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American Gangster Extended Edition [2007] | ![American Gangster Extended Edition [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rX%2BhYJ%2BWL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Ridley Scott
Actors: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin
Studio: Universal Pictures UK
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £5.93
You Save: £14.06 (70%)
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Rating:  44 reviews
Format: Pal
Languages: English (Original Language), Polish (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 169 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5050582550689
ASIN: B000YQ73H8
Release Date: March 10, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
A slow burning, yet entirely gripping, mobster film, American Gangster pits Denzel Washington's Frank Lucas against Russell Crowe's law enforcer Richie Roberts. Spread over a necessarily prolonged running time, their story is then brutally, expertly, told. And while American Gangster isn't in the league of prime Scorsese and Coppolla classics (such as Goodfellas and The Godfather), it's the nearest we've come in quite some time to something of that ilk. It's all based on a true story, which does mean you need to forgive it some of its obvious narrative conventions, yet this also lends it a gravitas that the film eagerly makes the most of. It's great too to see British director Ridley Scott tackling meatier material again. This is the man, after all, who gave us Blade Runner, Alien and Gladiator, and he duly delivers with American Gangster. His finest work it isn't, but an engrossing, explosive and hard-as-nails drama it absolutely is. What's more, American Gangster is powered by two of the finest leading man working in Hollywood right now, and it's terrific to see Washington and Crowe on top form here. And while in cinematic terms it's hardly a film that treads new ground, it's nonetheless a proper, grown-up and engrossing movie, and a very good one at that. --Jon Foster
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| Customer Reviews:
 The new Godfather? November 25, 2007
Dr. George L. Sik (Epsom, Surrey)
18 out of 21 found this review helpful
The cliches of gangster films are so firmly established that it seems difficult to imagine doing anything new with them and indeed there isn't much here that we haven't seen before - but the class with which it's executed is breathtaking. It helps that it's based on a true story of an ambitious drugs baron and the cop who ended his reign (one of the few who wasn't on the take at the time).
Buying heroin direct from Vietnam was the 'business idea' that created an empire (don't remember seeing that one on 'The Dragons' Den'!) and on that simple thought, the whole film twists and turns. The acting is immaculate and the direction superb (just what you'd expect from the man who gave us Alien, Gladiator, Thelma and Louise and the Hovis advert).
When The Godfather came out, the world was still shocked by how influential gangsters could be. We're no longer remotely surprised, of course, so this film can never pack the same punch. Nevertheless, it's a formidable gangster epic and one of the best films of the year.
Very good film with superb performance by Crowe December 14, 2007
Andrew Murray (Cumbria, England)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is definitely another masterful piece of work from Ridley Scott if not quite a masterpiece.
The film is beautifully shot, as you would expect of a Ridley Scott film, and the early 70s New York seediness is powerfully evoked. It lacks the romanticism of the Godfather and the more sleazy glamour of Goodfellas but it makes up for this with a more realistic depiction; this is the seventies as I remember it, though admittedly I was not in gangster land Manhattan at the time.
The Drug enforcement officers are downbeat, cynical and mostly corrupt and on the make. They are deeply unappealing people and Crowe's character Richie Roberts pitches against them in his incorruptibility, which makes him an outsider among his colleagues. Roberts is no moral puritan, his line in the sand is drawn elsewhere, as he is a lousy father, useless husband and pretty promiscuous. This is quite the opposite of Denzel Washington's Frank Lucas, who is a devoted husband and family oriented man. He demands loyalty but is able to indulge his family whereas Roberts is loyal to nothing except his job.
Frank Lucas's rise to power comes about by sheer business acumen as he buys high quality heroine from source in Vietnam and then transports it in the coffins of dead soldiers coming back home in military planes. He is able to undercut all the competition with a finer product and corners the market out doing the Mafia, who being wise to a winning situation join him.
The trappings of success and power are quite extraordinarily displayed in a gorgeously opulent set piece where Frank Lucas negotiates with Mafia Godfather Armand Assante.
