American Gangster

By Mal -

8 out of 10

One of those films that held my attention throughout, but never really thrilled me. A bit like Zodiac in that sense. And, just as with Zodiac, American Gangster is based on a true, crime-related story, but that’s really about as close as they get. Don’t know why I bothered going down that route, to be honest. Anyway, I was going to give this a 7, but for reasons I’ll explain below, it’s worth more than that.

American Gangster follows the criminal dealings of Frank Lucas, a black ‘businessman’ at the head of a New York crime syndicate. Buying heroin direct from growers in Vietnam and ferrying it to the US on military planes, he’s able to control the drug’s supply and distribution, making him a very rich man. The film follows the story of his rise to power, the police’s attempts to find him (or bribe him), and his ultimate downfall.

I nearly used the word “gripping” there, but I think that was just me falling into cliché. There are, however, plenty of great performances on show, not least from Denzel Washington (playing Lucas) and, dare I say it, Russell Crowe, the man I love to hate. In fact, he puts in a really good turn here and I’m struggling to think of a single weak performance from the rest of the cast. For this, Ridley Scott deserves a lot of credit. And, ultimately, that’s why I bumped this up to an eight. A very good, but perhaps not great, film.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Downfall

By -
7 out of 10 Hitler, eh, he was crackers, wasn't he, or was he? This film sets about trying to get the bottom of this question, detailing the last few hours of his life in his bunker in Berlin as the red army approached. The film, some would say rather controversially, answers the question early on with his pie fight with Himler coming as the starting credits fade. What follows is a romp through the final desperate hours of a ridiculous regime as they all, but their leader, seem to have grasped the fact that they’re buggered. The film has many memorable and chilling scenes, such as Dr Goebbels’ wife killing her own children rather than letting them fall into Communist hands. And the bit where Hitler’s dog is given cyanide for a laugh, with some superb acting by the dog. Anyway, if you’re interested in the madness of what went on in that bunker in Hitler’s last hours, this is for you. I would, however, also recommend Das Bunker und Laughs for a very different take on matt
Read more

The Brothers Grimm

By -
5 out of 10 On the face of it The Brothers Grimm is a perfect match for the dark surrealism of Terry Gilliam . However it fails to live up to its potential. The brothers (played by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger ) are travelling con-artists who arrive in a village with a real fairy tale curse. For a Fairy tale the cinematography is very grey and brown. There is little of the Gilliam imagination that we might have expected. Most surprising of all is that the special effects ranged from the sublime (blobby gingerbread man) to the downright awful. A scene where a CGI scarf was floating down a river was particularly derisible. At times it seems that the script is a vehicle for referencing yet another fairy tale rather than to tell the tale that the viewer is actually watching. This is a shame because when the movie does get going there are moments to enjoy.
Read more