Simply the best movie of the year

Rating: 10/10 (3 November 2007)

Based on a true story, American Gangster is so far the best movie I have seen since "the Departed". Denzel Washington, at his best as usual, teamed up with Russel Crowe who delivered an Oscar-worthy performance. Interestingly, the supporting cast were all phenomenal specially Armand Assante, who played the Italian mob. Like "the Departed" did for Martin Scorsese, this movie might bring Oscar to Ridley Scott who has three Academy Award nominations for the best director (Thelma and Louise, the Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down) under his belt. The only problem is that the theme of the movie is similar to "Departed" and it is unprecedented that the same type of genre wins two-year in a row. The same happened to "Babel" which in my opinion was very close if not better than the Academy-Award-winner "Crash" but came one year after and did not win although nominated for several Oscars. Unlike "Scarface" and "God Father Trilogy", it does not contain lots of action scenes and gun shots but it is far more than that. It is a well-depicted tale of a loyal protégé who became one of the most successful heroin dealers in the US and a devoted NARC who went after him despite of the odds fighting the corrupt NY police system. The bottom line is, this movie will be nominated for multiple Oscars this year and do not be surprised if Denzel or Russell get there second golden statue. This movie is great, skillfully directed, perfectly performed, and simply is the best movie of the year.