Before "Pablo Escobar" there was Frank Lucas. Based on a true story of Frank Lucas, a real-life heroin kingpin from Harlem who smuggled the drugs into the country in American service planes returning from the Vietnam War.
American Gangster, is destined to become a cult classic like "The Godfather" and "Scarface". Starring Denzel Washington and Russel Crow (no alpha-dog dominance was to be established between the two stars). They're together but apart, as their two stories move on parallel tracks and the movie simmers itself to a finale when they finally meet for movie justice to be meted out.
American Gangster seems on the surface to be what has been dubbed by some critics as "the black Scarface." Denzel goes even deeper into the role of the villain than he did in Training Day (another one of my favorite movies) he plays Frank Lucas as classic family man, cold businessman, and charming man-of-the-community. He makes it so much his role that you can't imagine anyone else going down a busy Harlem street and shooting a guy point blank in the head. Money and power is the name of the game.
Frank made upwards of one million dollars per day in drug sales during a time when twenty thousand a year was considered an executive position (now you see why the story had to be told).
The story line managed to include lots of naked women and make them absolutely plot-necessary.
You might recognize some of the other actors aswell - Armand Assante, Cuba Gooding Jr., RZA (from the Wu-tang clan), Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin, Lymari Nadal, Roger Guenvere Smith, , Ruby Dee, Carlo Gugino, Idris Elba, Common Sense, & T.I. (the last two I mentioned are Hip Hop artist).
I guess the real question here is - Does Crime really pay?? It does if your name is Frank Lucas.
I saw this movie with my brother and cousin as part of a guys night out. It's roughly two hours and forty minutes long. A great all around movie... for adults ONLY! Check it out.
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It is a great movie! As for Crowe, I enjoyed his performance in Gladiator but I'm not generally a huge fan. I am still on the fence as to whether I want to invest that kind of time into American Gangster.
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