“Gangster Squad” may have its share of issues but it has enough hard-hitting action to make it a relatively fun ride brought to us by director Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”). I’m surprised by the overwhelmingly negative reception this film has received from fellow film critics.

In “Gangster Squad”, a team of tough police officers led by Sergeant John O’Mara (Josh Brolin “Men In Black III”, “The Goonies”) are assembled to go without badges and without rules to stop the vicious crime boss Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn “Mystic River”, “Milk”) from taking over the city of Los Angeles. It isn’t going to be easy and it isn’t going to be pretty.

Josh Brolin does a decent job as Sergeant O’Mara. Ryan Gosling (“Driven”) is truly awful in this film as Sergeant Jerry Wooters. I liked Robert Patrick (“Terminator 2: Judgement Day”) in it but sadly I thought his role was far too small. Sean Penn’s character was just terribly written and I thought the make-up made him seem like he was part of that “Dick Tracy” movie. Emma Stone (“Easy A”) is okay in the film but she’s nothing special. I liked how they made these characters seem like they were in an old gangster movie.

“Gangster Squad” is a violent movie but it is more stylized than graphic, which I really liked. If you feel your life needs some more Tommy gun action then you’ll probably want to check out this movie for the shootout scenes alone but others will want to see it for its great look. If you enjoyed “The Untouchables” (like me) then this is pretty much the same thing. Like I said I’m very surprised at the fact this movie hasn’t gone down well with the critics because for what it is it is enjoyable. Not an intellectual picture by any means but good old-fashioned fun.