''Gangster Land'' (also titled ''In the Absence of Good Men'') is a 2017 American action crime drama film directed by Timothy Woodward Jr. and starring

Sean Faris Sean Faris (born March 25, 1982) is an American actor and model. He is known for his roles as Jake Tyler in ''Never Back Down'', Kyo Kusanagi in ''The King of Fighters'', and Rick Penning in ''Forever Strong''. He also played Tom in '' Ghost Ma ...

Milo Gibson Milo Gibson (born November 16, 1990) is an Australian actor. He is the son of Mel Gibson. He is known for his roles in '' All the Devil's Men'', '' Breaking & Exiting'', '' Gangster Land'', and '' Hacksaw Ridge''. Biography Gibson was born in A ...

Jason Patric Jason Patric (born June 17, 1966) is an American film, television and stage actor. He is known for his roles in films such as ''The Lost Boys'', ''Rush (1991 film), Rush'', ''Sleepers (film), Sleepers'', ''Geronimo: An American Legend'', ''Your ...

Jamie-Lynn Sigler Jamie-Lynn Sigler (born May 15, 1981) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Meadow Soprano on the HBO series ''The Sopranos''. Early life Jamie-Lynn Sigler was born in Jericho, New York, on May 15, 1981, the daughter of Ste ...

and

Peter Facinelli Peter Facinelli (born November 26, 1973) is an American actor and film and television producer. He starred as Donovan "Van" Ray on the Fox series '' Fastlane'' from 2002 to 2003. He played Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the film adaptations of the ''Tw ...

Plot

The film tells the story of Al Capone's rise in the Chicago underworld from the perspective of

Jack McGurn Jack "Machine Gun Jack" McGurn (born Vincenzo Antonio Gibaldi; ; July 2, 1902 – February 15, 1936) was a Sicilian-American boxer, mobster, and eventually a made man and caporegime in Al Capone's Chicago Outfit. Early life McGurn was born ...

. McGurn, the successful amateur boxer, joins the Italian Mafia after the murder of his father and rises within the organization together with his friend Al Capone. Business flourishes, but the Italians and the Irish mafia around Dean "Dion" O'Banion and George "Bugs" Moran begin a fierce battle for criminal supremacy in the Chicago underworld, culminating in the so-called

Saint Valentine's Day Massacre The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang that occurred on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park, Chicago garage on the morning of February 14, ...

Cast

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...

as Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn *

as Detective Reed *

as Lulu Rolfe *

as George "Bugs" Moran *

Mark Rolston Mark Rolston (born December 7, 1956) is an American character actor, known for his supporting roles in popular films such as ''Aliens'', ''Lethal Weapon 2'', ''The Shawshank Redemption'', ''The Departed'' and the ''Saw'' film series, as well as G ...

as Dean "Dion" O'Bannion *

Michael Paré Michael Kevin Paré (born October 9, 1958) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' (1983), '' Streets of Fire'' (1984), and '' The Philadelphia Experiment'' (1984), and on the series ''Starhun ...

as O'Connor *

Sean Kanan Sean Kanan () Perelman; born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, producer, and author, best known for his portrayals of Mike Barnes (in ''The Karate Kid Part III'' and ''Cobra Kai''), A. J. Quartermaine (on ''General Hospital''), and Deacon ...

as Detective Boyle *

Al Sapienza Al Sapienza is an American actor who has had numerous roles in television, stage and film productions. He is best known for his role as Mikey Palmice on the HBO series ''The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American crime drama television ...

as Giovanni "Johnny" Torrio * Tom Noga as Angelo Demory * Don Harvey as Detective Landa * Jean Kauffman as Josephine Demory * Jason Brooks as Agent Wilson * Ronnie Kerr as Franklin "Frank" Rio * Drake Andrew as

John Scalise John Scalise (born Giovanni Scalise, 1900, Castelvetrano, Sicily – May 7, 1929, Chicago) was an American organized crime figure of the early 20th century and, with partner Albert Anselmi, was one of the Chicago Outfit's most successful hitmen ...

* Ryan Kiser as

Peter Gusenberg Peter Gusenberg a.k.a. "''Goosey''" (September 22, 1888 – February 14, 1929) and his brother Frank were German-American contract killers and members of Chicago's North Side Gang, the main rival to the Chicago Outfit. Peter Gusenberg parti ...

* Louis Fasanaro as Albert Anselmi * Danny Hansen as

Frank Gusenberg Frank Gusenberg (October 11, 1893 – February 14, 1929) was an American contract killer and a victim of the Saint Valentine's Day massacre in Chicago, Illinois. Early life Born in Lakeview, Chicago, Gusenberg was the second oldest of thr ...

* Kevin Donovan as Ben Feldman

Production

In June 14, 2017, it was announced that Jason Patric joined the cast of the film.

Release

The film was released in theaters and on VOD on December 1, 2017.

Reception

The film has a 0% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 5 reviews. Dennis Harvey of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' gave the film a negative review and wrote, "Given the gradually upticking arc of his opuses’

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

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." ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' also gave the film a negative review and wrote, "Respectable period production values and some recognizable castmembers are no substitute for imagination in this flat crime flick, which steals freely from its predecessors but offers none of their guilty-pleasure thrills." Noel Murray of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' gave a negative review and wrote, "The ideal audience for ''Gangster Land'' would be someone who’s never seen ''

The Untouchables Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to: American history * Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness * ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley * ''The U ...

'' or ''

Boardwalk Empire ''Boardwalk Empire'' is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter and broadcast on the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and ...

'' … or, heck, even ''

Guys and Dolls ''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also bo ...

'' or ''

Bugsy Malone ''Bugsy Malone'' is a 1976 gangster musical comedy film written and directed by Alan Parker (in his feature film directorial debut). A co-production of United States and United Kingdom, it features an ensemble cast, featuring only child actors ...

''."

References

External links

* * {{Timothy Woodward Jr. 2017 films 2010s crime drama films American crime drama films American crime thriller films Films about Al Capone 2010s English-language films Films directed by Timothy Woodward Jr. 2010s American films