As much as we have embraced the noble hero in literature, TV, and film,  we also have gotten to a point where we want our heroes to have a dark side.  One of the arguments for revamping Superman in the comic books in the mid-80s was that he was too much of a “Boy Scout do-gooder.”  Batman was made darker through Frank Miller and Tim Burton.  Even Boba Fett was loved for being the “anti-hero.”

In 1999, Mel Gibson starred in Payback – a movie with the motto, “Get Ready to Root for the Bad Guy.”  In it, Gibson played a bad guy who had certain principles and felt that others needed to live up to agreements.  It was a decent movie that picked up fans after it moved to cable and home video.

Fast forward to 2012…

Donald Westlake, the author who created the character that was the basis for Gibson’s role, had passed away.  After his passing, his wife made a deal for one of his other books to be adapted to film, this time using the true character’s name, Parker.  Hollywood’s current go-to action guy, Jason Statham, was immediately signed and filming began.

Parker is adapted from Westlake’s novel, Flashfire.  Parker is our protagonist and we are introduced to him and his principles during a heist of the Ohio State Fair box office receipts.  What follows is the inevitable betrayal and pursuit of those who did him wrong.  The pacing was kept fairly tight for most of the movie, and most of the casting was good.  Inevitably, though, I found myself seeing similarity between many scenes and those found in Payback; this time, however, the movie wasn’t filmed in washed out blue tones.  The action sequences, while extreme in a couple of instances, were enjoyable and helped keep things moving.

For me, the weakest part of the movie was the involvement of Jennifer Lopez.  The movie’s pacing felt like it ground to a halt each time she had a scene, and the justification for radical character shifts in Lopez was extremely weak.  It really feels like the producers felt they needed a leading female and potential love story, and they shoehorned this in.  To be fair, I have not read the book, so I do not know how this is handled by Westlake.  The one positive is that Lopez did the best she could with what she was given.

My advice:  Worth catching at a matinee or dollar theater; full price if you really want to see a movie since not much is out right now…

Some movies I find hard to resist, regardless of how bad it may turn out.  As a result, I have seen my fair share of winners of losers, particularly in the mob/film noir department.  Just remember, though, for every LA Confidential, there is a Mobsters waiting around the corner.  Bonus points if you know that second movie without looking it up…and no judgment from me (after all I sat through it too).

Gangster Squad is the latest entry into this genre.  While being a work of fiction, it is based on Mickey Cohen’s attempt to “rule” Tinstletown.  Ruben Fleischer of Zombieland fame is given the daunting task tackling this story.  How he ended up with the job is a puzzlement since his only other movie was 30 Seconds Or Less, and that was a disaster.  With GS, Fleischer is given a juicy genre, an amazing cast, and a lot of potential.

Sadly it all feels wasted.

What we are given is a muddled story that seems like it was put together by 2-3 drunk friends after watching a marathon of The Untouchables, LA Confidential, and The Godfather Trilogy.  I can even hear the conversation now….

Friend1:  Dude, you know what we could do… we could take the part from The Untouchables about how he forms the team….

Freind2: Yea! Yea ! But instead of the old guy picking them, let’s have the wife do it.  The audience would never see that coming…

Friend3: And we have to pattern the hero after Elliot Ness. Heck, we could even get the actor to try to imitate Costner…

F1:  You know what else might rock in this pic – have one of the guys steal Mickey’s girl, just like Russell Crowe did in LA Confidential…

F2: Heck yea, but the twist is that his character is more like Kevin Spacey’s – they will never see the imitation…

F3:  And we have to get the guy playing Mickey Cohen to act like DeNiro playing Capone – this is going to be soooo cool…

I wish I was having to write this.  Josh Brolin deserves better; Sean Penn is too good to waste in a pale DeNiro imitation; and Ryan Gosling was not a good pick at all.  Cliché after cliché kills this movie and it is such a shame.  I know that the movie had to undergo some changes after the shootings in Colorado; however all they did was trade one bad scene for one that was equally bad, but not set in a theater.  The amount of bullets fired in this movie versus the amount of people actually hit is ridiculous – like 500 to 1.  That’s as bad as an old episode of The A-Team.

I did enjoy two things in this movie:  Emma Stone (may she get more period work like this; she was made to play an early Hollywood ingénue) and the soundtrack.

My Advice:  Skip the movie and buy the soundtrack – it’s a better way to spend $10.  If you can’t resist the allure of seeing it, just wait for it to hit cable…