DVD Review: American Gangster

American Gangster
2-Disc Unrated Extended Edition
Directed by Ridley Scott
Starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cuba Gooding Jr., Josh Brolin, Ted Levine, Armand Assante, John Ortiz, John Hawkes, RZA
Rated R
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Available Feb. 19, 2008

“More important than any one man’s life is order.” -- Dominic Cattano (Armand Assante)

Maintaining law and order has been important from the beginning of time. However, when breaking the law and disrupting order becomes suitable and degrees of acceptability erupt, a truly tragic figure blossoms -- Frank Lucas. Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is a paradox. He is sensitive yet violent, he has ethics but is immoral, and completely composed yet explosively volatile. It is Frank Lucas’s oppositional code of life which led him to control the heroin drug kingdom from the late 1960s to early 1970s. With his new, almost 100% pure product and his structured drug council, Frank Lucas took the illicitness and covertness of drug trafficking to a new level...continue reading this review at Geeks of Doom!

Movie Review: American Gangster

American Gangster
Directed by Ridley Scott
Starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Ted Levine, Josh Brolin, Joe Morton, Common, RZA
Rated R

The first time Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe appeared together was a little sci-fi action film called Virtuosity. Crowe played an android serial killer and Washington played a cop with a robotic arm. Twelve years and Academy Award wins for both men later, the two reunite in American Gangster, a film that above all, showcased how far the men have come in that time.

Based on a true story, American Gangster follows the rise and fall of Frank Lucas (Washington) as one of the biggest drug kingpins in American history while simultaneously showing the fall and rise of officer Richie Roberts (Crowe) in his career in law enforcement...continue reading this review at Geeks of Doom!

Movie Review: 3:10 To Yuma

Every director should make at least one Western. It’s as simple as that. I don’t care if they’re in vogue or out, whether they make money or not. If you hope to be worth a damn behind the camera, you need one Western under your belt. Landscapes, violence, sweat, grit, faces with evil intentions or grimy fear, moral peril. It encourages you to use every last damn bit of your frame and start seeing things from an ethical perspective, as opposed to just moving your characters around a stale plot like so many chess pieces. If you can make one, you can make any other kind of movie you set your brain on. There is more than one reason to mourn the latter-day death of the Western. Guys like Sergio Leone were the last guys who thought big and didn’t crop and truncate their images for that all too lucrative home video market.

James Mangold is now officially worth a damn. I won’t bestow Grand Master privileges on him just quite yet, because he did after all inflict Kate & Leopold on us. But 3:10 To Yuma finds Mangold at his best and most composed. This is a film that takes its time, lets us get to know the people and the situation, and only reveals to us what the movie is REALLY about in the last half hour...continue reading this review at Geeks of Doom!