American Gangster

I liked this film enough to want to include a review here, but not enough to rave about it. I thought a lot of it was good, without ever being spectacular, or even that memorable. The two leads are, as ever, competent and comfortable - but there is a sense (as is often true with Denzel especially) that both could have pushed things further. As could Ridley Scott. There is an air of auto-pilot, then, about much of this film.

It took me three tries to get past the first half hour, which is patient to a fault in the build-up of the scene and characters within this world. It never feels epic, and going for a tighter edit may have been the way to go - but who am I to tell Mr Scott how to do it?

Once you get past the exposition, however, you do become drawn in to it. Crowe is particularly beguiling, and with this and 3:10 to Yuma recently is proving his dependability as a watchable presence for me. The build to climax is well paced and allegiances to Washington's gangster warlord move into interesting territory once we begin to completely side against the cool anti-hero ethos and see it all from Crowe's flawed but decent cop's perspective.

My favourite thing about it was the very last moment before the credits, as they cross the street: a brilliant touch the whole film could have used more of. A decent if uninspiring watch.