Sparse Entertainment That is Watchable, But Barely

Rating: 4/10 (28 February 2008)

I was so surprised that Ridley Scott did this film. I almost walked out in the first 20 minutes. There is no narration, and no readily accessible plot. There are place names and dates printed on the screen to tell you where the film is set, but they are so small as to be almost unreadable. Later, these subtitles are noticeably brief on screen, so you can pretty much ignore them. It won't matter anyway. The film is lost in its own lack of direction. Ridley Scott presents a series of images and scenes with no real flow. You have to piece together enough to figure out what is going on. It's as if you are an unwelcome voyeur to his film and if you don't give up early, you eventually find enough of a plot to follow by default. Acting wise, Denzel Washington plays it flat. He isn't scary. He isn't intimidating, and he isn't gentle or endearing, even though Scott tries to make his character human via his family relations. You will not find Frank Lucas approachable or sympathetic like you do with Henry Hill in Goodfellas. Frank Lucas is boring. You won't care about about him. Russel Crowe also brings little into his performance. He's a good cop who sacrificed his family to do the right thing. He is a mere shadow of a Serpico, in fact he is little more than a caricature or sketch of a character who likes to bully noisy kids and who is litigious with his shrew wife. This is a sparse film that isn't very interesting. The time period is the 60's but aside from the cars, the hair styles and clothes are not late 60's and the only things that sets it in that time period are the ever present black and white TV's with iconic images of Nixon, Tet, Trang Bang, and the fall of Saigon. I think I only saw 2 Afro's, and one was a disguise. Clothes, hair, music and feel of the 60's and early 70's in America are all missing from this film. Overall, it can be watchable, but not entertaining or engrossing. There is very brief nudity featuring lovely young women, but that's the only memorable part of this movie. There is little use of music to set the scene or enhance the acting. A very poor and lazy production from an otherwise brilliant director.