Great Mob Movie

Rating: 9/10 (26 April 2017)

Denzel Washington puts on one of his best performances in this top class mob movie. Based on a real life African American crime boss, this film succeeds in bringing his story to life. While other crime films focus on the Italian or Irish mafia scene the best being the infamous Godfather Trilogy this movie is highly original in telling the story of a Black Crime family. What's like with almost all truly great mob movies like Goodfellas or Casino is that the character is ambiguous looking out for his family. The times he is living in (70's) with the international dealers he has to deal with shows that the character has to make a living somehow and of course his violent tendencies is a big reveal into the real world of the mob as opposed to the exaggerated or gentlemen approach taken in other mob movies. The movie is full of action, suspense and mystery as the cops try to figure out who is behind the recent drug epidemic. This series foreshadows Breaking Bad which became a major series in the 00s. This movie is up there with the Godfather and Scarface in showing us how the criminal fraternity really operates.