No cat and mouse

Rating: 6/10 (11 March 2008)

This is based on a true story. Detective Richie Roberts (Crowe) heads up a special task force to eliminate the drug trade in New York City and has his eyes on Frank Lucas (Washington) who runs a drug operation there.
The thing about a movie being based on a true story is one really never knows if everything is true therein. But, I am looking for entertainment and I was entertained and what was true or not true doesn't matter to me. Well, okay, it does matter to me when it involves our political or military history. Gangsters? No. However, that being said , there are some things that needed work.
First of all there was no cat and mouse between Roberts and Lucas. They meet practically in the last 15-minutes of the movie. And, still there was no real tension between them. There should be some tension somewhere in this type of movie. Somewhere if not between those two.
When the movie began, I kept asking myself: when is this going to start? There was too much gangster foreplay going on. That gangster build-up wasn't necessary. I get it. There are bad guys out there and the longer this went on I kind of liked Frank Lucas. Not good.
The same on the other side with Roberts, a cop studying for the Bar in New York, coping with a custody battle with his ex, being hated by the NY Police force for honestly bringing in almost a million dollars in unmarked bills and not taking any (The movie says there are bad cops out there and there are many of them.), and then being assigned to a special task force (this to keep him away from cops, who wouldn't help him in the future.) I liked him too.
Still, I enjoyed this movie. The pace was fine, it was the cat and mouse part of the story or any tension anywhere that was missing.
But, to be fair, the session in the interview room between Roberts and Lucas was pure gold and was worth the price of admission.
Violence:Yes; Sex:Yes; Nudity: Yes; Language: Yes, in the beginning, but then they forgot about it.