THE DREAM IN ACTION

In an effort to soak up some of the unread (I hate this word) blogosphere left behind by the striking Hollywood writers I’m going to write a short movie review.

 American Gangster (2007) with Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe hit the big screen Friday, November 2nd.  My first reaction was this film could join the ranks of Scarface (1983).  But after more thought I think that the movie lacked something.  American Gangster had the drama, it had the battling good guy vs. bad guy, Denzel “the gangster” had the “he seems like such a good guy” qualities that gather the support of the audience, but it didn’t have that factor that set it apart.  Scarface (1983) had the crazy shoot’m up scenes, Blow (2001) had the excessive drug use, others like them use nudity and other dramatics, American Gangster did not.  American Gangster was attempting to leave most of these “dramatics” out of the movie to set it apart from that crowd but it failed to make up for those dramatics with something else.  The result, a good gangster movie that will probably win awards for both Washington and Crowe, but the film overall still lacked that ”amazing factor” that would’ve taken it to the next level.  My prediction: no Oscar.