60-second cinema

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 fa...