doug maverick
11-02-2007, 11:42 PM
awe man what can say this movie was freaking awesome. the actin was first rate the story was great, the visuals stunning. ridley scott really did his thing in this film.
denzel washington plays "Superfly" himself frank lucas, who was a herion trafficker during the vietnam war, frank had his drug connect directly from thailand(note: some of the extras used in thailand were actually involved in franks drug running) which was defferent from any other black "gangster" in harlem who got there drugs from the mafia, frank also sold a better product then the compition at half the price, resulting in what has been estimated as a million dollar a day profit(they don't really talk about this in the film but its true so i wanted to state it) in harlem he only had four blocks which didn;t really matter cause he had the best product(again not mentioned in the movie)
anyway about the movie. the plot is simple the rise and fall of a gangster we've seen it more then a dozen times, but the plot is not as important as the characters. russel crowes richie roberts was fantastic(even thou you could really care less abotu his character) the filmshowed a dynamic which i always wanted to do in a film. have the bad guy be a good guy who does bad things and have a bad guy who does good things. crowes character while not being a dirty cop was a rotten person horrible husband and dead beat dad, while denzels lucas was the exact opposite. showing both sides of the story may have been a flaw thou as this feels like two defferent movies(in fact ridley wanted to do two movies fromthe same script) it feel like half serpico half scarface. the last hour or so in this film is amazing. the only thing i hated was how they glorified frnak at the end and tried to make him look like a hero instead of the drug dealling ******* he was. his product was responsible for hundreds if not thousands of deaths across the country(actually they mention this in the film but its breezed passed) also when he was arrested he snitched on many of his rivals and his family, the main person he snitched on was nicky barnes(another low life rat)who was played by cuba gooding juinor i wish they could've had more of nicky and if they do a film about him they should get cuba to play him cause he looked just like nicky there's even a seen where he's holding up a time magazine cover with the real nicky barnes on it and cuba could be his son they looked so much alike. that was another contrast in the film while nicky was load and flashy like the itialians he worked for. frank was quite and low key(except for the occasion when he had to blow somebodies brains out). anyway thats the film pretty much filled with contrast(oh just to make this a little martial the rza from wu tang clan had a great role in this film as a narcotics cop, funny he played a cop when he was accused of running guns for the gambino's).
so thats it so far they've done three movies about the harlem trfecta of guy fisher, nicky barnes and frank lucas(paid in full was guy fishers story,superfly and american gangster were about frank lucas) only nicky has yet to have a hollywood movie made about him.
denzel washington plays "Superfly" himself frank lucas, who was a herion trafficker during the vietnam war, frank had his drug connect directly from thailand(note: some of the extras used in thailand were actually involved in franks drug running) which was defferent from any other black "gangster" in harlem who got there drugs from the mafia, frank also sold a better product then the compition at half the price, resulting in what has been estimated as a million dollar a day profit(they don't really talk about this in the film but its true so i wanted to state it) in harlem he only had four blocks which didn;t really matter cause he had the best product(again not mentioned in the movie)
anyway about the movie. the plot is simple the rise and fall of a gangster we've seen it more then a dozen times, but the plot is not as important as the characters. russel crowes richie roberts was fantastic(even thou you could really care less abotu his character) the filmshowed a dynamic which i always wanted to do in a film. have the bad guy be a good guy who does bad things and have a bad guy who does good things. crowes character while not being a dirty cop was a rotten person horrible husband and dead beat dad, while denzels lucas was the exact opposite. showing both sides of the story may have been a flaw thou as this feels like two defferent movies(in fact ridley wanted to do two movies fromthe same script) it feel like half serpico half scarface. the last hour or so in this film is amazing. the only thing i hated was how they glorified frnak at the end and tried to make him look like a hero instead of the drug dealling ******* he was. his product was responsible for hundreds if not thousands of deaths across the country(actually they mention this in the film but its breezed passed) also when he was arrested he snitched on many of his rivals and his family, the main person he snitched on was nicky barnes(another low life rat)who was played by cuba gooding juinor i wish they could've had more of nicky and if they do a film about him they should get cuba to play him cause he looked just like nicky there's even a seen where he's holding up a time magazine cover with the real nicky barnes on it and cuba could be his son they looked so much alike. that was another contrast in the film while nicky was load and flashy like the itialians he worked for. frank was quite and low key(except for the occasion when he had to blow somebodies brains out). anyway thats the film pretty much filled with contrast(oh just to make this a little martial the rza from wu tang clan had a great role in this film as a narcotics cop, funny he played a cop when he was accused of running guns for the gambino's).
so thats it so far they've done three movies about the harlem trfecta of guy fisher, nicky barnes and frank lucas(paid in full was guy fishers story,superfly and american gangster were about frank lucas) only nicky has yet to have a hollywood movie made about him.