April 14, 2009

American Gangster

Title: American Gangster
Year: 2007
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Steven Zaillian, based on an article by Mark Jacobson
Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin
Music: Marc Streitenfeld; also non-original music
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Ruby Dee) and Best Art Direction; formerly on IMDb's Top 250
Synopsis: an entrepreneur gangster revolutionizes the heroin industry
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), July 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 9/10 (1 point off for concept) c. 3.0/4 (Good).

Not my sort of thing, and far from the best gangster movie, but well done. The basic concept of the movie seems like it's been done a million times. Great performances, in spite of the guy from New Jersey who is clearly Australian.

1 comment:

  1. This movie was based on the book by Mark Jacobson, which is actually really good. I recently got it as an audio book from http://www.audiobooks.net and have been really enjoying it. I haven't watched the movie yet, but I'm interested to see if it was done as well as Jacobson's work.

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