Entertaining but not the classic it should be

Rating: 8/10 (22 August 2007)

"American Gangster" is like an extremely talented athlete with all skills that never quite achieves his potential. The filmmakers had an incredible true story to work from - the rise of Harlem drug dealer Frank Lucas, who became bigger than the Mafia by importing 100 percent pure cocaine at discount prices from Vietnam, smuggling it into America in the caskets of dead soldiers. They also had two of today's best actors and mega stars in Oscar winners Denzel Washington, who plays Lucas, and Russell Crowe as the cop, Detective Richie Roberts, who is chasing him. Washington and Crowe are mesmerizing and there are powerful performances by Ruby Dee as Lucas' mother, John Ortiz as Roberts' partner and Cuba Gooding Jr. playing against type as fellow Harlem drug dealer "Mr. Untouchable" Nicky Barnes. But despite all of this, the film is bogged down by a meandering and sloppy screenplay that takes too long to tell the story, and then has to rush at the end to play out the final act when the two adversaries come together. The film also suffers from cast overload as actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor (superb in Don Cheadle's "Talk to Me"), Common, and T.I. play characters that lack depth. In the end, the film is a very entertaining two-plus hours, but the problematic story-telling turn what could have been a classic film into just a very good one.