Nobody used to notice Frank Lucas (Denzel 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 (Russel 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.
I loved this movie. It was an awesome gangster/cops flick. Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe both put forth excellent performances. Ridley Scott did a great job of building up both main characters seperately for the first half of the movie, so that when the two sides did converge I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat. Going in to the movie, I was pretty turned off by how long the movie was (2 1/2 hours), but the movie didn't remotely feel that long. This movie wasn't as good as The Departed was last year, but I could see this winning best picture this year just like that did last year.
I very strongly recommend everyone checking out this bad boy. Its more than worth the price of rental and was one of the better movies to come out last year.
