I watched American Gangster last night! It was pretty good.

[Shell Beau]

What did you think?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. It was decent. Acting by Washington and Crowe was good.

Unfortunately, the DVD froze in the final 5 minutes. But I think I pretty much got how it ended.

[MrCoffee]

2. I was appalled at how brazenly Ridley Scott stole from every other cop/gangster movie

ever made.

I mean COME ON RIDLEY! The scene where Denzel Washington (Michael Corleone) is sitting in church (at the baptism) while his underlings are getting busted (Moe Greene getting shot in the eye)...:puke:

Ridley Scott - still a hack.

[Dogtown]

3. I'm surprised, MrC

I like his films.

I liked this film.

I do remember when this case broke; made quite a commotion.

[MrCoffee]

5. All I could think while watching it was...

Serpico...The Godfather...Serpico...Goodfellas...Serpico...Carlito's Way...Serpico...French Connection...and that only served to emphasise the bad and supress the good.

I had the distinct impression that Ridley was trying (in his own inestimable way) to make some sort of tribute film to the truly great crime/cop movies. There was nothing original or interesting about any of his choices. Instead of doing something new, the movie plodded weakly over well-worn ground. Russell Crowe acted like he had no idea what was expected of him, and Denzel Washington was ok, but for Denzel Washington, that's bad.

[Shell Beau]

4. I still enjoyed it. And some of it was based on reality.

Not all. I noticed they left out Frank Lucas having a daughter who was effected by all of his stuff terribly.