Denzel - My Man....

Rating: 8/10 (4 February 2008)

From the reviewers posted by certain people I had got the impression that American Gangster one of the top films to have come out of Hollywood , having said that only very few actors with big names like Crowe and Washington can carry off something as great as this without the egos clashing. For me American Gangster was truly worth all the hype , Ridley Scott set out to tell us a story , not only entertain us and he carried so well that it was so easy to get sucked into it. Denzel Washington played a rather different type of gangster , unlike a drug kingpin like Tony Montana or Nino Brown , George Lucas comes across as a charming caring, figure who at the end of the day was probably conducting business unaware of the ramifications of what he would end up turning Harlem into however Denzel Washington plays this character with such grace that one actually anticipates his presences on screen with his knowledge and Savoy. Russell Crowe as well plays a very flawed character with great ease and really sticks to his guns and during the course of this movie one can say that both men are fighting for what they believe in . Aside from Washington and Crowe everyone else played the part well , it was as if everyone really did enjoy their screen time which actually made it probably more realistic and not to mention the colours,lights, and camera angels used by Scott make this a true beauty to watch. My only problem was that it was over 2 hours long and I did get a neck ache afterwards but however in the whole there was never a scene that dragged on. My conclusion is that American Gangster is homage to the blaxipoltain flicks of the 70's as well as telling us a story which has not been stereotyped into a certain genre. Certainly this movie must be on your '100 movies to watch before I die' list.
American GANGSTER : 8.9 OUT OF 10
THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO THE American DREAM...