American Gangstter A Good But Overlong Action Crime Drama

Rating: 7/10 (27 June 2009)

American Gangster is a good but overlong action crime drama with solid performances by Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe as the two leads. They both continue to show their talent as actors in these movie despite it's flaws. Director Ridley Scott is admirable in making this film based on a true story about Frank Lucas a heroine drug kingpin from Manhattan and Richie Roberts a dedicated detective determined to bring him down. Washington and Crowe don't share a lot of the screen time together but when they do both actors make the best of it. Well done. The rest of the cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin, Cuba Gooding Jr., Carla Gugino, Ted Levine, Joe Morton, Armand Assante, Common, and Idris Elba are effective as the supporting characters in their very limited screen time. The rest of the cast are okay in their roles as well. The film may be a little light on action except for some but it does have some character development, drama, some humor, and a little suspense but not much. What weighed down the film the most to me was the running time of 157 minutes. It had a slow pace at times making the movie feel long because dragged in some areas. Despite some flaws though American Gangter isn't that bad of a movie I've seen worse (The Spirit, Elektra, and The Wicker Man to name a few). Overall if you can get past the long running time first this film based on a true story is worth watching at least once mainly because of the exceptional performances by Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.