I took a pass on this when it was in theatres because I had been subjected to so much hype about it that I feared I'd only be watching it from the perspective of whether it was as good as they were all saying. I finally watched it about a month ago and ya' know what, it wasn't as good as they were all saying.

It was assembled with the finest of A-level craft by A-level craftsman Ridley Scott. The period recreation was pretty solid seeming, not that I had hung out in the Harlem dope dens of the 70's but I did see Serpico when it first came out, so that must count for something.

The acting, what you would expect from dependable players like Crowe and Washington with some fine turns by Cuba Gooding, Armand Assante, Carla Gugino (who coulda used a little more screen time) and blast from the past appearance by Clarence Williams III from Mod Squad fame. The stand out performance for me though was the brilliantly sleazy Josh Brolin (a suspiciously bastard-love-childishly familiar Nick Nolte look-a-like don't cha think), fast becoming a leading man to watch.

Where the film fell down for me was in the writting. A plot full of holes; a predictably angsty existential good guy and a ridiculously remorseless decent criminal, and a hollywood ending that screamed for a musical number to celebrate the triumph of good and tie up all the loose ends.

It coulda been a gangster classic for the ages if only they had been prepared to take a few chances on challenging the audience with the script.

Solid cast/starpower pushes it to a four. It's a solid crime-drama. . .not quite paint-by-numbers but you get a sense there's no serious surprises either. I wasn't thrilled with the film's moderate portrayal of a gangster as being a nice guy just for collaborating with the cops- but you have to watch those Hollywood films that start with "Based on a true story"

Could've been a great movie- but it's a good movie with good performances.

The acting was great the story was based on actual historical figures unfortunately the movie is very misleading.
Frank Lucas was not a major part of the criminal activities in the African-American communities of New York City. His activities was confined to a very small area. Whereas Nick Barnes and his associates were all over the city. They were the main drug dealers during those days. There is a documentary on DVD called 'Mr. Untouchable about Nicky Barnes and his crew. On this DVD there is a recent recorded conversation between Frank Lucas and Nicky Barnes, where Frank Lucas says that Nicky was 'the man', You can tell by the tone of the conversation who was the real boss of the crime world in the African American community. This movie (American Gangster) showed Nicky Barnes (played by Cuba Goodings Jr) in a very negative way. The truth was that Nicky Barnes was more like the way that Denzel Washington portrayed Frank Lucas and the way Cuba Goodings Jr acted was more like the way Frank Lucas behaved. Also in Bumpy Johnson's widow's book (Harlem Godfather), she said that Frank Lucas was never close to Bumpy Johnson. If you would like to know the truth about the gangster life in the 'black' community of New York city from the 1920s until the late 1970 read 'Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson a fascinating account of the war with 'Dutch Shultz' and also about the people of Harlem during the early 1900s until the 1960s by Mayme Hatcher Johnson. Also the book Mr Untouchable: The Rise and Fall of the Black Godfatherby Nicky Barnes. Also see the DVD called 'Mr. Untouchable.

I love Russle Crowe and Denzel Washington together they make an awesome impact in this great Ganster Movie, and on blue ray its just outstanding to view and make a part of your great movie collection

At first, because it was rated R, I wasn't going to see it, but because it was based on a true story, I thought I'd try it. The opening scene almost made me shut it off, but I hung in there since I enjoy Denzel Washington and Russell Crow (very convincing performances). I was not dissappointed. What struck me was the contrast in the two main characters - Frank Lucas (Denzel), the suave drug dealer/businssman and Det. Richie Roberts (Russell), the humble, extremely honest cop. I grew up in NY during this time and vaguely remember hearing about that. It's a good drama, the era of the late 60s - early 70s was recreated perfectly.

I thought it started off really slow and thought it would never pick up. Finally, later it did. There are some parts that reminded me of 'The Godfather' The parts I liked were when there was gun-fights and some hot nude black girls help with the heroine. I probably wouldn't recommend AMERICAN GANGSTER!!!

I maybe bias...lol but I love Denzel and this movie.

Denzel and Russel Crowe bring the characters to life in this movie. It is action packed crime thriller that will keep you hanging on from the moments the credits come on until they go off.

  It will hold your interest, but it's nothing that hasn't been done before, and done better (for example, HBO's superb series "The Wire"). Russell Crowe is capable of very good acting, and Denzel Washington is capable of excellent acting, but they both seem to be coasting here. Denzel is unable to make a character composed of such contradictory parts plausible-- he loves his mother and family enough to buy them a luxurious estate in the country, but is also capable of setting a man ablaze while he's still alive, them pumping a half dozen bullets into him as he burns. Not that unraveling the mystery of such a sociopath is possible by the most learned psychiatrists, much less an actor, but the best actors should be able to open windows of at least some understanding and plausibility into the character's psyche through the alchemy of their art. Washington is without question one of America's best actors, but his work here doesn't provide that illuminating quality (contrast it with his stunning portrayal of the brutal cop in "Training Day"). At the end of "American Gangster", the Frank Lucas character mentions some racist violence he witnessed as a child, but this is just referred to once almost in passing. Not that past trauma justifies criminal behavior, but the whole point of a film like this (I would think) is to make understandable to the non-sociopathic film-goer how a poor boy from a good family in North Carolina came to NY and transformed himself into a charming monster who became rich on the misery of countless others. There really isn't much more depth to Crowe's character (I don't know much about the real-life Lucas case, but I've seen other NJ detectives on TV scoff at the idea that Richie Roberts' was the one to break the case almost single-handedly, as is suggested in the film). Richie is a womanizer, an ansent father, dedicated and honest in his work, a bit of a crusader, but nothing is offered to explain how or why he became the way he is. In films of this type, the cop who is a womanizing crusader devoted to his "cause" has become a bit of a cliche, as has the powerful ganglord who is loving and compassionate one moment (they all seem to give out turkeys to the poor at Christmas) and explosively, brutally violent the next. For once, the Italian-American isn't portrayed as the leading criminal mastermind (with the exception of Armand Assante as an aging Mafiosi who works with Lucas...I think Assante has been playing aging Mafiosi for the past 20 years, hasn't he?) and the picture attempts to explore the lesser-known world of black organized crime, but...as I've mentioned...a show like "The Wire" has already done that so much more effectively. "American Gangster" will hold your attention, and there are worse ways to pass 2 to 3 hours, but it's not a classic by any means, and will be remembered in later years (I suspect) as one of the lesser films done by the usually superb Washington and Crow.

Based on a true story.  This picture is pretty well done, but I agree with the consensus that says the movie is too long.  A lot could have been cut out of the movie, but it's still pretty good.

4

Denzel plays Frank Lucas, a heartless but complicatedly sympathetic gangster whose MBA-style approach to heroin-peddling turns NY's 1970s underworld on its head.

Crowe plays the honest (but adulterous) NJ cop hell-bent on bringing Denzel down. His accent is decidedly more Aussie than Hoboken.

Cuba Gooding makes a pretty good coked-out club owner.

Worth seeing in the theater but unnecessarily long. Fell just short of my high expectations.