American Gangster

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May 7, 2008

For as good as it’s supposed to be, and wants to be, it never quite fills the shoes.

You don’t compare every gangster movie to the great ones of the past, but, you have to compare this one to the greats. God Father, Good Fellas, Scarface. With these actors, and the fact that the movie is based on a true story, you would expect this one to be mentioned as the next gangster epic worthy of mention in th gangster film hall of fame. The problem is, it just isn’t great. But its good.

There are two stories going on here. The good guys and the bad guys. The good guy is Ritchie Roberts (Russell Crowe) a good cop in sea of corrupt cops in New York at that time. Ritchie who has become an outcast in his department for turning in a million dollars found in a bust. Now he tries to head a special drug division task force while also trying pass the New York state bar exam. He soon finds out who’s the real king pin in the city and sets his sights on bringing him down. The bad guy (sort of) is Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) who came from nothing as the driver for an old crime boss Bumpy Johnson. When his mentor dies, Frank Lucas moves in and begins his accent. He cant quite make an impact until he decides to go directly to the source to get his heroin. When he starts bringing back pure heroin from Southeast Asia and selling better product for a lower price, that’s when the movie really takes off. It’s good on every level, just never great. It’s slow at some points and over the top at other times. Crowe and Washington don’t really get to square off until much later in the movie and that might have hurt the film too. It’s definitely worth watching, you just want it to be so much more!

Plot: The plot is good. You cant go wrong with the story, based on the true life of Frank Lucas, set in 1970’s New York City. The rise and fall of a drug lord who ruled with an iron hand but was also a business man to the heart. The pace moves kind of slow at times but it manages to keep you interested the entire 2 hours.

Acting: Excellent, everyone in the movie is superb. You don’t even have to mention Crowe and Washington as well as many many others in the supporting cast From Clarence Williams III to Ruby Dee, and Cuba Gooding. There is one extra bright light in the film Josh Brolin. He plays Trupo, a very corrupt NYC cop. Fresh off his brilliant performance in “No country for old men” he is really the bad guy of the film and if he had more time on film, he would have stole the movie.

Final Word:It’s good in every sense of the word, all around. It is a little too glamorous at times for the bad guys but overall very entertaining. It isn’t the best gangster movie ever but it certainly is Watch-to-watch.

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