RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
RT's Blu-ray HQ
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / American Gangster
American Gangster

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Visit Official Site External Icon
Bookmark and Share

American Gangster (2007)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
77 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted:39

Fresh:30

Rotten:9

Average Rating:6.9/10

Consensus: American Gangster is a gritty and entertaining throwback to classic gangster films, with its lead performers firing on all cylinders.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for violence, pervasive drug content and language, nudity and sexuality.

Runtime: 2 hrs 38 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Nov 2, 2007 Wide

Box Office: $130,127,620

Synopsis: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Brian Grazer and Ridley Scott team to tell the true juggernaut success story of a cult figure from the streets of 1970s Harlem in American Gangster. Nobody used... Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Brian Grazer and Ridley Scott team to tell the true juggernaut success story of a cult figure from the streets of 1970s Harlem in American Gangster. Nobody used to notice Frank Lucas (Oscar® winner Washington), the quiet driver to one of the inner city's leading black crime bosses. But when his boss suddenly dies, Frank exploits the opening in the power structure to build his own empire and create his own version of the American Dream. Through ingenuity and a strict business ethic, he comes to rule the inner-city drug trade, flooding the streets with a purer product at a better price. Lucas outplays all of the leading crime syndicates and becomes not only one of the city's mainline corrupters, but part of its circle of legit civic superstars. Richie Roberts (Oscar® winner Crowe) is an outcast cop close enough to the streets to feel a shift of control in the drug underworld. Roberts believes someone is climbing the rungs above the known Mafia families and starts to suspect that a black power player has come from nowhere to dominate the scene. Both Lucas and Roberts share a rigorous ethical code that sets them apart from their own colleagues, making them lone figures on opposite sides of the law. The destinies of these two men will become intertwined as they approach a confrontation where only one of them can come out on top. Washington (Training Day) and Crowe (Gladiator) lead a spectacular cast of accomplished and rising stars--Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Josh Brolin, Ted Levine, Armand Assante, John Ortiz, John Hawkes, RZA, Common and T.I.--in this blistering tale of a true American entrepreneur directed by Oscar® nominee Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and produced by Academy Award® winner Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind) and Scott from a screenplay by Academy Award® winner Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List). -- © Universal Pictures [More]

Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Chjwetel Ejiofor

Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Chjwetel Ejiofor, Carla Gugino, Ted Levine, John Hawkes, RZA, Ruby Dee, Cuba Gooding, Armand Assante, John Ortiz, Common, T.I.

Director: Ridley Scott

Director: Ridley Scott
Screenwriter: Steve Zallian
Producer: Brian Grazer, Ridley Scott
Composer: Marc Streitenfeld
Studio: Universal Pictures

[See More Credits]

  • Trailers
  • Pictures
1 - 5 of 35

See More Movie Trailers & Pictures

Get This Movie

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 
Buy DVD
 
 
Release:

Sep 15, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 

DVD Features:

  • Region [unknown]
  • Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Subtitles - English, SDH, Spanish, French

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary: Director Ridley Scott and Writer Steven Zaillian
 
 
 
 

Reviews for American Gangster

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

How much truth we get in the movie version is hard to say...nobody much cares if it's gospel, as long as it's riveting. Here, alas, it is not.

Full Review Source: Film.com | comment Comment
11/06/07
Jonathan F. Richards
Jonathan F. Richards
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

For all its grit, style and atmosphere, Gangster never sweeps you away. It has neither the lurid bravado of De Palma's "Scarface" nor the intimate grasp of the criminal lifestyle you find in Scorsese or Coppola.

Full Review Source: Newsweek | comment Comment
11/05/07
David Ansen
David Ansen
Newsweek
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Washington's steely grip on his impersonation of Frank Lucas holds the film together.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
11/02/07
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Ridley Scott's listless Big Statement is a wheezy, hot air-inflated dud.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment 1 Comment
11/02/07
Geoff Pevere
Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An intelligent, well-made and seductive movie.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
11/02/07
Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In its title character, the movie has created a murdering, dope-slinging millionaire from the streets that even Denzel Washington has managed to make boring.

Full Review Source: San Jose Mercury News | comment Comment
11/02/07
Bruce Newman
Bruce Newman
San Jose Mercury News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

American Gangster is an enjoyable double character study, and the movie's length ultimately becomes an advantage.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
11/02/07
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As with an earlier star who fed off career criminals, Humphrey Bogart, there is always something a bit smarmy about Washington, even in his heroic mode; the nastier his character grows, the looser his acting becomes.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
11/02/07
Jan Stuart
Jan Stuart
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Their ambition is out there. But 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.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
11/02/07
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
New York Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is Washington's movie as much as it is Lucas' story, and he is as entertainingly evil here as in his Oscar-winning performance as a bad cop in Training Day.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
11/02/07
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It takes nerve to call a film American Gangster -- But once you see this finely made and richly satisfying film, you understand it's the only title possible.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
11/02/07
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's a much better film than nine-tenths of what's out there on any given Friday, and if you're a fan of steak-and-potatoes crime drama, I highly recommend it.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
11/02/07
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Every bit as generic as its title, American Gangster is a Frankenstein creature of a film, put together from the parts of other famous gangster flicks yet lacking in both the fury and wild-eyed vision the best of the genre have to offer.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
11/02/07
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

You can safely watch it without feeling guilty, or indicted.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
11/02/07
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

For talent, Scott couldn't start much purer. Washington and Crowe are consummate craftsmen who burrow deep into their characters.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
11/02/07
Lisa Kennedy
Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Ridley Scott packs the film with period detail and vivid, violent energy reminiscent of high-grade Scorsese, then mixes in a Lumet-like, keenly observed outrage at systemic corruption.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
11/02/07
Chris Vognar
Chris Vognar
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is an engrossing story, told smoothly and well, and Russell Crowe's contribution is enormous.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
11/02/07
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Great cast...

