What I'm Watching -- American Gangster

So after watching Michigan lose to Wisconsin earlier in the day I took in another bloodbath this evening, the new Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington movie, American Gangster (which while violent, was actually not nearly as gratuitously violent as I thought it was going to be). The reviews for the film have been glowing, and I definitely came out of the theater agreeing with the consensus. Both Washington and Crowe provide convincing and stirring performances, and the film, though long at almost two and a half hours, did not seem long at all when I was wacthing it, as I was riveted by the performances and the overall story. And any movie in which Joe Louis is a character, even a minor one, is cool by me.

Overall, I really did not have a lot negative to say about the film, except perhaps that the film underused the Cuba Gooding Jr. character, Niky Barnes, who apparently is a significant figure in the real life story, but was a minor character in this movie. Otherwise, the movie does what any good bio-pic/historical movie does, and that's make me want to check the stories of the real people on Wikipedia, which is what I did when I got back from the movie. Just a very, very solid film. Highly recommended.