Movie Trailer Showdown – LAWLESS Vs. GANGSTER SQUAD

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The Complex handicaps this fall’s tommy-gun crime flicks.

From a hype-cranking standpoint, the summer is pretty much over.  In a couple of weeks, the last big blockbuster card will have been laid on the table with the release of The Dark Knight Rises.  Studios are slowly transitioning toward their fall/winter releases, which often bring about the emergence of some tasty crime flicks.  This year, two major period pieces, Lawless and Gangster Squad, will be released a week apart, and it is unlikely that both of them will be major hits.

That’s right, folks.  Something’s gotta give between these two heavyweights, and today the Complex will utilize the latest trailer for each film to peer into the collective American psyche and determine which picture will emerge victorious at the fall box office.  Or, at the very least, we will watch both trailers.

First, the latest trailer for Lawless, released earlier this week:

There’s a lot to like here.  The film boasts a very strong cast (as well as Shia LeBeouf), and a strong taste of the backwoods noir that the kids love so much these days.  I don’t dig the trailer so much, as it seems to place a greater emphasis on big booms than it does on the exploration of the criminal mind.  Yeah, I said it.  And I don’t mind if you put Shia in your movie, but don’t lead with the fucking guy.  Trust me, LeBeouf is not a draw.  His roles in blockbuster films over the past decade have been incidental rather than instrumental.  Nobody gives a shit.

Still, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce make for a pretty captivating cast, worthy of any film buff’s undivided attention.

Now a look at the new Gangster Squad clip, released Tuesday:

http://youtu.be/gqXOPanbyCs

Okay, so at least in terms of casting, this isn’t really even a fair fight.  Ryan Gosling as a sweet-talking simpleton?  Sean Penn as a hyper, ultra-tempramental crime boss?  Nick Nolte with the weight of the City of Angels on his shoulders?  The fucking T-1000?  What the hell else do you want, blood?

Okay, done.

Seriously, there’s also a lot to like here.  I’m a much bigger fan of the American crime scene of the ’40s and ’50s, particularly in Los Angeles, than I am of the Prohibition-era bootlegging depicted in Lawless, so there’s a bit of a bias there.

The films’ directors boast a similar level of experience on totally different types of films, with Ruben Fleischer’s (Gangster Squad) work in the comedy realm drawing much more interest from yours truly.  John Hillcoat (Lawless) has put some time in as well, having adapted Cormac McCarthy’s The Road into a film that took so long to roll out into theaters that nobody even noticed when it arrived.

I’m giving Gangster Squad a big edge in the battle to earn your hardboiled dollar this fall, based upon what we’ve seen so far.  The showdown will begin August 29th with the release of Lawless, with Gangster Squad set for release on September 7th.