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american gangster
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 2:33 pm
by King Crimson
weak.
stylish but no real substance. you kind of want to like it for about 45 mintues and then realize 1. it blows and 2. i've seen this movie several times before. the last 10 minutes are the most interesting part of the film....though entirely underdeveloped as it is "based on a true story" about Frank Lucas and whitey the Russell Crowe seems like a loser/but more honest and ethical than the system detective stereotype who wins out in the end.
hoo-ray.
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 9:20 pm
by bbqjones
bee movie sucked too. luckily for me i slept for the first twenty 8 minutes and the boy wanted to leave after and hour and 10. i still paid too much for popcorn and soda, but hearing him laugh at the adult jokes whilst i was sortof napping made me chortle.
and if your kid makes you chortle it makes it all the better. the only complaint i have is when he was laughing at the kid jokes. he was doing a retard-like tssssss heh tsssssss heh. it was so embarrasing, i went back to sleep . then some big head guey decided to switch seats with his kid and my kid couldnt see over his fat head. so i had to get up and move to next seat over. there is a reason i dont go out to movies and i only buy dvds now. quality time with the boy is no longer at regal, unless its followed by beagle.
a buddy made me a copy of american gangster. ill watch it this weekend and give my input. great thread.
Re: american gangster
Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:04 am
by KC Scott
King Crimson wrote:weak.
stylish but no real substance. you kind of want to like it for about 45 mintues and then realize 1. it blows and 2. i've seen this movie several times before. the last 10 minutes are the most interesting part of the film....though entirely underdeveloped as it is "based on a true story" about Frank Lucas and whitey the Russell Crowe seems like a loser/but more honest and ethical than the system detective stereotype who wins out in the end.
hoo-ray.
Would have to go 180 the other way - Just saw it last night and thought it was one of the best Movies I've seen all year (No country for old men is running # 2 now). I watched the extended directors cut BTW.
Excellent charachter development and thought it showed late 60's / 70's corrupt NY as well as that story could be told.
If anything was lacking, it was the lack of focusing on the italian mob who lost the city H trade (they're mentioned by Crowe late in movie when he's breaking down Lucas), the unasnwered question of who tried to kill Lucas and his wife - but I guess they didn't want to go 3+ hours.
Based on BBQ's critique of Bee movie, I'll be renting that next
Re: american gangster
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:12 pm
by SunCoastSooner
I was dissapointed with the way they played down Bumpy Johnson.
Re: american gangster
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:44 am
by King Crimson
KC Scott wrote:King Crimson wrote:weak.
stylish but no real substance. you kind of want to like it for about 45 mintues and then realize 1. it blows and 2. i've seen this movie several times before. the last 10 minutes are the most interesting part of the film....though entirely underdeveloped as it is "based on a true story" about Frank Lucas and whitey the Russell Crowe seems like a loser/but more honest and ethical than the system detective stereotype who wins out in the end.
hoo-ray.
Would have to go 180 the other way - Just saw it last night and thought it was one of the best Movies I've seen all year (No country for old men is running # 2 now). I watched the extended directors cut BTW.
what are the director's cut additions? How much time are we talking? i kind of wanted to like it, and i like films that take the time to do it....but AG as i saw it was kinda milque-toast. like i say, it looked great but i've seen all these stock characters before. Russell Crowe=Jimmy McNulty=etc.
Re: american gangster
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:31 pm
by SunCoastSooner
King Crimson wrote:KC Scott wrote:King Crimson wrote:weak.
stylish but no real substance. you kind of want to like it for about 45 mintues and then realize 1. it blows and 2. i've seen this movie several times before. the last 10 minutes are the most interesting part of the film....though entirely underdeveloped as it is "based on a true story" about Frank Lucas and whitey the Russell Crowe seems like a loser/but more honest and ethical than the system detective stereotype who wins out in the end.
hoo-ray.
Would have to go 180 the other way - Just saw it last night and thought it was one of the best Movies I've seen all year (No country for old men is running # 2 now). I watched the extended directors cut BTW.
what are the director's cut additions? How much time are we talking? i kind of wanted to like it, and i like films that take the time to do it....but AG as i saw it was kinda milque-toast. like i say, it looked great but i've seen all these stock characters before. Russell Crowe=Jimmy McNulty=etc.
If Russell Crowe was trying Jimmy McNulty he failed miserably! The extended version is about 20 some odd minutes longer not much of any substance really added to the film to be honest.
Re: american gangster
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:49 pm
by Goober McTuber
SunCoastSooner wrote:I was dissapointed with the way they played down Bumpy Johnson.
No shit. Link didn't even show up in the credits. Overall I enjoyed the movie. Enough so that I DVRed it and will probably burn it to a DVD.
Re: american gangster
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:31 pm
by SunCoastSooner
Goober McTuber wrote:SunCoastSooner wrote:I was dissapointed with the way they played down Bumpy Johnson.
No shit. Link didn't even show up in the credits. Overall I enjoyed the movie. Enough so that I DVRed it and will probably burn it to a DVD.
Yeah Bumpy created the ground work for that organization and ran Harlem while keeping both the Italians and the Irish virtually out of the city organized crime wise. It was Bumpy that more created the mafia style organization to the syndicate not Frank Lucas as the movie makes it seem, and really it was the Madame that created it to be honest, Bumpy just built on top of her work as well. Frank just brought in his own family to replace the people he did not trust with people he did.
Re: american gangster
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:40 pm
by Goober McTuber
SunCoastSooner wrote:Yeah Bumpy created the ground work for that organization and ran Harlem while keeping both the Italians and the Irish virtually out of the city organized crime wise.
Not quite.
Johnson was an associate of mob boss Stephanie St. Clair. He was one of the leading criminals in Harlem to fight an unsuccessful war against Dutch Schultz, who incorporated the city's organized crime into the Jewish and Italian mobs of the day. He was later hired as an enforcer by the Genovese crime family to protect Mafia operations in black neighborhoods against local criminals.
After the Great Depression struck, together with the end of Prohibition, white gangsters saw a decrease in profits across the board and decided to move in on the Harlem gambling scene to make up for their lost profits. The mobster Dutch Schultz muscled in, beating and killing the numbers operators.
Queenie and her main enforcer Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson refused to give in to Schultz, but the wave of violence was wearing them down. She complained to local authorities about harassment by the NYPD, and when they paid no heed she ran advertisements in Harlem newspapers, accusing senior police officers of corruption. The police responded by arresting her on a trumped up charge, and in response she testified to the Seabury Commission about the kickbacks she had paid them. The Commission subsequently dismissed more than a dozen police officers.
However, the turf war continued, and eventually Bumpy Johnson approached Lucky Luciano, negotiating himself into the position of enforcing the will of the Mafia by supervising black numbers operators and bookmakers. He came to Stephanie St. Clair and attempted to persuade her to come with him. She refused, but Bumpy carried on doing his best to try and protect his former boss until both realized the struggle could no longer go on, and together both of them managed to organize a truce with Schultz. Queenie was allowed to live so long as she continued paying the Family Tax to the Italians.
Re: american gangster
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:57 pm
by SunCoastSooner
Goober McTuber wrote:SunCoastSooner wrote:Yeah Bumpy created the ground work for that organization and ran Harlem while keeping both the Italians and the Irish virtually out of the city organized crime wise.
Not quite.
Johnson was an associate of mob boss Stephanie St. Clair. He was one of the leading criminals in Harlem to fight an unsuccessful war against Dutch Schultz, who incorporated the city's organized crime into the Jewish and Italian mobs of the day. He was later hired as an enforcer by the Genovese crime family to protect Mafia operations in black neighborhoods against local criminals.
After the Great Depression struck, together with the end of Prohibition, white gangsters saw a decrease in profits across the board and decided to move in on the Harlem gambling scene to make up for their lost profits. The mobster Dutch Schultz muscled in, beating and killing the numbers operators.
Queenie and her main enforcer Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson refused to give in to Schultz, but the wave of violence was wearing them down. She complained to local authorities about harassment by the NYPD, and when they paid no heed she ran advertisements in Harlem newspapers, accusing senior police officers of corruption. The police responded by arresting her on a trumped up charge, and in response she testified to the Seabury Commission about the kickbacks she had paid them. The Commission subsequently dismissed more than a dozen police officers.
However, the turf war continued, and eventually Bumpy Johnson approached Lucky Luciano, negotiating himself into the position of enforcing the will of the Mafia by supervising black numbers operators and bookmakers. He came to Stephanie St. Clair and attempted to persuade her to come with him. She refused, but Bumpy carried on doing his best to try and protect his former boss until both realized the struggle could no longer go on, and together both of them managed to organize a truce with Schultz. Queenie was allowed to live so long as she continued paying the Family Tax to the Italians.
But Bumpy kept controll of Harlem. Other minority Communities had to actually let the Italians physically into their neighborhoods and made no real proffit off of it. Bumpy and Harlem did not. Bumpy going to the matresses was also a large part of the reason that Lucky had Dutch knocked off. Rather savvy if you ask me...
Re: american gangster
Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 1:56 pm
by Diogenes
Interview with Frank Lucas...
http://insidedateline.msnbc.msn.com/arc ... 32807.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Review of film's historical accuraccy...
http://www.stfrancis.edu/historyinthemo ... ngster.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: american gangster
Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:06 pm
by SunCoastSooner
You get the entire Dateline segment if you buy the Director's cut, which I have purchased.