It's not much more than pulpy, violent gangster entertainment, but Gangster Squad is a blending of old timey conventions with modern filmmaking techniques that makes for major studio B-movie goodness that should be praised rather than condemned.
Ostensibly a cross between Inside Man and The Negotiator with a healthy dose of Michael Bay style ridiculousness, Man on a Ledge might be the most fun to be had in cinemas this January. It’s an unabashed crowd pleaser that really doesn’t care that it doesn’t make an iota of logical sense.
It might seem hard to believe that the guy who made the remakes of Cheaper by the Dozen and The Pink Panther got something incredibly right, but he honestly knocks his latest film, Real Steel, out of the park. Shawn Levy gets right what Michael Bay has gotten wrong over the course of three straight Transformers films. Real Steel is a gratifying and visually stylish blend of high end special effects and a lowbrow, meat-headed story. Most importantly, Levy and his team of writers keep things simple by applying the standard sports movie template to a film about robots beating the snot out of each other.
