Gangster Squad (2013)

Every pinstripe suit in Gangster Squad is doing better work than the script. The suits are sharp, the cars gleam, the nightclubs glow, and the script is a stack of tough-guy lines you’ve heard in every crime film ever made. Sean Penn plays Mickey Cohen as a snarling cartoon under heavy makeup, barking threats like he’s trying to reach the back row. The squad is assembled like a heist crew, one specialty each, and most of them never get past their introduction. The shootouts are tommy guns spraying in slow motion, and nobody ever stops to reload. Ryan Gosling is the bright spot. He gives Jerry a soft, odd voice and a lazy charm, and his scenes with Emma Stone crackle, even though the movie keeps cutting away from them. It made $105.2 million worldwide on a reported $60 to $75 million. A 4.3 because it looks like a classic and talks like a parody. $746 says you start calling your group chat the squad this week and nobody plays along.

What works: Gorgeous suits, cars and nightclubs, and Gosling and Stone’s easy chemistry whenever the movie lets them share a scene.

What doesn’t: Penn’s villain is a shouting cartoon, the squad members are one-note, and the shootouts are weightless slow-motion noise.

Who it’s for: Grown-ups who love period costumes and big hats and don’t need the story to hold together.