Review: American Gangster

Title:

American Gangster

Rating:

The story begins with the death of a great man, whose life inspired a certain ‘nobody’ to become ‘somebody’. We enter the story at the time of the rise of Frank Lucas – an aspiring gangster (Denzel Washington), and the fall of Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) – a divorced police officer desperately clinging onto his dignity in the time of overwhelming corruption in the society. The two are both great at what they do, and it’s only a matter of time before they two meet and the audience learns a valuable lesson about guns, drugs and how to run a successful business.

For a film that has ‘gangster’ in its title, this one, though 18 rated in the UK, has little bloodshed, sex, drugs or even foul language. In fact, it portrays the daily life of a gangster mastermind as the running of a gentleman’s club: routine, peaceful and almost quiet. It oversees Lucas’s every step in his gradual fall from top to bottom of his game while Roberts’ persistent efforts lead him to the truth behind the drugs, the gangs and the cops.

General reaction: when is this story going to culminate already???

General feeling: it’s missing something

Sum up in one sentence: A great story that could have been told with much more passion, cohesion and intensity, and in slightly less time.

: 18 Nov 2007 00:58 |  Tags: American Gangster Movie Review |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem