Yesterday I finally got around to watching American Gangster which I had originally wanted to watch several weeks ago when it was listed in Cub Foods’ Redbox but wasn’t even out on DVD yet. I had been looking forward to seeing American Gangster after watching the trailer on the big screen this past fall. For whatever reason I seem to be drawn to movies about gangsters running drugs such as Goodfellas and New Jack City.
We started watching the movie and after about 50 minutes Kim was already whining that it was boring and moving too slowly. I had to agree that it was a bit of a slow moving movie but I was still enjoying it up until that point. As soon as Kim mentioned that she was bored my mind began to wander and I started thinking about how closely American Gangster followed the plot of New Jack City.
Before tonight, I hadn’t read much on the history of New Jack City, but according to the Wikipedia entry for the film, it is at least partially based on the exploits of Nicky Barnes who was a prominent heroin dealer in NYC during the 70s and also had a role in American Gangster.
To me, American Gangster runs almost exactly to the story line of New Jack City. A relative unknown takes over an apartment building by force to use as a base to manufacture drugs, has a tight knit “family” at the top that control the entire thing, they use extreme force (including shooting someone in the head in broad daylight on a city street) to clear out their turf and then keep a harem of naked women to cut and package the drugs which is only there so that they can get as close to the NC-17 rating as possible without leaving the realm of being R-rated.
After spending the day thinking about American Gangster, I am less and less impressed with it than I was last night. With some real top of the line actors like Denzel and Crowe as opposed to Snipes, Ice-T and Chris Rock you would think that this movie, which was nominated for an Academy Award would have stomped all over New Jack City in every way. In the end, I think that New Jack City wins out in nearly every aspect especially when you take into account that New Jack City was on the screen more than 15 years ago, had relatively small time actors and was an originally an independent film released primarily in urban metropolitan areas after being shown at Sundance produced on just over $8.5 million. With a budget of just under $100 million, I expected a lot more out of American Gangster. The least they could have done was to make the story more interesting and show less of the tits and more of the meat.
I was really looking forward to seeing this film and while it was certainly more entertaining than watching whatever crap Kim has filled the DirecTivo with, it’s not one I think you should run out to rent. If you’re really looking for a good drug lord movie, check out New Jack City instead. I guarantee that you won’t have to worry about it being in stock and you won’t be as disappointed as I was with American Gangster.
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