In 1970s New York City, a detective (Russell Crowe) works to bring down the drug empire of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), a heroin kingpin from Manhattan, who is smuggling the drug into the country on planes returning from the Vietnam War. From director Ridley Scott, based on a true story.A pretty good bit of gritty, storytelling that's just a good ole gangster story with some great actors. Denzel is great as usual, and he's occasionally wicked, but I wish he'd have cranked up the mean side a bit more often. I predicted him toasting a couple of guys that wronged him, but it never happened. Russell Crowe was great as the good guy cop also. I do wish it wouldn't have taken so long for the 2 to share the screen. It was over 2 hours into it before they locked horns.
The story is heavy on dialogue more so than action, but it's never really boring. It's long but I wasn't glancing at my watch at all with the captivating story unfolding with thick suspense. It's intelligent, well-made and entertaining. Having said all those good thing... I think it's a really good movie that falls short of a classic, due to ending that left me a little wanting.
Not a tale we haven't heard before either. Think Scarface and Blow meets New Jack City... minus most of the violence of Scarface and big payoff at the end.
8/10
2 comments:
This one is still on our list to go see...I know it will be good! I agree that Denzel doesn't disappoint.
American Gangster reminds me yet again what a versatile actor Russel Crowe is… plus Ridley Scott deftly leads us into loving the bad guy and disliking the good guy only to flip that around by the end of the movie... very clever.
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