American Gangster

Viewer Rating:Richie4444 has rated American Gangster rating: 4 Star

The proposition of Crowe, Washington and Ridley Scott at the helm of this movie was truly mouth watering. The film did not disappoint at all but neither did it amaze. The basis of the story is quite riveting as the protagonist Frank Lucas (Washington) is a formidable, intelligent and ruthless character. He ran a heroin empire in the streets of New York throughout the 1970s effectively taking over the trade from his mentor and ultimately the Italian mafia. Crowe's character, Richie Roberts, is the honest cop who refuses to become another pawn in the corrupt police paradigm which heavily existed throughout NYPD and NJPD at the time. Lucas, the opportunist and entrepreneur, has a vision of creating a monopolistic heroin market in the U.S. This brings him to South East Asia in order to source the product straight from the manufacturer. His ingenious and yet entirely amoral plan of returning the drugs in the coffins of dead soldiers illustrates his cunning approach to his business. As a result, Lucas begins flooding the market with his "brand" of heroin, beating out all competition on two fundamental principals of increasing market share - value and price. His product is cheaper and better, simple as that. Therefore, his operation grows exponentially and he's brought to the attention of Roberts. The idea of Crowe v Washington in the classic cop v bad guy arena appears to be lacking somewhat, especially when compared to up the incredible De Niro v Pacino match-up in Heat. However, both actors give fine performances combined with a nice funky soundtrack and Scott's reliably great directing gives the film a 4 star rating in my view.

Review published on the 15 April 2008 01:27