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
11/02/07
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The entire movie is caught between being a work of seriousness and a work of absurdity.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
11/02/07
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Both he [Washington] and Ruby Dee, as his mother, give Oscar-caliber performances.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
11/02/07
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
all

Latest News for American Gangster

August 16, 2008: ByAnyMediaNecessary.com: The equal opportunity bone crunching pits real life black druglord kingpin Lucas (a grinning, scary Denzel) and Crowe's womanizing, eager beaver Jewish NYPD crime buster in an ethnically diverse, cat and mouse go at it. Opens in new window
More...

August 16, 2008: ByAnyMediaNecessary.com: The equal opportunity bone crunching pits real life black druglord kingpin Lucas (a grinning, scary Denzel) and Crowe's womanizing, eager beaver Jewish NYPD crime buster in an ethnically diverse, cat and mouse go at it. Opens in new window
More...

July 07, 2008: American Gangster Sequel Coming? Opens in new window
Is Universal filming American Gangster 2 in Puerto Rico? More...

May 06, 2008: 2008 MTV Movie Award Nominations Announced
It's almost time to hand out some golden popcorn -- the nominations for the 2008 MTV Movie Awards have been announced! More...

See All

More DVDs

Close
Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
14% 14% The Ugly Truth
98% 98% Up
36% 36% G.I. Joe: The Rise of …
52% 52% The Taking of Pelham 1…
45% 45% Ice Age: Dawn of the D…

More Rentals…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
32% 32% Terminator Salvation
44% 44% Night at the Museum: B…
86% 86% A Christmas Tale
60% 60% Paper Heart

More New Releases…

See All

RT On Current TV

The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV

DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...

Learn how you can be part of the show

More...

What’s Hot On RT

Total Recall

Total Recall

John Travolta's top reviewed movies

Disney Countdown

Disney Countdown

Look back on Disney's best animated movies!

RT's Gift Guide

RT's Gift Guide

Give the best movies, gear, and more!

What's Coming Out

What's Coming Out

Find movies for the holiday weekend!

Other News

Close
  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Tobey Maguire Talks Brothers, Spider-Man 4 Source: Boston Globe
12
  • Nimród Antal Talks Predators Source: ComingSoon.net
8
  • Weekly Ketchup: Zombieland 2 in 3D?
78
  • First Look (Sort Of) at New Nightmare's Freddy Source: ShockTillYouDrop.com
24
  • First Look at Shrek Forever After Source: USA Today
48
  • Woody Harrelson Will Battle Zombies in 3-D Source: Moviehole
26
  • Natalie Portman Says Kat Denning Is in Thor Source: MTV
34
  • Disney Restructuring Has Broad Implications Source: Los Angeles Times
10
  • Joel Silver Talks Ninja Assassin, Sgt. Rock, Lobo, and More Source: Collider.com
1
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
128
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Friday Harvest: The Road, Avatar, and more!
95
  • Total Recall: John Travolta's Best Movies
93
  • Ban Them All! 10 Infamously Controversial Movies
88
  • 5 Facts About The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
79
  • Critics Consensus: Flee From Ninja Assassin
47
  • WB offers DVD to Blu-ray Trade-In Program
33
  • Weekly Ketchup: Zombieland 2 in 3D?
26
  • Five Favorite Films With Zombieland Director Ruben Fleischer
24
  • RT's Blu-ray Picks from WB
23
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
17
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
17
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
11
  • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
21
  • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
8
  • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
15
  • Terry Gilliam Talks Doctor Parnassus
21
  • Wes Anderson Talks Fantastic Mr. Fox - RT Interview
8
  • Wolverine Creator Len Wein Talks About the Film
28
  • Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine; Possible Sequel
28
  • Duncan Jones talks Moon, Sam Rockwell, and Mute
14
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • American Gangster at Rotten Tomatoes
  • American Gangster at IGN
  • American Gangster at AskMen

Fresh Links

Featured
Wes Anderson on Fox
Wes Anderson on Fox External Link

The director talks about puppetry perfection and his film, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Animated Oscar?
Animated Oscar? External Link

Hollywood.com ponders whether or not an animated film could win Best Picture.

TIME's Holiday Movie Preview
TIME's Holiday Movie Preview External Link

Richard Corliss previews the season's best offerings and hottest tickets.

Scenic Routes
Scenic Routes External Link

The AV Club's Mike D'Angelo airs his beefs with Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men.

Promos
Follow RT on Twitter
Follow RT on Twitter External Link

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Games| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.