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As I’ve discussed before, American Gangster was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. Actors Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe, director Ridley Scott, and producer Brian Grazer all have award-winning pedigrees. The subject matter, the true story of a Vietnam War-era drug kingpin in Harlem and the cop assigned to take him down, is the type of story that Oscar seems to love. Is there any way a movie could live up to such weighty expectations?
For the most part, yes. The first half of the film has some pacing issues and drags a bit. But the second half more than makes up for it. The story is engaging, the characters believable and complex, and the performances are impeccable. Both Washington and Crowe give Oscar-caliber performances. In fact the only criticism I have of either of them is that Denzel was acting a bit too much like Denzel. Other than that it was great. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see American Gangster take a stranglehold on Oscar nominations.
Rating: 
4 comments
December 31, 2007 at 10:34 pm
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November 5, 2007 at 10:13 am
NoTalent
Since I actually sorta respect your opinion and you were sorta inline with my thinking on Transformers I’ll have to check out this movie.
As for too much Denzel come on next thing you’ll say is too much Cruise
November 5, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Sean
Don’t even get me started on Tom Cruise playing Tom Cruise…
March 5, 2008 at 5:30 pm
patrick
American Gangster reminds me yet again what a versatile actor Russell Crowe is… plus Ridley Scott deftly leads us into loving the bad guy and disliking the good guy only to flip that around by the end of the movie… very clever.