From Ridley Scott this film explores the life of Frank Lucas a drug kingpin from New York played by Denzel Washington and the cop that tried to bring him down played by Russell Crowe. You follow both stories separately with you seeing how Frank Lucas began in his career as a driver then taking over the empire and using his family to run everything he was involved in. Russell Crowe starts out by finding money in a trunk and you find out what sort of person he is and the sort of cop that he wants to be. You follow both stories as they come closer together and in the end how they meet up and what happens.
This is a biopic based on a true story and shows the two sides of achieving what you want, with the Frank Lucas character getting what he wants be it wealth and success however he can and Richie Roberts as the whiter than white cop whose home life is falling down around him and he is despised in his work as so many officers at that time were on the take and did not like the fact that Richie would not take the money. This shows a grimy world in the back drop of the Vietnam war raging overseas and the drug culture being flooded by good quality cheap drugs that meant more and more people could access the Heroin.
This film is another of these films that when it came out I was not interested in, Denzel Washington is never a bad performance but is not somebody I hear about and think I really have to see that film. Russell Crowe on the other hand is somebody that I actually try and avoid as I really do not like the man. However in this film both actors make you like and appreciate both the characters they play. There are also some good supporting roles played by Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lymari Nadal. This is a really good film and if you enjoy gangsters or crime films then this film is for you and I give it a strong 3 star recommend.
