Good crime story based on a true story...

Rating: 6/10 (22 April 2009)

1st watched 4/22/2009 – 6 out of 10 (Dir-Ridley Scott): Good crime story based on a true story about a drag trafficking African American man, played by Denzel Washington, in the late 60's who started a heroin business smuggling drugs from Vietnam through military personnel. He worked with his cousin to find the purest form of the drug and get it smuggled in shipments to the U.S. and employed others in his family to distribute it. He formed a company around his family similar to other mafia groups and used some of the same violent tactics to keep himself on top. Russell Crowe plays a detective who puts together a group to sniff out the drug lords and the characters run parallel to each other in the story until near the very end. The story is gritty and told well with good acting although there's not a lot of positive things to hang onto(I guess that's the nature of the story, though). The matter-of-fact way of storytelling works at times but not at others. The movie is slow at the beginning but it eventually pulls you in and gains your attention. I also like the way the director showed how each character didn't really receive their due rewards till the very end. The good guy had bad times and the bad guy lived it up most of the movie which is unfortunately more the way it is in real life. The ending is a little bit corny when the characters hook up to put bad cops in jail, but I guess they had to throw in something positive. All in all this was a good movie, but not great.