The greatest movie ever made..!

That was an excellent one.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Ridley Scott does like to tackle a variety of genres and topics, from classic sci-fi to religious epics. Now he has put the eternal battle for drug enforcement under his belt also. I'm just waiting for him to tackle the important subject of fluffy unicorns that shoot rainbows...Hollywood, make it happen. Based on the true story, gangster Frank Lucas monopolises the drug trafficking scene in New York City. Making both friends and enemies. Hot behind his tail though is detective Richie Roberts who is cracking down on the city's drug war. How do you make such a formulaic film so compelling you might ask? You bring in the big acting guns. Oh yes! Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Washington in particular gives a commanding performance where he owns every scene. Whether it be a calm demeanour or full on rage mode, you don't mess with Frank Lucas. Crowe is absolutely fine, but feels completely underpowered when comparing to Washington's performance. It's not his fault, he is just up against a powerhouse. Supporting cast, again, just didn't make much of an impact. The story was involving for the most part, felt very realistic. Fantastic drug heist shootout during the third act. Scott's artistic flair makes even the most basic of scenes look exciting. The biggest negative, and is unfortunately a massive deal, is the first hour. It is such a drag and is completely uninteresting. It's either too quick or too slow, never perfectly balanced. Stuff happens to which I just don't care. As soon as Roberts is on Lucas' case is when the film gets going. Also the personal aspects to Roberts' life does not develop him as a character and feel unnecessary. It's a long runtime and it does feel like it occasionally, but once the plot gets going it is rather engrossing and does host one of Washington's better performances. I could listen to him say "My Man!" everyday.

Denzel Washington delivers a strong performance in this otherwise underwhelming movie that fails expectations due to bad cinematography, hyperactive pacing and rushed editing. The scenes feel disjointed and just feel like they have been clustered together, while the cinematography continues shaking the screen as you become dizzy while to attempt to pay attention to the film. Now that we got that out of the way the acting and dialogue remain strong in their form as they shadow the cons of the film and stand tall, as well as the script and interesting true story the film's based on. Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington both share their perspectives of the scenario happening and the film delivers the audience a two-sided coin that is tossed in the air on the occasions. This film could of been good because of these pros, but I just thought that those cons somehow pushed into the viewing experience, therefore ruining it, which is why I give this a 6.3/10. It was sad, really; I really wanted to like this. Oh well.

Pros: Interesting story and strong performance by Denzel. Cons: Predictable. A few directing and acting flaws.In the tradition of Blow (2001), here is a real American Hero...America has been glorifying gangsters way before hip hop and gangster rap, way before television "The Sopranos" (1999), hit movies Scarface (1983) and Goodfellas (1990). Guns and seemingly limitless funds (read "fun") were an end and a mean (by a mean I refer to both the demeanor and misdemeanor, and I mean by any means necessary) before the Godfather (1972) et al. had every prototypical Italian American and his neighbour imitate Brando, Pacino, De Niro or Pesci ad nauseum and quote lines of gangster movies like people used to quote Shakespeare. The American Dream, before "American Idol " (2002) produced prefab Pop Stars, was of an entrepreneurial spirit realistically closer to the original spirits-bootlegging Scarface than say an arguably antisocial, enigmatic, Bill Gates. America's gun culture endures. Thus the title of the movie alone, alas, says a lot about the American subconscious. This may even go beyond the United States boundaries as Hollywood and U.S. influence on the world culture is still very powerful--in Japan, you have the Yakuzas… From Bonnie and Clyde (1967) to American Gangster (2007), movies about money and violence has been very popular. For example, there is a clear preponderance of high ratings for such movies in the Internal Movie Database – IMDb, the most popular movie website in America and on the planet. At the time of this original article (Nov 2007), four out of the five overall best- rated movies in the TOP 250 out of hundreds of thousands are of that kind! In this rendition of the gangster movie genre which focuses on a clever, ruthless 'black man' in Harlem's 1960s who builds a drug empire, the glorifying is not overt, yet it is not really made in a way that you will realistically root for the "good cop" instead of the "bad a*s villain". The movie has depth in content in that it deals with connected racial tension and government involvement in corruption and drug trafficking. A big angle to the tale is that bypassing regular drug channel and getting the product straight from the source in Far-East Asia with the help of the US Army in Vietnam, this 'black man' or nig*r (America's subclass or worse than nothing) was able to overshadow even the Italian Mafia's chokehold on organized crime, which unsettled more than a few people from both sides of the law. Also, the systematic corruption in New York law-enforcement agencies that permitted the fight on drug trafficking to be very lax as well as these state employees actually profiting from this decadence in the streets, was brought to light and to life quite vividly. In this picture, Denzel dazzles and is a great villain in his portrayal of Frank Lucas, although not to the degree of his Oscar- worthy Training Day (2001) performance. He gets a chance to shine occasionally and more so towards the end, but the script and directing did not allow him to show his full arsenal on celluloid. Russell Crowe plays a cop again (L.A. Confidential, 1997) and is as subdued as his character. What I did not like is that the subplot of his personal life, although maybe interesting on paper and a worthy contrast to add complexity and not fall into black-and-white territory, did not really work and detracted instead of enhanced the picture. These were the only parts that really felt long and underused out of the otherwise well-paced 157 minutes. Carla Gugino did not really hit the mark as the wife, but it seemed to me that it was more of a storytelling mishap out of Ridley Scott's directing. He should have handled it differently to have a better impact or not use it at all and maybe spend more time on Frank Lucas' personal or "professional" life. Besides this little lack of character development that can be seen for pretty much most of the characters, the film is a good story, well told and well placed into the context of the time and place of the narrative. The conclusion wraps everything up nicely. Thank you, come again.

After his mentor is killed, "Frank Lucas" (Denzel Washington) decides to assume his former boss' place as the key drug dealer in Harlem. However, there are other drug lords who have also been waiting for this opportunity and they have decided to move into this territory as well. Because of that Frank takes a huge gamble and, rather than dealing with established middle men for his heroin, decides to procure his product directly from an original source—Thailand. This results in his being able to obtain pure heroin and cut it up to his own standards which happens to be of a better quality and for a cheaper price than anybody else can match in New York. Needless to say, this increases his customer base at the expense of the Mafia. And that doesn't make them very happy. It also increases his visibility to various law enforcement agencies for completely different reasons. Some want him off the streets while those more corrupt want to share in the profits. Regardless, a lot of people suddenly become interested in him and that means trouble—for everyone. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this is one of the better drug-related movies out there with Denzel Washington performing in a very excellent manner. Russell Crowe (as "Detective Richie Roberts") also performs well but make no mistake—this is Denzel Washington's movie all the way. In any case, I enjoyed this movie and have rated it accordingly. Definitely above average.