Fresh and Exciting

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Denzel Washington puts on one of his best performances in this top class mob movie. Based on a real life African American crime boss, this film succeeds in bringing his story to life. While other crime films focus on the Italian or Irish mafia scene the best being the infamous Godfather Trilogy this movie is highly original in telling the story of a Black Crime family. What's like with almost all truly great mob movies like Goodfellas or Casino is that the character is ambiguous looking out for his family. The times he is living in (70's) with the international dealers he has to deal with shows that the character has to make a living somehow and of course his violent tendencies is a big reveal into the real world of the mob as opposed to the exaggerated or gentlemen approach taken in other mob movies. The movie is full of action, suspense and mystery as the cops try to figure out who is behind the recent drug epidemic. This series foreshadows Breaking Bad which became a major series in the 00s. This movie is up there with the Godfather and Scarface in showing us how the criminal fraternity really operates.

That movie gave me chills from start to end. Masterpiece Denzel is just a phenomenon actor. I wanted to see more after watching the movie. What happened to his wife? Have they had kids? Thanks for google all my questions were answered. Thank you for the great entertainment :-) I can't wait to watch some more ... they are forcing us to write at least 5 lines ...

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.

One of the things I love most about Ridley Scott is his willingness to try everything, he's tried his hand at almost every genre in his career and while it's hasn't always workout for him I always admire the effort. But I don't just have to admire the effort here because I loved this movie, it's one of Ridley Scott's best and one of the greatest movies of 2007. A large part of that is due to its two central characters. I loved the character of Frank Lucas in this film he was so captivating I loved seeing his arc and business acumen and is by far one of Denzel Washingtons best and most complex performances. Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott are great together I loved Crowes character because again he was a complex one I loved seeing him want more than what he had and I loved the scenes between these two characters. The world of Harlem in this movie just sucks you right in you immediately see what kind of place this is and see what's been done to it by people like Lucas. Another thing I loved about this movie was the fact that everything had consequences, we see with our own eyes the fallout of Lucas' dealings and make him a more well rounded character. I think this movie has some of the best uses of violence in a movie because it's used to enhance the story, the extra blood or close ups of drug ridden dead bodies sucks us into the atmosphere more. I also really liked Josh Brolin in this movie I thought his character added something to this movie his story arc of being a corrupt police officer paralleled very nicely with Crowes head strong, good-cop arc and added to the bleak atmosphere Scott was trying to create. other characters I loved seeing were Lucas' brother it set up a nice dynamic between them, it's was good to see them get sucked into this world and I thought it added to Washingtons character to see him slowly isolate everyone he loves and creates for some really disturbing sequences. If I have one flaw with this movie it would be that it's definitely similar in terms of style and tone to other Gangster flicks but if it works for what To filmmakers are trying to accomplish and it does just that then I'm fine with that for the most part but the only area I thought this didn't quite work for was the love story I just didn't think it added anything to this film and I didn't really buy the chemistry between the two. This is a fast paced, entertaining and long lasting crime thriller, it's one of Scott's best movies with great performances, very good character dynamics and arcs. It's definitely similar to other movies of this genre but it doesn't hold this movie back from its greatness. 91%/A