claiming any monetary benefits, it’s not long before Cohen figures out that the ‘gang war’ isn't actually a gang war, but a war against those in the law who have grown sick of crime seeping into everyday society. With this Cohen sets our hero-vigilantes up by using there spyware equipment against them and telling them he has a high-stakes trade in China-town. Gosling’s character, Jerry, quickly realizes after Stone’s life is threatened by a couple of Cohen’s lackeys and saves the day, but not without a heavy price for the vigilante-gangster-squad and their loved ones.

Gosling and Stone ooze romantic chemistry in each and every scene and their individual sex-appeal make them the perfect onscreen couple. Who couldn't help but fall for their combined charm in this film. 

Suddenly we make our way to the bloody-climax, thanks to the promise of a testimony from Gracey (Stone), who witnessed Cohen savagely murder one of the good guys making a stand against the face of his tyranny. With warrant in hand the remaining gangster squad make it to Cohen’s hideout, a swanky hotel laden with Cohen’s men. With gun-toting ferocity and an epic face-off between O’Mara and Penn the final minutes of gangster squad rear, and we are faced with the bloody and raw remnants of the antagonist and protagonist as they face off in a Tybalt-and-Mercutio-in-the-style-of-Lurhman battle. Its bloody, its raw, it’s ferocious. It’s an incredible final act.

Though the mobster action and gruesome style death in the film are plentiful and stylistically drawn, it is the emotion and heart in this film that have the greatest impact. After all, it is for the “soul” of their home that the gangster squad risk their lives, and this is most definitely where the strength of this film lies. Particular praise must be paid to Gosling, whose soul and heart counteracts with Brolin’s brain and brawn perfectly. Each character comes to life in the hands of this talented cast and the fierce madness of Penn is astounding, echoing his phenomenal performance in Mystic River.

Surely this film will become a classic of its genre, not just for the stellar cast and awesome style, not to mention the pack-a-punch one-liners (some seriously brilliant ones in this movie people), but for the heart behind the awesomely-action-packed story of mobster-brawn against heart-driven vigilante justice.

Best line: (there's almost too many to choose from, but this is definitely memorable, and seems to sums up the film...)

Mickey Cohen: Los Angeles is my fucking destiny, you motherfucker!

To cut a long story short...
Would I recommend this? Yes. A film ramblers star rating?

That's it for now folks...

Iron Man 3 (2013)

As somewhat of a Marvel connoisseur in recent years I feel it my obligation to give the down-low on Marvels most recent venture. The film could have been somewhat of an anti-climax in light of its most recent venture, The Avengers Assemble, yet bringing back the solo adventure in style is the father of the enterprise, the millionaire philanthropist playboy Tony Stark. Who can’t love this guy?

Starting off with your typical trip down memory lane we see a younger looking Stark seducing English-rose and botanist-genius Rebecca Hall while Guy Pearce, playing bad guy Aldrich Killian, comes up all fan-struck-geek and makes a bit of an arse of himself in his desperation to please and impress Stark with his work. Fast forward and we now see Stark comfortably settled with long-term love Pepper Potts and playing about with his many suits; cue hilarious scene where he summons the parts of his suit and they aggressively attach themselves to him while he tries to dodge the lethal objects. Then, of course, we meet our bad guy again, who clearly has a bit of a thing for Pepper Potts as he tries to impress her with his brain. Yep, a super enlargement of his brain. Romantic, huh?! (Pfftt…)

To cut a long story short, Starks long-time bodyguard is suspicious of Pearce and makes it his mission to follow him and his bodyguard, which results in an explosion and the bodyguard ending up in a coma while Stark worries in the hospital room and makes sure Downton Abbey is showing on the TV-screen, because obviously this is his bodyguards guilty pleasure, and we all want to know how Lady Sybil is going to end up with her chauffer, don’t we?! Stark isn’t happy that his friend has fallen victim to this attack, and obviously, in all of his I’m-a-superhero-and-I’m-gonna-kick-your-ass heroism he threatens the Mandarin (played by a hilarious football-loving-cockney-Ben Kingsley) who, by the way, is a public front for real baddy Killian.

This scene is truly epic and shows us just how far Stark will go to protect his long-term-love Pepper Potts. 

This results in Starks house being bombarded in a seriously bad-ass helicopter scene and Potts donning the Iron Man suit while Stark tries to escape his crumbling mansion. Fast-forward somewhat and we see Stark escape whilst making a just lovely connection with fatherless-child-turned-Starks-personal-saviour, who helps Stark overcome his anxiety attacks after the New York fiasco in which Stark nearly met his maker, and also helps Stark figure out that the real bad guy is Killian and he only has about 48 hours to save both the President and his true-love Pepper.

This results in a butt-load of action scenes which I don’t have the patience to recall, although I can assure you that they are seriously brilliant and showcase Stark in all of his Iron Man glory. As Stark saves the day and shows his devotion to Pepper by exploding all of his Iron Man suits and removing that silver-thingy in the middle of his chest (I’m sorry, I know it’s not called silver-thingy, but I can’t remember its real name. I am a true Marvel fan, I swear!) We come to the end of the Iron Man trilogy. And man, what a trilogy it was.

