Because Risking everything is worth it

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 1999)

The quality of a great movie is its ability to crawl under your skin and involve you in the plot. When you are literally waiting for the next thing to happen, for the next scene to come along and the story to continue to develope. Add two major stars, one established, the other up and coming, and an ensemble cast and chances are you will wind up a winner everytime.
Al Pacino is the 60 Minutes Producer out for the story and Russell Crowe is the former research scientist out for nothing at all, but he holds a secret that Pacino pries out of him that will change the face of the tobacco industry as we know it. In this day and age NOW of knowing the cancer risks, the addiction, all things bad about cigarettes, the secret we learn isn't the reason to see this movie. Rather it is the acting performances put on by the cast and the expert direction of Michael Mann, the sometimes too stylish director of previous Pacino hit "Heat" and the formerly the director of "Miami Vice" he finds his mark so brilliantly here in the movie, using all the right techniques at all the right times and gets the most out of his actors, from little known Debbie Mazar to seductress Gina Gershon as a believable corporate lawyer. The question surrounding this movie is not if it will get nominated come Oscar time, the question is just how many statues will it win? So far this is the only real competition American Beauty has come Oscar time.