Film Review: ‘Gangster Land’
1920s Chicago lives again in the Timothy Woodward Jr.'s bullet-riddled crime drama.
By Dennis Harvey
Dennis Harvey
Film Critic
- ‘Scrap’ Review: An Astute Tale of a Slipping-Down Life Amid Problematic Family Dynamics 1 day ago
- ‘Young Werther’ Review: Suitor or Stalker? This Canadian Comedy’s Blindly Narcissistic Hero Is Both 2 days ago
- ‘The Invisible Raptor’ Review: A See-Through Spoof of ‘Jurassic’-Style Adventures Mostly Goes for Low Jinks 1 week ago
Timothy Woodward Jr . was born too late. Clearly the kind of enterprise that enabled this actor-turned-director to make no less than 13 features in the last five years for his own production company would’ve been ideally deployed in a “golden age” Poverty Row studio. And had they too existed back then, such reduced former A-listers as Tom Sizemore, Dolph Lundgren, Kris Kristofferson and Denise Richards probably still would have sooner or later found themselves toiling in Woodward Jr.’s joints, all low-budget actioners of one sort or another.
His latest is ambitious in the sense of being a period piece, something it pulls off with reasonable, resourceful aplomb even if the script (among other things) is too generic to result in anything more memorable than a passable time-filler. “Gangster Land” is not exactly good. But at least it’s farther along on the road to good than such prior Status Media efforts as “Gnome Alone” and the mysteriously all-caps “WEAPONIZED.” Given the gradually upticking arc of his opuses’ IMDb ratings to date, Woodward should finally score a 6 out of 10 sometime next year. He’s got the perspiration part down; surely inspiration can’t hold out much longer.
Related Stories
AI Adoption Among Entertainment Decision Makers: Survey Data
Warner Bros. Discovery Sells MotorTrend Group to Hearst
Jack ( Sean Faris ) is a nice Italian boy in 1922 Chicago, the son of immigrant shopkeepers. Trying to make it as a pugilist, his professional ring debut attracts attention from no less than Al Capone ( Milo Gibson ), at this stage just a subordinate working for Johnny Torrio (Al Sapienza). The latter’s Italian-American crime organization is engaged in bitter rivalry with Dion O’Banion’s (Mark Rolston) Irish-American one, particularly around bootlegging and booze smuggling in these early years of Prohibition.
Popular on Variety
Jack’s reluctant initial willingness to “make some real money” working on the wrong side of the law turns much more vengefully fervent when rival goons kill his father, who’s iced as a “competitor” for his strictly small-time winemaking. Capone also starts playing rougher — and taking over his boss’ role — once a bogus truce negotiated by O’Banion lands Torrio in prison. As turf wars tear up the town, Jack’s status rises, and he finds love with flapper chorus girl Lulu (Jamie Lynn-Sigler of “The Sopranos”). He just might achieve a happily-ever-after, albeit only if he can avoid the hail of tommy-gun bullets that steadily reduce the screen population here.
There’s plenty of violence in “Gangster Land,” though Woodward Jr. evinces no particular flair for staging it, so the rub-outs eventually grow monotonous. To a point, the film is carried along tolerably enough by brisk pacing and a decent overall look, even if the period flavor is often more approximate than precise, with good choice of locations doing most of the heavy lifting.
What ultimately keeps “Land” from rising above mediocrity — even to the level of guilty pleasure — is that Ian Patrick Williams’ screenplay is such a stock compilation of gangster tropes, the film has little chance of developing a personality all its own. Nor does the director’s handling of an uneven but mostly adequate cast encourage any distinctive interpretations, whether in the entirely fictive roles or those based on real-life figures. A bloody criminal-world shoot-em-up like this ought to at least offer the chance for some enjoyable scenery chewing. But nary an idiosyncratic moment surfaces, despite the employment opportunities provided for Jason Patric, Peter Facinelli, Michael Pare and others in supporting turns. With all the characters feeling like routine archetypes, there’s not much at stake emotionally, and a tragic epilogue proves little more than shrug-inducing.
