American Gangster

Rating: 7/10 (19 February 2008)

It was a well crafted, interesting film, with some fine performances, but almost no one went the extra mile. Almost everything in the film works, but hardly anything is great. I thought Josh Brolin basically stole every scene he was in, and Washington also gave a fine performance. Ruby Dee gave a warm, fine performance. She is good, but nothing better than she had to be. I had real problems with Crowes performance, and particularly with the direction of the film. The first hour was amazing, as was the last fifteen minutes of so. The rest was just mediocre. The editing was probably the saving grace is much of the movie. It pieced together the many parts that didn't work, and made them better. Because of the editing, it worked. Because of the editing it was entertaining. It, and Brolins performance were the only great things about the movie. The rest of it is an oddly flawed epic, that works more than it should.