You've got to love the man behind it all - Stan Lee. He does a brief yet very funny cameo in the latest Iron Man installment. 

Also, yes, there is a sneaky after bit, as there always is in the Marvel films, and yes, there is another hilarious Stan Lee cameo. Gotta love that guy and his willingness to look like an idiot in these films. With that, we are left with the tantalising promise that ‘Tony Stark will return’ – which afforded an over-enthusiastic scream from myself and the possibility that might see an Iron Man 4. Here’s hoping…

Best line: (I had a tough time deciding here, and I ended up going with two, both of which sum up the themes prevalent within the film...)

#1 Tony Stark: Dads leave. No need to be such a pussy about it. (No need to spell it out I guess, but this film is extremely comedic and this line was just one gem out of many - if you don't mind the language that is.)

#2 Tony Stark: Things are different now, I have to protect the one thing I can't live without. That's you. (And at the heart of the film lies the compassion and sincerity - I always knew Stark had it in him *wipes tear*)

To cut a long story short...
Would I recommend th

is? If your a marvel fan, then absolutely YES. Though even a non-marvel-initiated could see this and be happy, I think. 

A film ramblers star rating? 

That's it for now folks...

Some Like It Hot (1959)

IMDb Top 250 Ranking - #88

As a self-proclaimed film enthusiast it may shock some when I confess that prior to about two days ago I had never seen either a Marilyn Monroe film or, as hailed by some, the greatest American comedy in film history. I admit that, now my eyes have been exposed to the pure brilliance of this screwball film, I’m a little shocked too. How is it possible? But, never fear, my bordering-on-sinful neglect of this gem is a thing of the past. In fact I may now abuse the rights of my eyes and my sanity by watching and re-watching this until the disc is hot from overuse and the TV bill has been left unpaid (just kidding, I don’t even own a TV).

Now with my overly-enthusiastic lamentation of this neglect firmly in the past, I can get onto the real business. What was it like? Was Monroe any good? Do I secretly wish Daphne was my best friend and not in fact a boy pretending to be a suspiciously-large-shouldered-girl? Never fear, these questions will be answered in time and with far too many adjectives in between.

Firstly though, I’m gonna go old-school with you and begin my thoughts for the film at the beginning. I’m sorry if this bores you, I guess I’m a stickler for tradition (maybe when I get a little better at this whole blogging thing I’ll mix it up and tell you what I thought of the end…at the beginning…?).

So we start with your classic car chase, except unlike the car chases of the 21st century which increasingly feature scantily-clad women and men with sweaty shirts and day-old stubble, this one felt bare, stripped down. No dramatics, well apart from the shooting guns that is. Two cars, one carrying away an Italian mob and the other a group of seventy-year-old policemen desperately looking for an arrest. This is clearly important, as any opening scene would be. The reason for its importance clearly marking the introduction of the films antagonists – those grey-haired mobsters just don’t know when to give up, do they? 

Fast-forward about fifteen minutes into the movie (yeah, just gonna skip over when we first meet our protagonists, this isn't a recap after all) and we see these same mobsters shooting what appear to be a rival gang while the protagonists witness in a corner clutching their life-saving instruments. Then the fun begins. We see our protagonists, Jerry and Joe or ‘Daphne’ and ‘Josephine’ as there referred to for much of the film, high-tail it out of there just in time, narrowly avoiding your classic ‘get-rid-of-the-witness’ murder. This is where the dressing up as women, falling in lust with Monroe and travelling to Florida to marry wrinkly millionaires comes in. However I think I’ll dispense with the description and go straight ahead with the ‘Well-was-it-any-good?’ question.

One of the best scenes of the film, here Jack Lemmon's character can be seen as the reluctant-romancer/seducer of millionaire nonce Osgood (played by Joe E. Brown).

To put it short, yes. Monroe is as expected, slightly airhead-y and typically gorgeous in that old-Hollywood ‘oh-I’m-such-a-damsel’ sort of way. The real shining star of the movie was, for me, Jack Lemmon, who played Jerry/Daphne. This man is a genius for comic timing and his hyperbolic femininity is both cringe-worthy and hilarious. His relationship with the millionaire is a strange one and, even though it was set and filmed in the 1950s, the film seemed awfully tolerant of the idea of a same sex relationship. But, then again, maybe I’m being hopeful and naive, after all the relationship is never treated with even an ounce of seriousness.

All in all, yes, it is definitely the king of comedies and something any avid film-goer should see. Highlights include the elicit train party held by ‘Daphne’ in her 5-by-5 room and the chase scene and escape at the end. Because who doesn't love it when the good guy beats the bad?!

Best line: 
Daphne: Osgood, I'm gonna level with you, I can't marry you...I'm a man!

Osgood: Well, nobody's perfect...

To cut a long story short... 
Would I recommend this? Yes, especially if you appreciate a good black and white film and want to see where comedy found its roots (FYI, this is basically the original 'White Chicks', so if you've seen and loved that, chances are your going to like this). A film ramblers star rating? 

That's it for now folks...