Still, it remains impressive that anyone should attempt a full-dress “Untouchables”-type period bullet ballet on modest means. Woodward Jr. and company have moxie — they just need to take more stylistic and conceptual risks to kick their love of genre cinema onto a plane of homage that’s less blatantly imitative.
Reviewed online, San Francisco, Nov. 30, 2017. Running time: 88 MIN.
- Production: A Cinedigm release of a Cinedigm presentation of a Status Media & Entertainment production in association with Bondit and Kalispel Films. Producers: Timothy Woodward Jr., Lauren de Normandie, Terence Sims. James Cullen Bressack, Jarrett Furst. Executive producers: Matthew Helderman, Luke Taylor, Joe Listhaus, Patrick DePeters, Kirk Shaw, Drew Ryce, James Shavick.
- Crew: Director: Timothy Woodward Jr. Screenplay: Ian Patrick Williams. Camera (color, widescreen, HD): Pablo Diaz. Editor: Paul Covington. Music: Samuel Joseph Smythe.
- With: Sean Faris, Milo Gibson, Jason Patric, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Peter Facinelli, Mark Rolston, Al Sapienza, Tom Noga, Don Harvey, Jean Kauffman, Michael Pare, Louis Fasanaro, Drake Andrew, Ryan Kiser, Danny Hansen, Kevin Donovan.
More from Variety
‘The Sticky’ Star Margo Martindale on ‘Playing Psycho’ to Defy the ‘Invisibility of the Older Woman’ in the Comic Maple Syrup Heist Thriller
Why Xbox’s ‘Indiana Jones’ Is Just What the Video Game Industry Needs to Salvage 2024
‘Brilliant Minds’ Star Teddy Sears on the Chemistry Between Nichols and Wolf: ‘These Two Can’t Keep Their Hands Off Each Other’
‘Crime Scene Kitchen’ Season 3 Winners on the Chocolate Mistake That Almost Cost Them the $100,000 Grand Prize
Celebrity AI: Using Talent Digital Replicas
‘Matlock’ Boss on Matty’s Quest to Avenge Daughter’s Opioid Death and Almost Getting Busted: ‘It Gets Even More Difficult for Her’
More from our brands, waylon wyatt is putting his own spin on red dirt — while still in english class.
A Real Estate Tech Pioneer’s San Francisco Live-Work Loft Lists for $3.2 Million
NBA Cup Gives Next Class of Contenders Runway to Fly
The Best Loofahs and Body Scrubbers, According to Dermatologists
Saturday Night’s Main Event: How to Watch Tonight’s WWE Primetime Special Online
- Cast & crew
- User reviews
Gangster Land
A very high level and brief history of how "Machine Gun Jack McGurn" rose from amateur boxer to second in command of Al Capone's criminal empire. A very high level and brief history of how "Machine Gun Jack McGurn" rose from amateur boxer to second in command of Al Capone's criminal empire. A very high level and brief history of how "Machine Gun Jack McGurn" rose from amateur boxer to second in command of Al Capone's criminal empire.
- Timothy Woodward Jr.
- Ian Patrick Williams
- Milo Gibson
- Joe_Machado
- 21 User reviews
- 11 Critic reviews
Top cast 70
- Jack McGurn
- Detective Reed
- George 'Bugs' Moran
- Dion O'Banion
- O'Connor
- Detective Boyle
- Johnny Torrio
- Anthony Bascone
- Giovanni Scalise
- North Side Mobster
- Detective Randall
- Agent McConnell
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
More like this
Did you know
- Trivia Men of this era almost never wore their Hats inside of a building. It was considered rude and disrespectful to do so.
- Goofs There is a raid on a brewery by federal agents identifying themselves as "FBI". The term "Federal Bureau of Investigation" did not come to be used until 1935, which was years after the raid depicted in the film took place.
User reviews 21
- robertd-83717
- May 12, 2019
- How long is Gangster Land? Powered by Alexa
- December 1, 2017 (United States)
- United States
- In the Absence of Good Men
- Status Media & Entertainment
- BondIt Media Capital
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- $5,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime 1 hour 53 minutes
Related news
Contribute to this page.
- See more gaps
- Learn more about contributing
More to explore
Recently viewed.
IMAGES
VIDEO