Movie #5 on the Golden Globe list: American Gangster. It's funny, because this is the kind of movie I would have watched within the first couple of weeks it was released but avoided due to Trailer Overload. For those of you who don't know, the official definition for Trailer Overload is:"excessive exposure to a movie trailer causing the subject of the exposure to act in a way contrary to the purpose of the aforementioned movie trailer, which is to entice the subject into watching the movie in the first place." What put me over the edge? a badly editted shot of Denzel walking into a dark bar, firing a gun and having the resulting flash illuminate his face.
Anyway, American Gangster. Running a little long at 160 minutes, I felt there was a lot of buildup and no wrapup - 2/3 of the movie dwells on Frank Lucas' life from 1968 to 1971 and the other third on the rest of it. Some of the editting seemed a little choppy, especially near the end; and the wrapup felt all too rushed. **/spoiler** Finding out that Roberts becomes Lucas' attorney is almost a shock because you don't really see any camaraderie between the two. **/end spoiler** Directing aside, the cast was great - Crowe and Washington give us what we expect out of Academy award winners. Strong support casting comes in the form of Josh Brolin, Armand Assante and Lymari Nadal. My favourite casting choices came in the form of HBO alums Idris Elba and John Hawkes.
Best part: the scene that was played ad nauseum in trailer? Never made it to the final cut. Seems we are all in agreement there. 4 out of 5 stars.
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