American Gangster leaked online one week before release

[Jay Riall]

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This was just ok, nothing special.

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Agreed. The leak was DVD quality though. Very impressed with that.

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+1. Was really looking forwards to this film and it turned out pretty mediocre. Ridley Scott is such a poor director in general.

[Autocratic]

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Something was missing. One thing I don't understand is the scene where that special detective cop stops Frank and his brother, opens trunk finds drugs and does nothing. Am I missing something here? Why stop him in the first place if you're going to do nothing and have nothing to say to him, other then "I loved that car".

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I think he realized it wasn't the time to make a move. He can try to pin that to Lucas and get killed, or he can wait out the investigation.

[Thug Bubbles]

haven't seen the movie, but there is no way you can qualify this statement without being The Guy who [censored] on Spielberg, Scorsese, Cameron et al. as bad directors. He isn't daring anymore, but he's a great director, even if his movies are just par, which would still be wrong.

Gladiator, while being a generic story, was expertly shot. Black Hawk Down was a truly great film in every way. Kingdom of Heaven was under-appreciated for not being as "OMG KICKASS" as Gladiator, while being the superior movie. Matchstick Men was a movie with little superlative flare but well guided by Scott.

Basically, all his movies are very very well shot, regardless of how much you may have been disappointed with them. he doesn't resort to cheap camera tricks or gimmicks like Michael Bay, nor does he rely on technically savvy shots to keep you interested like his brother. He will utilize eye candy-esque shots occasionally, but it's his restraint with them that makes him interesting. He can shoot in a classic manner and still retain an audience attention.

I don't think he's as good as Scorsese or Kubrick with respect to his eye for cinema, but he does know how to put together a good movie.

[Jay Riall]

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haven't seen the movie, but there is no way you can qualify this statement without being The Guy who [censored] on Spielberg, Scorsese, Cameron et al. as bad directors. He isn't daring anymore, but he's a great director, even if his movies are just par.

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Ok, I think I should have used 'grossly overrated' instead. Just looked through all the films he has directed since 2000. Gladiator is the only one I think is good, and there a tonne of films which are really very mediocre which were (and still are possibly) hyped up way too much - Hannibal, Black Hawk Down (terrible movie), Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster.

[jaminbird]

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Something was missing. One thing I don't understand is the scene where that special detective cop stops Frank and his brother, opens trunk finds drugs and does nothing. Am I missing something here? Why stop him in the first place if you're going to do nothing and have nothing to say to him, other then "I loved that car".

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He did do something. He took 3 keys which Lucas was selling to the mob at 50k a pop. Chopped up and sold in smaller quantities they would probably be worth much more. The special investigator never wanted Lucas to get busted because he was a cash cow for him due to all the payoffs. Remember the scene at the end where he begged Russell Crowe's character not to bust him?

[Autocratic]

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Something was missing. One thing I don't understand is the scene where that special detective cop stops Frank and his brother, opens trunk finds drugs and does nothing. Am I missing something here? Why stop him in the first place if you're going to do nothing and have nothing to say to him, other then "I loved that car".

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He did do something. He took 3 keys which Lucas was selling to the mob at 50k a pop. Chopped up and sold in smaller quantities they would probably be worth much more. The special investigator never wanted Lucas to get busted because he was a cash cow for him due to all the payoffs. Remember the scene at the end where he begged Russell Crowe's character not to bust him?

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A. He did not take the H
B. That was not hte same guy.

[EHoffman]

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Movie is over-rated afaikimo.

I felt like I was watching the short, uninteresting, unfunny version of Goodfellas.

Character development is absolute [censored].

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yeah, this pretty much says it all. originally i said i liked it but that was probably because it's the 1st movie i ever watched on my computer. it felt good doing something i wasn't supposed to be doing. although it was a streaming version which technically wasn't illegal on my part.

the movie is average at best

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I really don't see this at all. The first half is awesome, a little disjointed later on but I don't agree about the characters at all.

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Character development made this movie average. The acting was fabulous (Russell Crowe was ok).

I think a great example of the [censored] character development was with TI's character. *******SPOILER IN WHITE******** <font color="white">We at first see TI's character as an aspiring baseball player, getting a tryout with the Yankees, and Frank truly hopes he gets out of the family business. We're supposed to feel sorry for TI when he gets caught/shot, but we don't. Why? Because his character just wasn't developed enough.</font> **********SPOILER OVER************.

Denzel was fantastic though. 3/5.

[jaminbird]

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Something was missing. One thing I don't understand is the scene where that special detective cop stops Frank and his brother, opens trunk finds drugs and does nothing. Am I missing something here? Why stop him in the first place if you're going to do nothing and have nothing to say to him, other then "I loved that car".

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He did do something. He took 3 keys which Lucas was selling to the mob at 50k a pop. Chopped up and sold in smaller quantities they would probably be worth much more. The special investigator never wanted Lucas to get busted because he was a cash cow for him due to all the payoffs. Remember the scene at the end where he begged Russell Crowe's character not to bust him?

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A. He did not take the H
B. That was not hte same guy.

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C. WTF is wrong with you?

I just went back and watched the scene. Detective Trupo most def takes the H. Roberts (Crowe's character) even makes the comment as he is watching it take place from another car that it was a shakedown.

[FlyWf]

My favorite part was when McNulty finally got to arrest Stringer Bell.

This movie is pretty terrible. It's absurdly long, it waffles really hard on how flawed it's willing to make Roberts or Lucas(the ending text refers to Richie and Frank's COLLABORATION??? The goddamn movie opens with Lucas setting someone on fire!!!).

It's not sure if it wants to be The Godfather, The Wire, or Serpico so it ends up failing to be any of them.

One caveat: Remarkably stellar cast. Pretty much every single major character is played by someone I recognize, and everyone does at worst a good job.

It's worth noting that Ejiofor does his usual absolutely [censored] incredible job. If that guy was named "Kevin Thompson" he'd be making $20M a picture, I've never seen anything he's done where he doesn't kill.

[FaDi]

I was waiting for Omar to come in and jack Lucas's stash.