slick but ultimately boring

Rating: 5/10 (3 November 2007)

This is a beautifully directed film that is without a point or a theme and is about unpleasant people. Both leads do a good job but are woefully miscast. The visuals are dazzling but it's impossible to care about anyone. You follow a 70's heroin dealer, played by Washington, and the honest but emotionally bankrupt cop who is after him, played by Crowe. As a result, unlike the Godfather, you never are rooting for either character. The drug dealer is glorified, his amoral acts painstakingly justified by events in his past, when in fact this is a man who imported vast amounts of a deadly drug that decimated the culture and hope of his own people. The cop is friendless, sells out his only buddy, is unemotional when that buddy is killed, and is shown neglecting his son and screwing random one night stands over and over. If you didn't get the point the first time, hold on, you'll have seven more chances to get it. The first hour is entertaining enough, although any intelligent viewer will squirm at the idolization of Denzel's drug dealer. After that, the middle is repetitive and drags. I have no clue what the screenplay is trying to say, or what the director believes the film to be about. I wonder if Denzel Washington would like his children to admire the character he plays as much as he seems to.