'American Gangster:' the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

"American Gangster [1]" is the latest film by the fantastic Ridley Scott, whose filmography includes such notable products as "Thelma and Louise," "Black Hawk Down," "Blade Runner" and "Alien"-and the occasional stinker, like "Hannibal" or "Kingdom of Heaven."

"Gangster" is the story of the New York heroin empire built by Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington, and of the efforts of New Jersey detective Richie Roberts, played by Russell Crowe, to take him down.

Washington's character was heir apparent to a Harlem mob boss in the 1960's, whose sudden death from a heart attack allows Lucas to assume the throne. Through broad thinking and some airline tickets, Lucas obtains pure heroin from a military source stationed in Vietnam. The purity of the product, combined with the low prices, puts Lucas and his organization at the top of the New York crime ladder.

Washington plays Lucas as a quiet, professional man of ill repute, ready at a moment's notice to engage in brutality if there's a complication to his business interests. A direct counter to the flashy, loud crime figures of the time, his character makes for an entertaining contrast to the braggarts who make up the atmosphere of the movie.

This, it may be mentioned, is an improvement from Washington's earlier attempt at portraying an antagonist in the film "Training Day." While he came off as hamming it up and ultimately failing to be threatening in "Training Day," he has a more convincing turn at it here, and consequently, was enjoyably nerve-wracking to watch as Lucas. One finds oneself just waiting for him to snap from businessman to murderer.

Additionally, Lucas was also portrayed as a gangster with a human side. Handing out turkeys in the poor neighborhoods, buying his mother a mansion, going to church on Sundays ... in most other movies, I'd see this as transparent attempts to make a two-dimensional character into a three-dimensional one. In this instance, it came off more like a man trying to make small acts of good from an empire of vice.

Crowe played Richie Roberts, the cleanest New Jersey cop in existence. He was convincing and effective as his cop character, but ultimately, Robert's story was also fraught with plot lines so loose that they might as well have been in another movie completely. His presence in the film suffered from pointless, unfinished loose ends, questionable execution and imperfect something-something.

Crowe wasn't bad at portraying a clean cop in a dirty town. But he did have a lack of a reason to have a heroin-addict partner plot line, a struggle to be a lawyer through night courses plot line and a child custody plot line that never went anywhere or did anything to flesh out the character. It ultimately felt like filler that did little more than pad a script that needed very little padding to begin with.

The remaining ensemble cast for the film drew no particular attention to their work, with the exception of Josh Brolin, who stands out as corrupt special investigations detective Turo. He makes you loathe his character so well and so much that you find yourself rooting for the heroin kingpin more than this particular treacherous lawman and his ilk.

Ridley Scott's directing was up to its usual level of excellence. Every shot was tight, gritty and extremely dark. The plot would have benefited from cutting. While some characters' back story is important and illuminating, I found myself questioning the point of including Crowe's law school misadventures, custody battles and difficulties in dealing with a partner who's a heroin addict.

The movie was an overall well-done movie. Ridley Scott's best? No. Would I own it on DVD? Likely not. Would I see it again? Yes. This movie does what it does very well, though it really could've used a bit of streamlining.

I give "American Gangster" 3 frybreads out of reznet's highest rating of four.