This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 1:44 pm and is filed under A, Drama, Mob, Crime and Scam Movies, Movie Reviews, True Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Eljiofor, Josh Brolin, Lymari Nadal, Cuba Gooding Jr., Armand Assante
Renowned director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Thelma & Louise, Alien) tries his hand at the gangster epic in this true story of Harlem drug lord, Frank Lucas, who rose to prominence in the late 60s. The movie is long and has a lot of characters so development beyond the two principals is sparse. The story is good, though I admit that like a little more bloodshed in my gangster flicks. When action does come, however, the scenes are fast, loud and effective, and the acting is strong, but with dialog that is fine, but uninspired. Still, this is a strong movie carried forward by a good, traditional story and a cast packed with stars.
Denzel Washington is Frank Lucas, a family-oriented gangster who has to build and defend a NYC drug empire against rivals and corrupt police. One cop who is after him, however, is Richie Roberts, played by Russell Crowe, and he cannot be bought. The story glosses over most of Lucas’ takeover of the Harlem drug trade in the vacuum left by the death of his boss. Soon enough, though, Lucas is running it all and selling to the mafia besides, represented here in the form of Dominic Cattano, played by the cool Armand Assante, whom we haven‘t seen for awhile. Frank Lucas is flying so high that you just know that he has to come down hard, or does he? This one is worth seeing to find out.
Another impressive project by Denzel and it will please fans of the gangster genre. This one plays like a mix of Blow, New Jack City, Scarface and The Untouchables. That’s a big range, but they did take almost three hours to try to reach it.
