It was a great movie...I don't think it was better than 300 though.  It was good and Denzel is my favorite actor and celebrity outside the acting set as well.  He's a class act!

I didn't get to hear as many great 1 liners from him as I would have liked, and Crows performance was solid, but not great.  THey've both made better movies. 

bottom line:  solid acting all around, GREAT story line. I give it an 8.5/10

Ridley scott has now been immortalized in film by creating another timeless ganster movie. 

I thought it was amazing.  One of the best gaster movies ever made and definately is oscar worthy.

BTW, micfranklin, how does very arfully and well-done movies like American Gangster and 300 even compare to the overly marketered crap that is Transformers?

I mean I am not saying it wasn't cool and that I wasn't excited to see it, but Transformers was a crap movie.  The only reason it was remotely good was you got to see Transformers on the big screen and Meaghan Fox...who is smoking hot. 

Anyways, the end to American Gangster took the cake.  It was the best ending to a movie since...oh I don't know...cabin fever!? 

I have to agree with the above comments. A really great film. Although with the dominating australian connection of Ridley Scott and Russel Crowe, I may be biased 

The main aspect of this film that made it so encapturing, was the two separate stories in the lives of both characters, and coming together at the end. You have two completely separate characters leading totally seperate lives with separate problems, and through circumstance being forced to confront each other towards the end of the film. The scene where they first meet is amazingly eye catching.

The other good point of the film was how it catches the drug industry on film, the big players and their exuberant wealth and lifestyle, the drug addict victims who are exploited for profit, the corrupt police officials and others who set aside their morals for the almight dollar, and the whole basis of how the drug dealing business works. The drug industry is the optimum depiction of greed. You put aside your morals completely in exchange for money, and you profit from someone elses misery and ultimate death.

IMO the acting in it was great. Denzel and russel played their parts and characters well. All in all a really great film.

Its sad to think about. Where did your family grow up MIC?

One of the things that I got out of the film was that Frank Lucas has a really struggling childhood and he see's first hand the injustices handed out to his family because of being black. But by going into the heroin trade and exploiting all those people, making so much money out of other peoples misery, he turns out to be nothing better than the people he grew up despising.

I saw it last night and it was very good.


*Spoiler Alert*
Twas interesting how he turned into the kind of guy his mentor despised

SPOILER ALERT

No. Remember in the beginning before he died he was talking about how people were cutting out the middle man and creating job loss? And how wrong it was and what right do people have to do that.That's exactly what Washington did, he went straight to the supplier.

Ah, well done Totino. I had completely forgotten about that. My bad. I was thinking along the lines of his ruthlessness with non payers, and handing out the parcels to the poor, but you are quite right with what you say about cutting out the middleman.