Review of American Gangster (2007) by John P — 19 Mar 2012

You know I'm a real big fan of old school gangsters from back in the day and, before this movie came out, I have never heard of Frank Lucas or how much of a bad ass he is up until now. I guess there is a good reason and that is he was the real power behind the scenes by bringing in heroin into Harlem and nobody knew because he was that damn good. I mean, for the longest time, both the cops and gangsters never suspected that someone like Lucas would become the drug kingpin of New York and that was mostly because this was during a time when African Americans were still being overlooked in the 60's and 70's.

One of the thing that I love about this movie is directed by Ridley Scott and when he is on the man is ON. This is one of his 'on' movies. I think I may have to put this up in my top 5 of American crime films of all time. I hold this movie with Goodfellas, Scarface, The Godfather, and even Casino. Both Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe had great roles that were in synch, especially when they finally met in the third act of the movie. I can't think of anything negative about this and even if I did, I would probably overlook because of its sheer brilliance. I have nothing else to give it other than 5 out of 5 stars because I hope this will be one of the best crime films ever.