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Academy Award® winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe team with director Ridley Scott (Gladiator) in this powerful, epic story. Armed with ruthless, streetwise tactics and a strict sense of honour, crime boss Frank Lucas (Washington) rules Harlem’s chaotic drug underworld. When outcast cop Richie Roberts (Crowe) sets .. Read more
| Starring | Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Carla Gugino |
|---|---|
| Director | Ridley Scott |
| Genres | Drama |
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Academy Award® winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe team with director Ridley Scott (Gladiator) in this powerful, epic story. Armed with ruthless, streetwise tactics and a strict sense of honour, crime boss Frank Lucas (Washington) rules Harlem’s chaotic drug underworld. When outcast cop Richie Roberts (Crowe) sets out to bring down Lucas’s multimillion-dollar empire, it plunges both men into a legendary confrontation.
| Starring | Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Carla Gugino, Ted Levine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cuba Gooding Jr., John Ortiz, RZA, Yul Vazquez |
|---|---|
| Director | Ridley Scott |
| Studio | UNIVERSAL PICTURES |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 31 mins Blu-ray: 2 hrs 56 mins HD DVD: 2 hrs 31 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Hot Hits |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | English |
| Released | DVD: 10 Mar 2008 Blu-ray: 08 Dec 2008 HD DVD: 10 Mar 2008 Production year: 2007 |
| Format | DVD |
Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is welcoming his brothers, cousins and nephews to their new life in Harlem with a celebratory lunch. He's brought them here from rural Carolina to guarantee a read more »
[Highly rated reviewer]
After one of the most explosive opening scenes you're ever likely to see for a long time,this slow burner gets into stride and takes you with it. This story of the rise and fall of black 70's Harlem druglord Frank Lucas is loosely based on fact.Denzil Washington stars as Lucas and gives his best performance since his potrayal of a low-life 'tec in Training Day for which he won an Oscar. Lucas is a conservatively dressed small businessman on the surface,but lurking beneath this facade is a ruthless heroin wholesaler who undercuts all competition with deadly
uncut smack straight from the poppy fields in war ravaged Vietnam, He has local politicians,the army, and cops in his pocket,and with their help sets about wiping out his rivals.
The subplot concerns honest cop Russell Crowe who is given the task of putting a squad together in order to clean up the Ciy's drug problem.
The film looks brilliant. Scott and his team have pulled out all the stops in portraying seventies New York in all it's corrupt, faded glory.The cast
are all excellant and the script never lets them down for a single second. Though violent at times,the film is never gratuitous as it blurs the line
between corrupted and corruptor. All in all a tour de force from Scott,
and the best gangster film for an age. Don't miss it.
[Highly rated reviewer]
Not your typical ganster movie as its sharper and slicker then I expected. Playing out the true story of how America became flooded with heroin during the Vietnam War the movie is more a gradual tense build up of events rather than the all action shoot em out that comes with so many 'ganster' titles.
Washington plays the lead with the pyscotic edge of a man who stores violent energy like a spring, a subtle undertone which plays out throughout the film and gives the character a more intellegent air.
Crowe is palpable as the cop trying to right the wrongs of the entire NY police force and at times looses his way slightly in the manner of an actor not used to not being the centre of attention as the lead.
one of the down sides is the lenght of this film. Given its slightly slower pace it seemed to be about half an hour too long and ebbs and wanes towards the centre.
Like all true stories if you follow history then you know the end, but it has enough draw to keep you watching to see it even when you know whats coming. Not quite as pacy as 'Blow' but one of the more intellegent ganster movies of not just the year but the genre as a whole.
Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is welcoming his brothers, cousins and nephews to their new life in Harlem with a celebratory lunch. He's brought them here from rural Carolina to guarantee a loyal crew now that he's all set up to become the number one drug dealer north of 110th Street. Then he spots one dude, a loudmouth dealer by the name of Tango, who might have a problem with that walking down the street. Cool as ice cream, Frank empties out the sugar bowl and walks out of the café. Then he Read more
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