Drab, lacklustre and uninspired

Rating: 5/10 (5 November 2007)

If it were a made for TV movie it would be passable, but as a star studded feature film it falls flat on its' face.
I got no feeling of the time (early 70's), the place (Harlem/New York/New Jersey/Vietnam etc) nor of the characters. You would find more character, depth and sense of place in any episode of Sopranos/Hill Street Blues/Homocide:LOTS. It could easily have been set in the 80's, 90's or even 2000 for all it was worth. There was scant regard to the richness of the environments or the period.
There was very little insight into Washington's character except for a few sparse flashbacks and intermittent lazy exposition and we're not expected to dislike him in any way. By the end everyone is happy and laughing and the moral we're offered is, corrupt cops are bad and get punished whilst Frank Lucas, a cold blooded killer, torturer, crime lord and major league heroin importer is a likable person with a bit of a temper occasionally who only has to serve a measly 15 years having had his sentence reduced from 70yrs aided by the Crowe's character turned defense lawyer!?!?! Most of the supporting characters lacked depth and the subplots didn't really add much to the overall story. As each one dies or just doesn't appear any longer, there is very little sense of loss. Most are just cardboard cutout characters.
There were so many missed opportunities to make this an engaging and enlightening story about an evil man, but Ridley Scott seems to have lost his punch. This is no 'Casino', in fact you would be better off re-watching 'New Jack City' than getting a sore arse sitting through this 2 hours and 45 minutes of two dimensional tedium.
IMDb voters need to get a grip and think more about rating films instead of giving every second rate film like this a 7 or higher rating.