American Gangster

Most gangster movies are pretty predictable. As much as people might seem to LOVE Scarface or think Goodfellas is the greatest thing of all time there is one indisputable fact about all of these movies--there is a distinct formula to how they work. It is this precise formula which is what keeps American Gangster from being a great movie and instead leaving at as simply a good flick.

Before I go any further let me just say that the acting was easily the best thing about this movie. Every character was exactly on point. Even Common and T.I. were believable as Denzel's younger brothers. Nowadays its even a little hard to judge Denzel's performance because time after time he's just always perfect--but in the rare moment he plays a villain we get to see his true mettle. I don't really want to talk about Russel Crowe he was fairly ignorable--he seems to always make me feel like I was watching Mark Wahlberg instead.

The problem with making a gangster movies these days is that all the best plots and story lines have been done before. We've seen it all done by Scorcese, and De Palma before. The last original mob story we've gotten in the past few years was the Departed--and that wasn't even an original screenplay it was adapted from a Japanese film. The fact is this: the gangster/mob genre in films is dead and badly needs something interesting to liven it up. American Gangster is not this film. American Gangster falls short in many ways because it is a rigid biopic. The sad part is that this film would have greatly benfitted from a bit of embellishment. At every moment where the film could have done something great, something that would have stood out it instead fell flat. This is the rub. The film sticks to true life and therefore is exactly what true life is boring. Lucas doesn't kill all the cops that wrong him; he doesn't murder anyone who looks at him the wrong way; he doesn't even go down in a hail of gunfire.

These are the things that we are used to. These are the things we like about Scarface, Casino, The Untouchables, and Goodfellas. But these are also the things that are overdone. American Gangster fails to do all the things that we have known to love BUT it also fails to do anything new and interesting. Some might say the fact that it is true to life makes it interesting--in some ways it is but that doesn't mean that it still isn't boring. Although there were a few interesting scenes, like the last part of the movie where Denzel and Crowe confront each other, there is still a lot of this film that is just left on the table. I get the feeling that Ridley Scott felt the subject matter and script would speak for itself and he wouldn't have to do anything interesting to make this movie better than we expect from gangster movies. In the end that tactic failed and so did this movie. I know what you are thinking: "This movie is original! There is a black dude that is the head of the mafia!" Well so the fuck what? That is great for him but the movie itself is still the same gangster story we all see...just without everything we want to see.

I think people should see American Gangster. It won't change your life though--you would be better off staying home and watching Virtuosity. Its Denzel and Russel Crowe from way back in 1995 staring together in an action spectacular--except Denzel is the cop and Crowe is a virtual reality serial killer who jumps into the real world. I think the movie speaks for itself and in many ways it is far more interesting than American Gangster. At least the plot is original.