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American Gangster
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Denzel Washington,
Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Cuba Gooding Jr. |
| MPAA Rated: |
R |
| Released By: |
Universal Pictures |
| Web Site: |
www.americangangster.net |
| Kiddie Movie: |
For goodness sake,
leave them at home. |
| Date Movie: |
If she can deal
with some gratuitous violence. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
A good sex scene
and a ton of nudity. |
| Gratuitous
Violence: |
Um, duh. |
| Action: |
There really isn't
any chasing. |
| Laughs: |
A chuckle or two. |
| Memorable
Scene: |
Frank with his
brothers at the diner. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
At the diner scene
when Frank says, "So, what was I talking about?" |
| Directed By: |
Ridley Scott |
| Produced By: |
Ridley Scott, Brian Grazer |
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American Gangster
A Movie Review |
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The opening scene in "American Gangster" kind of tells it
all as Frank Lucas’ (Denzel Washington) boss/mentor/father
figure, Bumpy Johnson, begins to lament the demise of
America as the grocery stores become supermarkets, and the
smaller stores with customer service become superstores with
none. Bumpy then seems saddened in the idea of buying direct
from the manufacturer, thus cutting out the middleman, and
selling the same product at lower prices. However, as Bumpy
was lamenting, you could almost see the wheels spinning
inside the head of Frank Lucas, and spin they did as he took
the legacy of Bumpy and turned it into an empire. Sadly it
was a drug empire, but an empire nonetheless.
"American Gangster" gives us a film adaptation of Frank
Lucas, who, during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, became
a heroin kingpin in New York City, and as the movie
portrays, even more powerful than the mob. Using the
knowledge he gained from Bumpy, Frank quickly realized that
to really make money in the drug trade, all he needed to do
was cut out the people in the middle and buy directly from
the manufactures. So he went to Vietnam, and while our
troops were fighting, he was meeting with a drug lord to buy
factory direct, found people who would store the heroin in
the coffins of American soldiers coming back from Vietnam
(and paying them well it seems), and then developed a
distribution ring that made him a lot of money. The movie
portrays him not getting high on his own supply, but running
his operation like a business: Waking early, getting
breakfast to formulate his day, meeting with his
accountants, going to Sunday mass with his mother, and doing
his best not to look flashy, just a businessman, a
businessman who was not afraid to shoot someone who might be
screwing with his operation.
On the other side of the coin is Richie Roberts (Russell
Crowe), an honest cop in a not-so-honest cop world, having
lots of family problems, but getting his opportunity to be
honest when the feds began to develop special operations
drug forces to stem the drug trade. His boss respects
Richie’s being honest, in fact can’t seem to really believe
it, and just wants Richie to develop a group of
investigators who are honest as well and might be able to
make a difference. At first the team starts investigating
the obvious people, high members of the mob, but slowly
Richie starts to see something different, and on a day when
Frank seems to stray from his own advice (thanks in part
because of a gift from his wife), Richie wonders how a black
man can get better seats at the Ali-Frazier fight than a
head mob boss. The wheels begin to turn, and Richie
eventually gets his man, Frank.
But Richie wants more, and what better way to get it when
a dude is facing life in prison being wealthy, or getting
out early and being poor. Frank opts for the getting out
early, but in an interesting way, not giving up those he did
"business" with, but those he felt stole from him,
namely a whole slew of dirty cops.
It’s weird, because at times during "American Gangster"
you almost just think Frank Lucas is just a great business
man, that is until he tells his brother he would kill him
(and you know he would) but won’t because he is his brother.
You see that Frank has learned a lot from his mentor Bumpy
about giving back to the community, as well as the
importance of "family" from his associations with the
organized crime world. Then you see Richie, who in his heart
is an honest guy, but one who can’t keep his family
together, instead opting for sleeping with his lawyer and,
well, just about anyone. But the important thing in this
movie is that both Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe are
great in their respective roles. Russell always makes Richie
looke, well, just tired, and Denzel lets Frank have a
natural swagger, although the scene when Frank is blaring
about how people shot at his wife seemed off-kilter. Maybe
that’s just me.
"American Gangster" is rated R for all of the reasons you
would think. There is a lot of violence, it’s about the
heroin trade so you’ve got drug use, Richie gets it on with
a chick in a big way, and as was the practice, the chicks
cutting the pure heroin and packaging it are naked so
there’s no chance of their stealing any. As such, of course,
at the movie showing I was at, a family brought their 10ish
year old who was applauding at the end of the movie,
although I wasn’t sure if he was clapping for his new hero,
Frank, or his new hero, Richie.
Lots of great things happen during "American Gangster,"
and even though the movie clocks in at over 2 ½ hours I
never really got anxious in my seat. The acting is great,
the movie looks great, so if your significant other can deal
with some gratuitous violence, go and see a movie that will
probably get more talk as we get towards the movie award
nomination season.
It’s 4 ½ stars out of 5.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!!
L8R!!! |
