Fresh
Ridley Scott's gangster flick aims high and mostly measures up.
Bob Mondello, NPR.org
American Gangster
There are two sides to the American dream.
2007 · 2h 37m · R
Crime, Drama
Directed by
Ridley Scott
Overview
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.
Director and cast
- Ridley Scott Director
- Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas
- Russell Crowe as Richie Roberts
- Josh Brolin as Detective Trupo
- Chiwetel Ejiofor as Huey Lucas
- Cuba Gooding Jr. as Nicky Barnes
- Lymari Nadal as Eva
- Ted Levine as Lou Toback
- Armand Assante as Dominic Cattano
- John Ortiz as Javier J. Rivera
- John Hawkes Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
81%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Like much of his oeuvre, Scott's scaled-up movie is bigger than life - and lesser for it. But while never digging deeply or darkly enough to match its own grand vision of itself, slick technique drives the story forward with pace and style.
Jonathan Crocker, Time Out
Rotten
How much truth we get in the movie version is hard to say...nobody much cares if it's gospel, as long as it's riveting. Here, alas, it is not.
Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com
Rotten
For all its grit, style and atmosphere, Gangster never sweeps you away. It has neither the lurid bravado of De Palma's "Scarface" nor the intimate grasp of the criminal lifestyle you find in Scorsese or Coppola.
David Ansen, Newsweek
Fresh
Washington's steely grip on his impersonation of Frank Lucas holds the film together.
Todd McCarthy, Variety
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