flip a couple words
american gangster was magnificent, a brilliantly-told story that could have completely indulged itself in glorifying drug dealers, and instead was honest about the tragedy of addiction. frank lucas reaps what he sows - some call him an anti-hero, but by the end of the film you are so eager for him to take a fall. and the reason isn't in the script as much as it's on the screen - denzel plays lucas as a brooding, desperate creature that loves his mother and yet carelessly hurts so many. the headliners are magnetic... two scenes in particular had my eyes glued to the screen - the conversation between lucas and nicky barnes (cuba gooding in a pimp suit), and lucas & richie roberts in the interrogation room.
props to ridley scott for great pacing and mood. i was surprised to hear that the original helmer was antoine fuqua (another of my favorite directors) but was removed before production began. kind of sad - while scott's film is pretty incredible, i'm curious how fuqua would have done it, if lucas would have been even more like alonzo...
glad i tuned into SNL last night - not only did brian williams rule, the obama cameo was pure icing.
Got a chance to see it Saturday afternoon and it was really good. I thought Scott did a great job with the film, but I also heard that he took D.W. in a direction that was a far cry from the real Lucas. Dude had some serious issues and was supposedly a bit more unstable than portrayed in the film.
Regardless, well done and worth the viewing.
"That's $25,000 Alpaca! You don't blot that sh**!"
It was a good movie, although a little long. I don't see myself re-watching it often. Even though they didn't exactly glorify Lucas' actions, the film didn't exactly make him out to be a villain either. Crowe impressed with his performance--any time he manages to act like a likable person, instead of the jerk he seems to be in real life, is a good job acting.