an American gangster movie

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2007)

American gangster will win best picture, even if zodiac and ratatouille are better films, this one has Oscar written all over it
I was surprised that I liked Russell crowe performance more than denzel, who was very good but a little on autopilot, crowe seemed more committed
the direction is perfect, almost never calling attention to itself, Scott really nails it this time, he's not showing off like in black hawk down or relying too much on cinematography to impress like in Hannibal
even though the movie is frank Lucas "the gangster" story, and the Ritchie Roberts "the honest cop" story seems to butt in for the first 45 minutes or so, in the end is about Russell Crowe's character and how his years old investigation finally produces results
when he takes frank down becomes a moment of great, hard earned victory, and a great scene on the steps of a church
one minor complain, midway through the movie Scott uses the song "across the 151th street" over a drug business montage to great effect, but then he uses a generic hip hop tune on the final scene that keeps playing over the end credits and feels like a false note, the other song would've been much better there, even if Tarantino already used that song at the end of Jackie brown
if hard not to be reminded of The Departed while watching this movie, both films have two superstars and a big name director, both have awards buzz, both are about gangsters and cops, both are about drug traffic and more importantly both movies have two completely separate story lines that come together near the end, where the two lead actors have only a couple of scenes together
and they are both modern classics