American Gangster

[The Queen]

Thumbs up. I'm not a Russell Crowe fan -- I liked A Beautiful Mind, but didn't much enjoy his other performances. But he was very good as a not-so-nice Jewish cop-then-lawyer, and Denzel was absolutely brilliant. Supporting cast was strong, script was very good. Long movie, but I couldn't think of where I'd have suggested edits. You could almost put aside the crime and violence and just see it as an uplifting tale of two guys who lift themselves up from their problems and despite their little flaws, manage to better themselves using courage, stamina and smarts.

I really enjoyed the scene where Denzel is having a nice little get together with his cousins and explaining how he's going to let them all in on a terrific business opportunity; excuses himself for moment to walk over to the fruit stand next door and shoot a rival in the head and then nonchalantly walks back and continues where he left off. Or explains why all of the women processing/packaging his heroin work in the nude "that way they can't steal anything."

Anyway, time well spent.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Even your momma knows not to shoot a cop.

It was a good film. It was strange for Ridley to tell a straight ahead story but that's what he did. There wasn't a lot of ultra violence. There weren't any car chases. It almost felt like he lifted the template for this movie from the seventies. Think Serpico or French Connection. It was a very well done Police Procedural.

I think he overflawed the characters just to show they were not stereotypes but they were still stereotypes none the less. It was sad what lead to Lucas's downfall but it was also pretty ironic. Wait for the DVD. And get a load of those high tech walkie talkies the cops use.

[scapino]

The mention of Serpico and esspecially the French Connection was very appropriate. It is interesting in American Gangster to see exactly what happened to all of the Heroin that was confescated in the French Connection case. The final outcome of American Gangster also underscores just why Serpico was such a pariaha to his fellow cops.