It Delivers The Goods, But Watch Out For Confusing Middle Section

Rating: 7/10 (2 November 2007)

Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts may not appear to be so, but they are flip-sides of a coin. Frank Lucas starts off as a little time bosses' apprentice while Richie Roberts starts off as a regular undercover cop attempting to climb into a better calling. Each have a choice for which direction they want to live their lives and each choose almost polar opposite directions. Frank Lucas becomes the most feared gangster in America by selling drugs to his own people and trampling all the opposition while Richie Roberts takes the justice side of becoming the most hated police officer in the force because he does the right thing and doesn't cheat under the table. It is a fabulous tale of how their paths cross as one must take down the other to achieve his goal and in the process perhaps let another achieve his forgot dream as well.
I don't want to reveal much more, but I will say this Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe nail their roles. One maybe flashier than the other, but I consider both just as great. There are a multitude of great supporting players here as well from Josh Brolin to Chiwetel Ejiofor. I think this reflects well upon the director Ridley Scott as he gets sort of Godfather effect from this crew.
The film itself is edgy chalk full of violence from beginning to the volatile ending which has a great amount of twists. It begins with the burning a man and ends with burning of ones past in a new world. Beautiful circle screenplay here, but it is not without its problems as the middle section exemplifies with a confusing editing job about the chronological path of the film. That is about my biggest complaint of this film which is quite long with a running time of nearly 3 hours.
It will satisfy fans of the trailer with its style and satisfy the critics with its structure and underlining story, but this film could have used a bit of trimming to save a bit of the confusion. Otherwise, I have no problem with this film following in The Departed footsteps.