American Gangster
Universal Pictures | Release Date: November 2, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New York PostLou Lumenick
Denzel Washington dazzles in his best screen performance to date as Frank Lucas. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is an engrossing story, told smoothly and well, and Russell Crowe's contribution is enormous. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It has the aspirations of an epic of crime and punishment, a superb feel for time and milieu, and an almost subliminal feel for myth. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Finely made and richly satisfying film. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Crowe has rarely been better, and the same goes for director Scott, who parallels and then dovetails Lucas and Roberts' stories with sublime, gritty precision, working up to a magnificent "Godfather III"-style crosscutting sequence that electrifies an already explosive tale. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Call it the black "Scarface" or "the Harlem Godfather" or just one hell of an exciting movie. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The movie, based on a true story, takes surprising twists and turns right up to its chilling ending and is probably the best gangster crime drama of the year. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
What American Gangster does have -- what makes it such a commanding, exhilarating movie -- is a consummate love and understanding of story. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Only Washington stands out; he's charming, intense, and charismatic as ever. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
A riveting piece of movie storytelling, mounted with a genuinely epic flair, shot and edited in a no-nonsense, classic style. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
This impressive film feels more like a display, if an often dazzling one, than a genuine experience. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
It's workmanlike and engrossing, but what sticks in the mind are Frank and Richie, not what anybody does. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Absorbing, exciting at times and undeniably entertaining, and is poised to be a major commercial hit. But great it's not. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The pace of the movie is rapid, almost hectic, the touch glancing. Until the confrontation between Frank and Richie at the end, nothing stays on the screen for long, although Scott, working in the street, or in clubs and at parties, packs as much as he can into the corners of shots, and shapes even the most casual scenes decisively. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
As archetypal as its title, Ridley Scott's would-be epic aspires to enshrine Harlem dope king Frank Lucas in Hollywood heaven, heir to Scarface and the Godfather. Or, as suggested by the Mark Jacobson article on Lucas that inspired the movie, a real-life Superfly. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
In the end, though, the success of American Gangster doesn't flow from the originality of its ideas, or its bid for epic status, as much as from its craftsmanship and confident professionalism. It's a great big gangster film, and a good one. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
I don't think it attains the Godfather level -- it lacks dark passion and grand-scale irony -- but it is an intelligent, well-made and seductive movie. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Like in "Training Day" and "Malcolm X," where he portrayed less than perfect individuals, Washington rules the screen. His portrayal is one of many things that elevates this film to the level of being consistently entertaining and occasionally compelling. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Meticulous and detailed, a drug-world epic that holds you from moment to moment, immersing you in the intricate and sleazy logistics of crime. Yet the movie isn't quite enthralling; it's more like the ghost version of a '70s classic. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Often best around the edges. Without making a big deal about it, Scott reveals how the Mafia, while putting up a businesslike front, deplored the incursion of black gangsters into the drug trade. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Its vivid sense of place and time make it compulsively watchable, even at a running time of two and a half hours. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It’s a big, juicy 1970s period piece, one foot in real life, the other in the movies, the preferred stance of many Hollywood crime sagas. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
As an epic, American Gangster doesn't cut it. The reputations of Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather," Brian De Palma's "Scarface," Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" or Michael Mann's "Heat" are safe. At best, American Gangster is no better than a workmanlike imitation of its betters. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
It lacks momentum, and thus the propulsion required to rocket it into the movie mythosphere. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Ridley Scott gives it the grand treatment, 157 minutes worth, but in the end, it doesn't stack up as the portrait of an era (the 1970s, in this case) or an important tale of a criminal mastermind. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
For all the sprawl, American Gangster feels secondhand. It’s like "Scarface" drained of blood, at arm’s length from the culture that spawned it. Read full review
70
SlateDana Stevens
The movie is never quite pop enough to get audiences hooting and hollering and quoting favorite lines, nor smart enough to inspire passionate post-movie debate. Scene by scene, the film is unassailably well-crafted. But there's something oddly dull, even respectable, about Scott's adherence to the rules of gangster-film grammar. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Greatness hovers just outside American Gangster, knocking, angling to be let in. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
With one of these two alpha males anchoring nearly every scene, Scott really can't go wrong, but the lead characters are pretty thin, a fact highlighted by generic subplots. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
There's a great story here, but it feels like American Gangster hasn't been mined for all its riches. Read full review
70
Film ThreatStina Chyn
The acting is unquestionably strong, the songs are integrated appropriately (functioning as both audio bridges and dramatic enhancements), and yet something is missing in how the individual pieces of the film--the story, the themes, and the violence--fit together. Read full review
63
PremiereGlenn Kenny
The new perspective Scott and Zaillian want to bring to this material never gels convincingly, and despite some effective set pieces, a cast of memorable faces and attitudes, and evocative cinematography by Harris Savides, this would-be epic feels tired and rote. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Steven Zaillian never seems completely at home with these characters, not because he's white but because he's a cerebral screenwriter frustrated with a story that gives him little that's meaningful to say. Like Washington and Crowe, he's a chef functioning here as a short-order cook: The meal's perfectly edible but falls short of delicious. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The result is kitschy entertainment that wants to celebrate Lucas's chutzpah and acumen while loosely condemning what they wrought: "Scarface" with a ghost of a conscience. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The problem is that the movie spends as much time on the boring detective chasing Lucas as on the drug lord himself. Read full review
60
EmpireIan Freer
An entertaining romp through familiar cop-and-crim cat-and-mousery, bolstered by strong star turns from Washington and Crowe. Still, it has neither the intelligence nor the grip to jump from the merely good to the truly great. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Misplaced hero-worship and glibness get in the way of its amazing true story. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Offers only the stingiest platform for its actors, and as a piece of storytelling -- built on the foundation of a great story -- it's an epic that's been sliced and diced into so many little morsels that almost nothing in it has any weight. Read full review
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