BUY
IT AT AMAZON:
CLICK
HERE!
STUDIO:
Universal
MSRP: $29.98
RATED:
R
RUNNING TIME:
174 min
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Unrated Extended Version
- Commentary on Original Theatrical
Version with Director Ridley Scott and Writer Steven Zaillian - Deleted Scenes / Alternate Opening
- Fallen Empire: Making American Gangster
- Case Files: Behind the Scenes
The Pitch
Frank Lucas conquers the Underworld and only one man can
bring him down.
The Humans
Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Ted Levine, Ruby Dee,
Common, Armand Assante, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Ortiz and Cuba
Gooding, Jr.
The Red Dragon LARP always ended poorly.
The Nutshell
American Gangster brings a street level view to the harsh
tactics of kingpin Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington). Lucas climbed to the top of
him down. Loner cop Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) fights against the odds, as
Lucas starts to realize how fragile his empire has become.
The Lowdown
Ridley Scott has been in top form since Gladiator took him
back onto
approaches Frank Lucas’s rise to power in smaller tones than the work that
brought him back into the limelight. If you’re expecting heavy-handed theatrics
and giant set pieces, then you need to look somewhere else. This is a veteran
director entering the last great era of his career. Scott has chosen to go into
the cinema of the subdued.
Frank Lucas always loved to dress like early era Rocky Balboa.
That works great, as we get the slow build necessary to show
off Frank Lucas’s origins. We follow Lucas to the jungles of
where he learns to cut pure heroin that he can move on the streets. By the time
that the action moves into
pushed into the fold quietly. Russell Crowe does a great job with the role of
renegade cop Roberts.
It’s just that he’s so timid and unassuming in the role that
the screen. Crowe experiments a lot in his work with Ridley Scott and it serves
him well for the most part. Fans that carry certain expectations of him and
what he brings to the gangster flick at hand won’t understand where he is
building the character. Then, there’s the matter of the supporting players that
never got the chance to fully develop. I still don’t get how Ruby Dee got that
Oscar nomination when she was onscreen for barely ten minutes.
Russell Crowe and I have two things in common. We have the same suit and we both appreciate A Good Year just a smidge too much.
American Gangster works as a film of many parts that never
quite move together towards a common goal. Scott’s efforts in telling a crime
drama that feels more Lumet than Scarface is much appreciated. It’s just that
it never connects with that certain something that elevates a genre film into a
classic. Trying to find where a film fell apart is no easy task. But, a tighter
focus on the Roberts/Lucas dynamic could’ve only helped to bring in a tighter
film.
The Package
American Gangster arrives on
with a 2-disc Collector’s Edition that touts a nineteen minute longer extended
cut. This longer cut only extends scenes past the point of comfortable pacing.
The extra times turns an already slow film into a sluggish film that never
knows when to end.
The Moustache has Two Faces.
The A/V Quality on the
is disappointing. The transfer is really muddy and the color palette seems
blown out of sorts. The extended cut fares worse, as it looks like Universal
didn’t even bother to properly tint the extended scenes. What makes the
transfer even more disappointing is how well the Dolby 5.1 track sounds. It’s
almost a slap in the face to put such a reference quality audio track on an
ugly looking film.
Steven Zaillian and Ridley Scott were recorded separately
for the audio commentary that’s featured on the theatrical cut. If you’ve heard
one Ridley Scott commentary, then you’ve heard them all. Universal gives most
of the commentary to Scott who goes for long stretches of silence in between
tidbits about the technical aspects of the film. Zaillian says so little that I
almost forgot he was on the commentary. The deleted scenes don’t add much to
the
makes up for it.
Virtuosity 2: Let’s Get Cyberin’ will go before cameras once Denzel and Russell can talk Brett Leonard out of Man-Thing Rides Again.
Fallen Empire takes the viewer from the initial film setup
with Antoine Fuqua as director towards Ridley Scott’s involvement. From there,
the technical aspects of the film are broken down and we’re brought into one of
the most detailed production diaries that I’ve ever seen. If that wasn’t
enough, you get three short Case Files featurettes that spotlight different
aspects of the fake drugs, technical work behind making the cops look like cops
and the drug bust at the heart of the film. For so much work crammed into a
2-disc set, it’s just a shame that the transfer couldn’t have been better.
9.0 out of 10
12 comments
WHAT THE HELL IS IT WITH ALL THESE CARTOON REVIEWS!!!! Oh wait, I'm a moron … Please kill me …
Good review, Mr. Anderson.
I quite enjoyed AMERICAN GANGSTER, though the visual finale of the theatrical cut is just both better and makes its point more poignant. A King who's kingdom has passed out of his hands through time….and now a peasant.
Antoine Fuqua had his hands on this before thats right. Glad he didn't make it while I liked Training Day he just ramped that film up way too much and went over the top. If he had done that with Gangster the controversy would have been gargantuan. Ridley did a great job with this one.
Virtuosity 2: Let's Get Cyberin'. HA!
The alternate ending is SHIT. Thank God they cut that thing. And ditto on Dee. I barely remember her from this movie aside from her bitchslapping Denzel. I guess if you're brave enough to do that, you deserve some sort of recognition.
This movie was set for perfection but turned out to be a turd.
Note the key scene at the beginning of the film where Crowe and partner stakeout a dealer as he goes to a car supposedly in New Jersey. Look Closely, not only is the scene filmed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn but Scott actually filmed it in the same exact location as the bus suicide bombing in The Seige. From that moment forward the movie authenticity rang hallow as the paint by numbers gangsta plot.
lol at the way denzel holds his cup.
I liked this movie the first time I saw it. When it was called NEW JACK CITY.(Sorry Russell-you ain't no Judd Nelson!)
You can disparage but it only shows you for the snivelling lapdog that you really are. That is The Truth. BTW thanks chud for the first relevant review in weeks.
This movie was disappointing. What's with the "you murdered tons of people but decided to turn everyone in, so let's be friends, psychopath. Now that we're friends, once you get out of your extremely shortened sentence let's go have a beer, er, coffee." This movie has no moral compass. I only watched part of the behind the scenes cause I couldn't take Denzel actually kissing this guys ass who used to MURDER people in cold blood, in REAL LIFE. I guess people really can change….
A song played over and over gets tiring. AMERICAN GANGSTER feels like the cover version of a song already played out. (Or maybe it's just an overused sample) I mean, a good song is a good song, but we've heard it all before.
You can't argue with the acting though. Or the attention to period detail. This may not quite be a new gangster classic, but it ain't no joke either. I liked it. (And fuck NEW JACK CITY)
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.