Film Gangster Squad

[Jabberwocky]

'i like shooting gangsters just as much as the next guy'

Am super-psyched for this (jan 11th iirc). Who's w/ me??

 

[23536]

No more movies that glorify cops! I want movies and TV shows that show cops for the nefarious swine they are.

I'll still watch this and be entertained by it, but I object to its existence. I have a similarly ambivalent attitude to meat being used as food.

Even The Shield--in which the cops were criminals--was cop glorification.

 

[jpgrdnr]

for netflix?

 

[psood0nym]

No more movies that glorify cops! I want movies and TV shows that show cops for the nefarious swine they are.

I'll still watch this and be entertained by it, but I object to its existence. I have a similarly ambivalent attitude to meat being used as food.

Even The Shield--in which the cops were criminals--was cop glorification.

The movie you are suggesting be made seems like a tough sell (maybe the first "Bad Lieutenant"?). Cops tend to behave like D student bully types, sure, but have you ever watched the show "Cops"? That show is representative of cops' social milieu during their daily grind, biased toward entertainment value (drug users in it tend to also beat/cheat/steal/murder). Compared to the popularly exposed criminal representative cops are "glorious," which is to say, given a cop's power, the general popularly exposed criminal representative would be so much worse than a typical cop that there's no way not to sell cops as heroes to general audiences (i.e. there's no way for such a trend as you wish for in movies to happen). I think you and most people understand this, I just mean to say that in my perception cops aren't as glorified in our culture as many seem to think they are. They're only "good" in a relative sense that makes them potentially engaging characters in stories, not glorious.

 

[Wolfmans_BrothEr]

this movie looks like shit

 

[23536]

The movie you are suggesting be made seems like a tough sell (maybe the first "Bad Lieutenant"?). Cops tend to behave like D student bully types, sure, but have you ever watched the show "Cops"? That show is representative of cops' social milieu during their daily grind, biased toward entertainment value (drug users in it tend to also beat/cheat/steal/murder). Compared to the popularly exposed criminal representative cops are "glorious," which is to say, given a cop's power, the general popularly exposed criminal representative would be so much worse than a typical cop that there's no way not to sell cops as heroes to general audiences (i.e. there's no way for such a trend as you wish for in movies to happen). I think you and most people understand this, I just mean to say that in my perception cops aren't as glorified in our culture as many seem to think they are. They're only "good" in a relative sense that makes them potentially engaging characters in stories, not glorious.

Think of it this way: nobody is offended when the Gestapo are portrayed negatively. Nor the Khmer Rouge. So a compelling question would be, is there really much of a difference between these and contemporary American police? Is the difference one of kind, or of degree?

I can think of another example besides Bad Lieutenant. The cops in First Blood were real assholes too. I'm sure there are other examples, but not many.

There is also something to be said about movies that dignify the abrogation of constitutional protections in order to "fight crime". The irony of this is often entirely lost on filmmakers and audiences. As a result, we have a society that villainizes the ACLU!

 

[Jabberwocky]

this movie will almost guaranteed be amazing. and yeah i dislike unfair generalizations- whether it's uncharacteristically good cop shit OR glorifying gangsters.
/says the kid who had reservoir dogs on earlier in the background ;P

 

[L2R]

the cast looks great but the tv commercials all seem very generic.

 

[Jabberwocky]

agreed- i'm not expecting shit for originality in this one, just a tried/true formula with great acting.

 

[DrinksWithEvil]

gona be a miss for sure. who the fuck names a movie "gansger squad" seriously, gona be a hollywood bs gangster movie that appeals to little girls to watch whatever the fuck his name is blow smoke out the barrel of a gun.

 

[jacques11]

Gangster Squad : An awesome movie watched last night online by me with my friends.

 

[Jabberwocky]

^online? camera-quality?
/is all i've found...haven't been in a theater in ages, maybe i should go see this irl ;P

 

[23536]

There's another cop circle jerk movie out on DVD now: End of Watch

 

[Jabberwocky]

how was it?

 

[23536]

I'm gonna watch it tonight. Just finished watching Margin Call and it was surprisingly good.

 

[motherofearth]

Looks like a catastrophe.

 

[Jabberwocky]

^1st time i've seen someone use that word seriously :D

 

[motherofearth]

Shit. I've wasted it.

 

[Max Power]

poll added.

 

[23536]

how was it?

End of Watch is practically a clone of Southland. I've always felt about Southland that it's a bad series that would be better presented as a movie. Some topics deserve the short-story treatment and not the novel treatment.

Having said that, I found it very entertaining, and probably the best cop movie since Demolition Man (although Demolition Man was more realistic!).