It will be tough to beat director Curtis Hanson’s first rate film noir L.A. Confidential, a feature which netted Kim Basinger an Oscar and propelled the careers of Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce. However, the international trailer for Gangster Squad, which features several seconds of new footage, looks promising, even if the inclusion of a Jay-Z song is simply misplaced and jarring.

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But director Ruben Fleischer loves bending genres to his own aesthetic, as witnessed with his hit feature Zombieland and last year’s overlooked bank robbing comedy 30 Items Or Less. So maybe Sean Penn’s (he plays gangster Mickey Cohen) prosthetic nose looks a bit silly and Ryan Gosling’s dialogue in the trailer is too cool for school, but I’ll give Mr. Fleischer the benefit of the doubt. The premise, which deals with a group of L.A. cops (they’re led by Josh Brolin) battling it out with Cohen and his crime ring, promises tons of gunfire, explosions, police corruption, and, of course, the requisite femme fatale (here played by Emma Stone). The movie opens nationwide September 7th, and tells us what you think of the trailer. Will it top L.A. Confidential? Do you think Fleischer is the smart choice to direct a hard-boiled noir? Does Gangster Squad even qualify as a film noir? Lend us your thoughts!!

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posted by: Greg Srisavasdi (Twitter: @gsrisavasdi )