There are some spectacular short sequences of ultra violence which reinforces Frank Lucas's seriousness, ruthlessness and take no prisoners approach to all who hinder or cross him.
For me the 157 minute running time fairly flew by as I found the film totally absorbing. Denzel Washington's acting is superb and Crowe's is in another dimension with a deep, quiet and very powerful performance. In my view Crowe's performance is worthy of an Oscar.
The ending is surprising and illustrates a place where the different make ups of the two characters meet both in their role as outsiders and their attitude to the concept of loyalty.
See this film, it is worth it.
3.5-Ridley Scott--is not a rip-off; it's an homage to every wise-guy classic to touch the screen February 8, 2008
Jenny J.J.I. (That Lives in Northern Nevada)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
I like this movie for what it's worth. We're treated to either side of mobster film, both unlawful and law enforcement; "American Gangster" plays like an assortment of 'Scarface' (there's a ruthless low hit-man becoming a drug emperor), 'The Godfather' (a calm, respectful, business like man rules over his mafia empire), 'The French Connection' (undercover cops go pursuing cryptic criminals in America, who do business in foreign lands), 'The Untouchables' (incorruptible good cop selects hand-picked team of cops he trusts to bring down notorious gangland leader), and you know all the rest. It's an intriguing, entertaining, and entrancing crime story. "American Gangster" is a solid mob movie. It's amazing watching this film and realizing how long he went unnoticed and unsuspected by the NYPD.
Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington hand in non-surprising solid performances and Ridley Scott directs the story tastefully, although it could have used a bit more speed. You find yourself looking at your watch a couple of times. Where Scorsese and even De Palma have directed overlong gangster movies that keep you on the edge of your seat from the first minute to the last, Scott made this one as unagitated as most of his great movies ("Alien", "Blade Runner", "Gladiatior") - and apparently people like him for it, so maybe it's just me who's got a problem with that.
Personally, I didn't feel connected enough. The main characters don't ever meet each other until the very end and then it's over way too quickly. Especially, Denzel Washington's change of ambition seems a bit rushed there and the ending is more than a bit reminiscent of "GoodFellas". Pretty much the whole film doesn't really feel fresh anymore even though I took well to Washington's role. Sure he's just like he is in most of his other movies but we routed for him just like how we routed for Al Pacino in Scarface. In fact, Peter Travers calls this movie the black Scarface. I agree with him partially. The tense job an unbribable cop has to do in a corrupt environment, the schizophrenic life of a gangster who is a loving family man in one minute and brutal killer with no qualms in the next, the glamorous rise and fall of a gangster boss. It never really gets old, but the more movies like this are being made, the less surprising they'll become.
The Absence of Truth, Justice, and The American Way April 6, 2008
pris (New EnglandUSA)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
"The heart of America's obsession with success as a killer instinct. That's why the film's moral indignation with Frank can't match its fascination with his balls of steel. Superfly and Tony Montana are Hollywood fantasies. Frank is for real. As the real Frank said, "People like me. People like the fuck out of me." Maybe that's what's so scary." Peter Travers
In 1970, Frank Lucas, Denzel Washington, was the power king of the drug world in NYC. He had worked his way up from being a driver to the big boss. He changed the face of the drug business by cutting out the middle man and going to buy the drug himself. He set up his chain of command from Vietnam to the US and the drugs came home in the caskets of our dead soldiers.
Ritchie Roberts, Russell Crow, on the other hand was a cop on the beat. He was earning his law degree while working full time. He was so busy with his work as an honest cop he had no time for his family. He cornered almost a million dollars on one drug raid and gave it up to the authorities. This made him a pariah within his group- give it back, unheard of!
Frank in the meantime involved his entire family in his business, brought them up from North Carolina, set them all up in business. One of his enemies, a bad cop, played by Josh Brolin, shows us the epitome of hungry cop who will stop at nothing to make money. Frank too got too hungry and was noted by Ritchie Roberts and brought down. Finally the two meet, and
Frank gives up all the bad cops with Ritchie's assistance and gets a much reduced jail sentence.
