QuasiMondo

Disappointment comes to mind after seeing this movie. I thought I was going to see the second coming of 'Scarface'. It certainly seemed that way from watching the trailer. It showed all the right things. Denzel Washington as ruthless as Tony Montana. Denzel Washington meeting with his inner circle explaining his philosophy. A random car explosion. It all pointed to one kick-ass movie, but kick-ass it was not.

To be fair, 'American Gangster' doesn't suck. I was entertained for the most part, but it could've been so much better. But instead, I'm left to nitpick this movie, because that's all you can really do when you're this disappointed.

For one thing, the directing sucks. The first third of the movie was just random scenes. Here's Frank Lucas. Here's Lucas with Bumpy Johnson. Here's Lucas with Bumpy in his final moments. Here's Lucas taking shit from rival drug dealers who moved in on Bumpy's territory after he died. There's no emotion attached to the relationship between Lucas and Bumpy, and you really can't understand how Bumpy was like a father to Lucas. But then we move on to some phone calls to some sergeant chilling in Bangkok and before you know it, Lucas is moving though the jungle on a donkey in army greens puffing on a cigar while holding a M-16.

Three letters: WTF?

What kind of army did we have back in 1968 that Frank Lucas can roll like that. I guess the smartass answer would be the same kind of army that allowed him to smuggle uncut heroin back to the states by hiding them in the caskets of dead soldiers. I would've thought that this concept would've been given a treatment that made it look as audacious as it sounds, but instead we just have to suspend our belief and act as if the army in Vietnam in 1968 acted like the Russian army in Chechnya in 1998.

It's only after we rush through the creation of his drug empire where he pushes aside the Italian mafia like Shaq pushing aside a layup that it turns decent, which brings me to my second nitpick.

The scenes weren't authentic. Every scene, no matter if it's supposed to be in Newark, Brooklyn, Harlem, or wherever it was shot all looked like it took place in the back streets of Brooklyn. They'd have a scene that's supposed to be in New Jersey, but you have the Williamsburg Bridge in the background (for those who don't know, the Williamsburg Bridge connects lower Manhattan to Brooklyn, making it's presence in any Jersey scene impossible). For people who live outside of New York, it doesn't matter, but for me, it grated on me like watching a movie with a Marine in their service 'A' uniform and they have the ribbons on the wrong side of their chest. Certainly didn't feel like early 70's New York, either, it was like they just found a city block, threw some shiny old cars there, and called 'action'. If that doesn't convince you that they got lazy with establishing that this was supposed to be New York City, circa 1970, check the left shoulder of one of the federal agents and that nicely inked Wu-Tang tattoo he sports.

In the end, I can't put it on the same level as Scarface, or even Goodfellas. There were a few good scenes here in there, like when he murdered a rival drug dealer in broad daylight, or when he flips out against his wife for not cleaning a wine stain out of the carpet the right way or Armand Assante as a mafia Don waxing poetic about the contrast between capitalism and monopolies, but these scenes were too few and too far inbetween. I would've thought that this would be one of those movies where only Denzel could've played this role. Not so. They could've had any quality black actor do this. Lawrence Fishburne, Samuel L. Jackson, he could've even switched roles with Cuba Gooding, Jr (now that I think about it, watching Cuba go apeshit would've been more satisfying to watch). This movie is one for a slow saturday, not something you should be killing yourselves to see on opening night.

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Cameron originally envisioned the Terminator as a small, unremarkable man, giving it the ability to blend in more easily. As a result, his first choice for the part was Lance Henriksen. O. J. Simpson was on the shortlist but Cameron did not think that such a nice guy could be a ruthless killer.

-From the Collector's Edition DVD of The Terminator

Martian

You've summed up a lot of my feelings on this one. The first half of the movie had no coherence to it; I found myself feeling more than a little lost at points.

For the record, the federal agent with the Wu Tang tat is RZA, from Wu Tang. Still, how hard would it have been for him to wear a t-shirt?

I also agree in regards to the atmosphere. They did, at least, get the cars right; and having never been to New York myself, I'm not inclined to notice if a bridge or building is out of place. Nonetheless, it didn't feel like Jersey in the early seventies. It didn't, for that matter, really feel like any specific place or time. I half expected Roberts (Russell Crowe's character) to hop on Google while investigating the drug connections. The whole film felt like it took place in a void.

I don't think Denzel Washington is to blame; in fact, I think he played his role quite well. The failures of American Gangster all belong to Ridley Scott. That's not to say it's a bad movie; it'd be the sort of thing I'd watch if it came on television, but I do sort of regret having gone to the theatre for it.

Also, I can overlook the violence but there seemed to be a lot of gratuitous nudity as well. It's almost as if Scott was trying to make up for the film's shortcomings by putting tits or gunshots in nearly every shot. I get why the women who were cutting and packaging the heroin were naked, but aside from that most of the nudity was unnecessary.

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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame