Seven out of Ten
I know, its weird, but I LOVE Gangster flicks. There is so much drama, and romance, and intrigue. I love the family relationships, the respect, the suspense. Its all so exciting! So when I saw the trailers for American Gangter which included: Gangsters + Denzel.... I was SO there.
American Gangster is what the title portends. It traces the true life story of a notorious drug dealer who sold the purest crack around. He eluded authorities and adversaries but slowly inevitably the tangled web he wove does come undone. The story traces his rise and fall.
I liked the movie but I didn't love it. Part of this is because the movie is almost 3 hours long (which if you add in commercials/trailers is about right) and I get fidgety sitting still that long. Also, they explored Denzel's character in depth but I felt they could have explored other characters such as his wife as well. She ended up being simply a wooden cardboard figure on the screen. Perhaps, she was not much more in real life but it would have been nice to get a deeper perspective.
Denzel's good. The movie is good because of him. But I wonder if the movie would have been GREAT if he wasn't carrying it through and through. Yes, Russel Crowe does a good job, but I almost felt his entire storyline was from a different movie all together. Though he did a good job, I felt his storyline to be rather disjointed.