Denzel Washington steals the movie- he is suave, mean, brutal and real at all times. we believe that he believes he is living the American dream, built upon the money from drugs. Russell Crowe is very good, as he always is, he is low key and forceful and becomes a lawyer without fanfare. But, he is also a man who does not mix his ideals. He is honest, direct and has a goal to rid NYC of the drug lords and the bad cops.
"So this is a gangster movie focused on character rather than action and on the intricacies of people's backgrounds, strategies and motivations. Whether it means to, the film plays off a clutch of old movies, from "The Godfather" and "Serpico" to "Superfly" and "Shaft." But Scott and writer Steven Zaillian make certain their Old Gangster is original and true to himself and his times rather than a concoction of movie fiction. Consequently, the movie is smooth and smart enough to attract a significant audience beyond the considerable fan base of its stars, Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe." Kirk Honeycutt
A movie of good and evil and we know how this will end.
Highly Recommended. prisrob 04-06-08
 Not so secret squirrel (Spoilers) February 8, 2008
Adrian Stranik (London)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Based on a true story of 70's drug trafficking, American Gangster stars Denzil Washington as Frank Lucas - a driver for Bumpy Johnson - a Harlem mob boss who is also something of a father figure and mentor. When Bumpy dies suddenly of a heart attack Lucas inherits the kingdom. Dispensing with the showiness of his rivals, and inheriting corporate branding techniques to sell his dope, Lucas' rise is swift. Along with his obsessive reticence Lucas is also unique in his pioneering method of bringing heroin to America via air force planes out of South East Asia.
Crap dad/honest cop Ritchie Roberts (Russell Crowe) has his sights set on bringing down the operation but Lucas' `under the radar' profile makes him an impossible target. Roberts' campaign can go nowhere until he can identify the ringleader.
Apart from the de rigueur `crime doesn't pay' platitude, American Gangsters' message seems to be that there's no accounting for taste and that those with zero dress sense can triumph over those in designer wear. The campaign of Crowe's unglamorous and dowdy cop with rubbish hair appears hopeless against Washington's immaculate Brioni suited drug lord; that is until he commits a massive fashion faux par by attending a prize fight dressed as a squirrel. "The loudest man in the room is the weakest man in the room." Failing to take his own advice the demise of Frank Lucas is mere paperwork after that.
The depiction of Lucas' corporate marketing - a la Coca Cola - to sell `quality' heroin to the `discerning smack head' is something of a hoot. Maybe that's how it went down in 70's Harlem but most users in my experience would inject the contents of a leper's colostomy bag on the off-chance of a hit. Also Lucas's smuggling of his product into America via air force planes from Vietnam is not quite the innovation. He may have believed this was his baby but it's a fair bet that this enterprise was pioneered, marshalled and monitored by the C.I.A, partly as a means to keeping urban negroes in a state of stupor so as not to organise themselves `Black Panther' or `Nation of Islam' style. Whether he was aware of it or not Lucas was almost certainly working for the `man'.
The big `toe to toe' between Washington and Crowe falls short of the build up. For one, it's a long time coming, and by the time this keenly awaited `final reckoning' takes place Lucas has already been arrested and on the ropes. It's a great scene, but fails to ignite in the way DeNiro and Pacino's `two guys over a coffee' showdown in Heat does where no one has the upper hand and the prize is still to be taken.
American Gangster's DNA is impeccable; you've got a director in Ridley Scott who is probably incapable of making a bad film and two of the biggest and charismatic stars of the day in Washington and Crowe. On paper it must have been beautiful but maybe it's this fail safe `cannot lose' combination that raises the bar of expectation to an unreachable degree which excludes American Gangster from the cigar handing out ceremony accorded the likes of The Godfather, Scarface and Goodfellas. The tone and timbre of the piece evokes the best of gritty 70's crime thrillers but there's a certain restraint about the whole affair - as if taking its cue from its antagonist - and restraint is an arm a mob movie can't afford to chance.
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