Scott, Washington, Crowe in top form, in a solid crime drama

Rating: 7/10 (23 November 2007)

American Gangster tells the story of Frank Lucas, a gangster in the 70's who became a drug kingpin by selling his product cheaper than his competition. Richie Roberts is a cop trying to stop the flow of heroin into New York, and in turn trying to catch Lucas.
This movie is based on a true story. Despite this however, there are some pretty clichéd moments in this movie. The Roberts character appears to be the only honest cop in the city, and Lucas comes over as a family man, like just about any drug-lord in a movie like this.
Ridley Scott and screenwriter Steven Zaillian are striving for a movie epic like Micheal Mann's Heat, but there is a key difference. Heat, while dominated by the De Niro/Pacino pairing does have a number of subplots going on, giving the supporting cast things to do. Sadly here, Crowe and Washington simply blow everyone else off screen, leaving some decent actors, such as Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Armand Assante, amongst others little to do.
While Crowe is good as Roberts, this movie is dominated by Denzel Washington's performance. Charismatic, charming, yet brutal and deadly when he has to be, this could easily see him getting another Oscar nomination.
The movie looks superb, like all Scott's movies, as is the attention to detail. It's a long, well-made, solid crime movie. Sadly however, it just falls short of being a great one.