Caffeinated Clint
Russell Crowe seems to be onto a good wicket with Ridley Scott. This is his umpteenth film with the filmmaker, and once again, Scott squeezes every inch of brilliance from Crowe’s brawny bones
Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lymari Nadal, Josh Brolin, Cuba Gooding Jr., Common, Armand Assante
Here I come, so you better break North,
As I stride, my gold chains glide back and forth.
I care nothing bout you, and that’s evident.
All I love’s my dope and dead presidents.
Sound crazy? Well it isn’t.
The ends justifies the means, that’s the system.
I learned that in school then I dropped out,
Hit the streets, checked a grip, and now I got clout.
I had nothing, and I wanted it.
You had everything, and you flaunted it.
Turned the needy into the greedy,
With cocaine, my success came speedy.
Got me twisted, jammed into a paradox.
Every dollar I get, another brother drops.
Maybe that’s the plan, and I don’t understand,
God damn—-you got me sinkin in quicksand.
Ice-T’s ‘New Jack Hustler’ – One song you won’t find on the soundtrack to ”American Gangster”.
But why not? It would’ve fit the film better than a bit of black foam fits over a microphone. You can link each word in those lyrics with a moment in Ridley Scott’s urban gangster epic. Its as hardcore a pic as anything you’ve dialled up on an airport motel Pay-channel – hip hop soundtrack or no hip hop soundtrack – and when all is said and done, anyone that wears their hat backward, their pants baggy, and chains around their neck will be chanting lines from this baby for eternity (or, at least until they turn 21/get married/get a job/get off the coke/graduate high-school)… maybe.
But is it this year’s ”Scarface”? I dunno. You don’t often see a bad gangster movie. You just don’t. Even the lesser ones are good. And though ”American Gangster” is good, good stuff – and possibly more appealing because of its stars – it’s probably no better than some of the less pricier, less-star driven ‘drug kingpin’ movies we’ve seen over the years – films like ”New Jack City” (1991), ”A Bronx Tale” (1993), ”The Road to Perdition” (2002) or, dare I say, direct-to-video sequel ”Carlito’s Way : Rise to Power” (2006). We’re only hearing so much about it because Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington are in it. And if those two guys weren’t in it, it might possibly have went the same route as many of the other urban gangster pics released week in week out – straight to DVD. Or not; perhaps it’s a little bit better than that, but the point I’m making here is that it’s not especially a better movie than the films that have come before it… it’s just got prettier packaging.
Washington plays Frank Lucas, a Harlem-based crookster who works his way up to be the number.1 supplier of dope in New York City. His ‘blue magic’ – which he imports from Asia, in the body bags of dead G.I’s – is putting everyone out of business, and more money in his pocket than most of us will see in our lifetimes.
Richie Roberts (Crowe) is a shamed – anyway that finds $1 million dollars in the trunk of a car and hands it back is a loser as far as his colleagues are concerned – copper who’s determined to bring the man down.
Here’s the tip-off that ”American Gangster” is a good film – nobody is referring to it as the ‘Russell Crowe/Denzel Washington’ reunion…nobody. It’s not because nobody remembers Crowe and Washington going at it in the 90’s actioner ”Virtuosity” – how could you not!? Crowe’s purple suit in the thing still keeps most of us up at night!– but it’s because everything about the film itself, from the performances to the script to the direction, overshadows the superfluous gimmicky trivia sheet that IMDB will have up for it. (Unlike ”Virtuosity”, whose IMDB trivia page is actually more entertaining than sitting through the film).
Russell Crowe seems to be onto a good wicket with Ridley Scott. This is his umpteenth film with the filmmaker, and once again, Scott squeezes every inch of brilliance from Crowe’s brawny bones. But more so, ”Gangster” sees the return of Denzel Washington – a man whose seemingly been playing slip n slide with the box office in recent years, wasted in the likes of bubblegum actioners like last year’s ”TimeCop” riff ”Déjà vu”, or Tony Scott’s (Ridley’s brother) flashy but soulless ”Man on Fire” . This is the Washington we remember Spike Lee wanting to work with. Hardcore Denzel. The Denzel Ice-T would write songs about.
Ridley Scott always makes good films… but does anyone else think he used to do better ones? His earlier films seem a little bit more memorable than the stuff he’s doing these days… with Crowe. Am I wrong?
There’s just something about ”American Gangster” that seems a tad lazy…. Like Scott could’ve do tried to do more with it, but came to the conclusion that people will come to it anyway (based on the cast), so stuck to the stencil many before have used for these types of movies.
Rating : 
Reviewer : Clint Morris
