Four Stars, Movie Reviews - Written by trench on Saturday, November 17, 2007 5:17 - 7 Comments
American Gangster (Theaters)
When you have a film produced by Ridley Scott combined with two Academy Award winning actors, its only natural to assume that the film’s success would be guaranteed.
American Gangster certainly did not disappoint me. Although it would be unreasonable to compare this film to classics such as The Godfather or Scarface, I thought it was well executed film, and that both Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe put on Oscar winning type performances.
There were some flaws in the film and parts that could have been omitted to make the movie a bit shorter (the custody battle was one example), but overall the pace of the film was good as was its character development. Personally, I thought it lacked some intensity and action, but I’m guessing that more action would mean less realism, which ultimately may have taken away from the film’s accuracy of the life of Frank Lucas.
Synopsis:
Nobody used to notice Frank Lucas, the quiet driver to one of the inner city’s leading black crime bosses. But when his boss suddenly dies, Frank exploits the opening in the power structure to build his own empire and create his own version of the American Dream. Through ingenuity and a strict business ethic, he comes to rule the inner-city drug trade, flooding the streets with a purer product at a better price. Lucas outplays all of the leading crime syndicates and becomes not only one of the city’s mainline corrupters, but part of its circle of legit civic superstars.
Richie Roberts is an outcast cop close enough to the streets to feel a shift of control in the drug underworld. Roberts believes someone is climbing the rungs above the known Mafia families and starts to suspect that a black power player has come from nowhere to dominate the scene. Both Lucas and Roberts share a rigorous ethical code that sets them apart from their own colleagues, making them lone figures on opposite sides of the law. The destinies of these two men will become intertwined as they approach a confrontation where only one of them can come out on top.
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7 Comments
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Hey loved your review. I did some research on the real Frank Lucas and put it on my blog. It’s also on Digg.
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[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt [IMG american_gangster_ver3]When you have a film produced by Ridley Scott combined with two Academy Award winning actors, its only natural to assume that the film’s success would be guaranteed. American Gangster certainly did not disappoint me. Although it would be unreasonable to compare this film to classics such as The Godfather or Scarface, I thought it was well executed film, and that both Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe put on Oscar winning type performances. There were some flaws [...]
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I loved this movie (saw it 3x @ theatres).
Your site’s design reminds me of a newspaper’s website. ;)
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Being the most excellent wifey who ever wifed - I sent my husband to go see this alone because I have low tolerance for movies that last longer than 1hr and 45 minutes. He came back pretty much in love but he’s a Denzel fan. Maybe I’ll try to catch it before it’s out of theaters.
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The only people that will be disappointed are those expecting it to be a Scarface type of gangster movie. They could have souped it up with extra intense action scenes sprinkled throughout the film, but I’ll take faithfulness to the story and character development any day.
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I was intrigued about this movie, though I’ll admit that it was the poster design that caught my attention first. It does look a tad like Scarface.. the poster that is, heh! =)
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Brilliant movie which I liked a lot due to Denzel’s and Crowe’s authentic acting.
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