American Gangster

American Gangster is competently filmed (I would expect nothing less from Ridley Scott) as a nice period piece taking place in the late 1960's up to the mid-1970's, but the screenplay is a miss because it fails to craft interesting characters from its source material (gangster Frank Lucas and Det. Richie Roberts), and keeps us at arm's distance from gaining much perspective into either men. There are broad strokes, but I think it needed a little more personal backstory explaining personal motivations and heightened sense of justice and morality/immorality than what is provided on the screen.

It's sort of uninteresting to watch Denzel Washington with a no-nonsense scowl on his face for 140 minutes of the 160 minutes running time. There's no sense of charm balanced with brutality, it's black and white, with nary a shade of grey in Frank's characterization. The same is sort of true about Richie's own ethics on display which turn him into a pariah in his own precinct. Many scenes in the final act just sort of peter out, lacking punch and vitality as the film draw to a close.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.