Movies

American Gangster is based on the true story of Frank Lucas's whirlwind success selling heroin in New York. In 1968 every news station reported that more and more people were beginning to experiment with this relatively new drug from Southeast Asia. It took just one man to put 2 and 2 together and take a quick trip to Vietnam before he was selling heroin that was twice as pure for half as much. And life was very good, but when life is too good people notice.

I enjoyed the calm and collected manner in which Frank Lucas carried himself at almost all times. It is hard not to respect what he was able to do, despite the lives he ruined. I thought Denzel Washington did a good job as Lucas for most of the movie. Unfortunately for me, and I am not generally a Denzel fan, towards the end he started to pick up the flagrant arrogance and short temper that won him an Oscar in Training Day.

I liked American Gangster, but I didn't love it. I don't like Denzel, but he was better than usual. I don't like Russell Crowe...and he wasn't any better than usual. Frank Lucas was an interesting man who tried to do things the right way, if there is a "right way" to grow your drug empire. I liked the movie because of the man it was about, not the execution. The movie was a little too long and focused on some strange things that were arguably unnecessary to the story. I feel like it could have been trimmed down and been a little better for it.

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