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American Gangster (2007)
Director: Ridley Scott
Movie review
From Time Out New York
The chiaroscuro posters hint at Scarface, the pimped-out 1970s Harlem tips its brim to Superfly, and that running time intimates the ambition of Goodfellas or The Godfather. Throw in a dash of Serpico’s conflicted cops, a little French Connection drug testing—this shit is pure—some ethnic sparring à la Sidney Lumet and you get…a remarkably show-offy and tired crime movie, intended for a video generation that most likely won’t mind. Thick mustaches bristle in anger, cheap coffee is swilled, but this feels about as authentic as the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” video.
Ironically for a flick so overgeeked with reference, the story is a true one: Frank Lucas (Washington) really was a potent Gotham drug lord, masterminding a heroin-importation scheme that stretched all the way to the Far East. Richie Roberts (Crowe) really was the lawyer-cop who took him down. But neither actor is allowed anything close to the refinement they’ve shown elsewhere. Washington’s churchgoing criminal pales in comparison with the performer’s devilish turn in Training Day (and here, he even slips into some Pacino-ish overacting in a scene about an alpaca rug), while Crowe can’t persuasively pull off Roberts’s ever-visible Jewish star or his constant philandering.
Ridley Scott is the weak link; he’s never made a film this for-hire. (It earlier passed from De Palma to Antoine Fuqua.) Even Scott’s signature misted atmosphere is absent. You wonder what this urbane Brit—more comfortable with the grandeur of outer space or the gladiator’s arena—is doing north of 110th Street. American Gangster, for all its scuzzy period decor, is gentrification at work.
Author: Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York Issue 631: November 1–7, 2007
User reviews of this film
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- Paul said...
- Posted on Nov 16 2007 18:50 I LOVE DE
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- Paul said...
- Posted on Nov 16 2007 18:49 if you haven't seen it then you can't rate it, DUMMY.
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- richard wasembeck said...
- Posted on Nov 09 2007 10:38 watching this movie give you an insight of an unworld you should be afraid off. This is Ridley's getto pass. If this movie doesn't sweep the award shows it will destroy the art off film making. This movie an eye popping adventure through the maddest of capitalism. I loved it!
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- gabriella said...
- Posted on Nov 06 2007 21:26 I haven't even seen the movie yet I know it will live up to Ridley's reputation of incredible well thought out sometimes "roll with it" style. 'sticktocommercials' seems to be a 'hater' poor thing...
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- bluesdoctor said...
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Posted on Nov 05 2007 00:32
Burdened by the cold distance of an epic, taking in too wide a plain, reducing its individual characters to chess pieces, slaves of the master plan, the plot, Even Densel is a stiff characature, monotonous, The Man. Crowe, ever wearing a Star of David, intermittently gives his lame impression of Jews, a nerdy walk, a hesistating talk, but, inevitably, reverts back to himself, the same charactere he's been playing from day one.
A big, glorious, high budget production that drowns your senses with image and sound, purging, for the moment, reality from your bowels. - Report as inappropriate
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- Been there Seen that said...
- Posted on Nov 04 2007 23:31 What irritated me the most about this movie was the soundtrack. Scott was trying to telegraph every inch of plot with loud, fake mismatched sounds of symphony, R & B, and sound effects. Every once in a while he used a real song from the period, like Across 110th St. with Bobby Womack singing. But he had a handful of club scenes with fake horrible R & B. What? Was he too cheap to pay for more originals. So that was the fakest thing [next to Joe Morton's hairpiece]. The other irritant to my eyes was the mixture of great scenes, like Lucas' offing the rival in broad daylight on a crowded street in Harlem in front of his brothers, and his mother [Ruby Dee] standing up to him. Good stuff. The rest I swear I saw for sale at a Blockbuster 3/$10 bin. I love integration and H'wood making a black-themed pic every so often. They don't get the music right, can't bear to see the profundity in black life, and cannot begin to understand how black people speak to each other in intimacy and love. Other than that, this was steps ahead of Dreamgirls which I wanted to leave after 30 minutes of fakey R & B. At least this movie got better as its story unfolded.
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- John Stewart said...
- Posted on Nov 03 2007 13:14 This review obviously has some political agenda. He must be anti-Crowe. This film is great.
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- SticktocommercilasRidley said...
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Posted on Nov 02 2007 09:14
"Yet another classic from Ridley his body of work stands up to ANY director ....." HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH! Man that's funny!
Ridley Scott should stick to ripping off old scripts and Chanel commercials. Gladiator? Are you kidding me? Complete Spartacus rip off. Now he's taken every movie through which our totally moronic "video game generation" youth define themselves, and once again they are eating it up. - Report as inappropriate
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- kenn stewart said...
- Posted on Nov 01 2007 16:07 Yet another classic from Ridley his body of work stands up to ANY director there has ever been and Rothkoph should find a job has at least some talent for. This "review" is insulting
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Cast & crew
Director: Ridley Scott
Producer: Ridley Scott, Brian Grazer
Cast: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Carla Gugino, Ruby Dee, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ted Levine, RZA, Cuba Gooding Jr, Armand Assante, John Ortiz, John Hawkes, Common full cast
Rated: R
Duration: 157 mins
US Release: Nov 2 2007
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