Merrick again...

Bungion Boy sent in this look at AMERICAN GANGSTER; a Ridley Scott film starring Denzel Washington & Russell Crowe that I'm really looking forward to.

Denzel's busy with the brothers Scott these days. last year he was the lead in Tony Scott's DEJA VU, he's in this film, and he's recently been announced as the lead in Tony's remake of THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 - which was a great film to begin with, but I can also "see" a new version working.

Anyway, here's Bungion Boy about Ridley's latest...

Bungion Boy back in New York again with a review of Ridley Scott’s new film “American Gangster.” There’s a lot of buzz for this one and certainly a film that is aiming for some Oscar attention. There were more people lined up for this screening than I’ve ever seen in New York. For the first 90 minutes or so of this film I was so grateful to be watching a kind of film that doesn’t seem to get made much anymore. A period piece about a cop and gangster that is heavier on character and drama than it is on action and chases. I was often reminded of great films of this genre from the 70’s as I watched it, most notably “Serpico” and “The French Connection.” But gradually as I sat in that dark theatre tonight, the film gradually became more conventional and expected, losing what makes the early stuff so strong.

Denzel Washington gives one of his best performances in years as Frank Lucas. At the beginning of the film he is a small time gangster and bodyguard to a larger crime boss in Harlem. When that boss dies, Frank sees his chance to rise up. He sees that the future is heroin and with the help of a friend stationed overseas, he goes to Bangkok to place a very large order with all the money he has. On his return he starts selling the drugs, which are twice as good as the rest of the drugs found in New York, at half the price as the competition. In no time he’s a millionaire and brings up his whole family from the south to join his own version of the Italian mafia.

Meanwhile, Russell Crowe is Richie Roberts, seemingly the only honest detective in New Jersey. Not that he’s not tempted from time to time. There’s a great scene early on when he and his partner find a million dollars in drug money. He realizes that if he should keep it just because that’s what cops do. If he reports it there won’t be a single man on the force who will ever trust him again. Sure enough, he turns in the cash and suddenly when he starts calling for backup there’s never any cars that are in his area and able to help him. When he starts to notice an increase in the number of heroin overdoses he starts to get curious about where this new drug is coming from and starts to investigate the usual suspects.

What also helps to make the film so interesting is the amazing actors that are in it throughout. The incredible cast includes John Ortiz, Armand Assante, Ruby Dee, Roger Bart, Josh Brolin, Ted Levine, Carla Gugino, Jon Polito, RZA, John Hawks, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who seems to be in every other movie these days but is always a welcomed addition. A lot of these character actors have been MIA for a while but all give stellar performances with even the smaller characters leaving a strong impression, with one of the small exceptions being Cuba Gooding Jr., who is barely seen in the film in spite of all the hype of him returning to serious acting in serious films. The best work from these actors probably comes from Assante, Ortiz, Dee, and Brolin, who is even better in “No Country For Old Men.”

For a while, the movie does an excellent job of showing us these two very different men without ever drawing parallels and connections to each other. Frank and Richie don’t even know that the other exists until 80 minutes into the film. This really works in the film’s favor. We don’t need to see the detective obsessed with catching his man or the criminal trying to do business while being hunted. Instead we get to know them while interacting with their own environment, rather than invading each others’. This, sadly though, also ends up hurting the film a bit. Each character has some great scenes and side stories that help develop their characters, some of the best being Crowe’s drug addict partner and custody battle with his ex wife, and Washington’s relationship with his family. However, once the movie does turn into a cat and mouse story, it almost makes some of the unrelated scenes feel like extra filler that had no effect on what the movie was telling me was the real story. It’s weird, I have complained so much in the past about movies that don’t offer any character development and this almost suffers from too much. I think it’s because I almost preferred these scenes to the actual story of the movie and I would have rather just spent time with them alone then see the two characters brought together.

Of the two leads, Crowe was by far my favorite. He seems to say so much, sometimes without saying a word. Just after a few scenes with him you know exactly what his character is all about. Washington is also excellent and probably more likely to attract award attention for his performance, but his character was a little more generic and less defined, yet also too much of a mystery. Frank is supposed to be a terrifying and respected person, but we never truly understand why or how he accomplishes this. There is one great, shocking scene with the awesome Idris Elba (Stringer Bell on “The Wire”) where Frank shows his family and workers just how extreme he can be, but once this happens we get too much of him acting like the king of New York but never really doing anything other than sitting in his house waiting for the drug money to roll in. This is where the film turns a bit more into DePalma’s “Scarface,” which is why it lost me a bit. Frank often talks about how he has all this wisdom and experience but never explains what that is. There is one moment where he mentions to his girlfriend that his mentor taught him a lot of things. “Like what?” she asks. The movie then cuts to Denzel shooting someone in the head. “About Life,” he responds. There are a few other odd Ridley Scott cuts and montages like that, which don’t always work, especially the one that comes at Thanksgiving in which we are shown the parallel between how rich and comfortable Frank is compared to his customers who are living in slums and overdosing, but it’s really just about all we ever see of the drug users in the film so they’re not really there long enough to make an impression.

But for the most part, Scott’s direction is great and inventive. He balances the quiet scenes with intense and chaotic ones with ease. One raid scene near the end was especially well staged. The subtle 70’s era is captured very well, without ever feeling like we’re being forced a period piece with funky costumes and cars everywhere you look. With the recent “Zodiac” and the BBC show “Life on Mars,” I’ve really discovered that police procedural material is a lot more interesting to watch when all of the modern conveniences are taken away. I must say that I prefer “Zodiac” a great deal to “American Gangster,” but despite my complaints, I did enjoy quite a bit of this film, and it seemed that most of the people in the theatre either loved or liked the film, except for my friend sitting next to me who hated it.

This is not the best film I’ve seen this year but I do recommend it for the performances and for what at times feels like a fresh take on the crime movie. The rest of the time… well at least you won’t be bored.

-Bungion Boy