New York Post

Denzel Washington dazzles in his best screen performance to date as Frank Lucas.

A review by Lou Lumenick for New York Post around 2007-11-02

Chicago Sun-Times

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

A review by Roger Ebert for Chicago Sun-Times around 2007-11-02

Washington Post

It has the aspirations of an epic of crime and punishment, a superb feel for time and milieu, and an almost subliminal feel for myth.

A review by Stephen Hunter for Washington Post around 2007-11-02

Los Angeles Times

Finely made and richly satisfying film.

A review by Kenneth Turan for Los Angeles Times around 2007-11-02

Austin Chronicle

Crowe has rarely been better, and the same goes for director Scott, who parallels and then dovetails Lucas and Roberts' stories with sublime, gritty precision, working up to a magnificent "Godfather III"-style crosscutting sequence that electrifies an already explosive tale.

A review by Marc Savlov for Austin Chronicle around 2007-11-02

Rolling Stone

Call it the black "Scarface" or "the Harlem Godfather" or just one hell of an exciting movie.

A review by Peter Travers for Rolling Stone around 2007-11-02

USA Today

The movie, based on a true story, takes surprising twists and turns right up to its chilling ending and is probably the best gangster crime drama of the year.

A review by Claudia Puig for USA Today around 2007-11-02

Miami Herald

What American Gangster does have -- what makes it such a commanding, exhilarating movie -- is a consummate love and understanding of story.

A review by Rene Rodriguez for Miami Herald around 2007-11-02

The A.V. Club

Only Washington stands out; he's charming, intense, and charismatic as ever.

A review by Tasha Robinson for The A.V. Club around 2007-11-02

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A riveting piece of movie storytelling, mounted with a genuinely epic flair, shot and edited in a no-nonsense, classic style.

A review by William Arnold for Seattle Post-Intelligencer around 2007-11-02

Portland Oregonian

This impressive film feels more like a display, if an often dazzling one, than a genuine experience.

A review by Shawn Levy for Portland Oregonian around 2007-11-02

The Hollywood Reporter

It's workmanlike and engrossing, but what sticks in the mind are Frank and Richie, not what anybody does.

A review by Kirk Honeycutt for The Hollywood Reporter around 2007-11-02

Variety

Absorbing, exciting at times and undeniably entertaining, and is poised to be a major commercial hit. But great it's not.

A review by Todd McCarthy for Variety around 2007-11-02

The New Yorker

The pace of the movie is rapid, almost hectic, the touch glancing. Until the confrontation between Frank and Richie at the end, nothing stays on the screen for long, although Scott, working in the street, or in clubs and at parties, packs as much as he can into the corners of shots, and shapes even the most casual scenes decisively.

A review by David Denby for The New Yorker around 2007-11-02

Village Voice

As archetypal as its title, Ridley Scott's would-be epic aspires to enshrine Harlem dope king Frank Lucas in Hollywood heaven, heir to Scarface and the Godfather. Or, as suggested by the Mark Jacobson article on Lucas that inspired the movie, a real-life Superfly.

A review by J. Hoberman for Village Voice around 2007-11-02

Wall Street Journal

In the end, though, the success of American Gangster doesn't flow from the originality of its ideas, or its bid for epic status, as much as from its craftsmanship and confident professionalism. It's a great big gangster film, and a good one.

A review by Joe Morgenstern for Wall Street Journal around 2007-11-02

Time

I don't think it attains the Godfather level -- it lacks dark passion and grand-scale irony -- but it is an intelligent, well-made and seductive movie.

A review by Richard Schickel for Time around 2007-11-02

ReelViews

Like in "Training Day" and "Malcolm X," where he portrayed less than perfect individuals, Washington rules the screen. His portrayal is one of many things that elevates this film to the level of being consistently entertaining and occasionally compelling.

A review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews around 2007-11-02

Entertainment Weekly

Meticulous and detailed, a drug-world epic that holds you from moment to moment, immersing you in the intricate and sleazy logistics of crime. Yet the movie isn't quite enthralling; it's more like the ghost version of a '70s classic.

A review by Owen Gleiberman for Entertainment Weekly around 2007-11-02

Christian Science Monitor

Often best around the edges. Without making a big deal about it, Scott reveals how the Mafia, while putting up a businesslike front, deplored the incursion of black gangsters into the drug trade.

A review by Peter Rainer for Christian Science Monitor around 2007-11-02

TV Guide Magazine

Its vivid sense of place and time make it compulsively watchable, even at a running time of two and a half hours.

A review by Maitland McDonagh for TV Guide Magazine around 2007-11-02

Chicago Tribune

It’s a big, juicy 1970s period piece, one foot in real life, the other in the movies, the preferred stance of many Hollywood crime sagas.

A review by Michael Phillips for Chicago Tribune around 2007-11-02

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

As an epic, American Gangster doesn't cut it. The reputations of Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather," Brian De Palma's "Scarface," Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" or Michael Mann's "Heat" are safe. At best, American Gangster is no better than a workmanlike imitation of its betters.

A review by Liam Lacey for The Globe and Mail (Toronto) around 2007-11-02

Philadelphia Inquirer

It lacks momentum, and thus the propulsion required to rocket it into the movie mythosphere.

A review by Carrie Rickey for Philadelphia Inquirer around 2007-11-02

San Francisco Chronicle

Ridley Scott gives it the grand treatment, 157 minutes worth, but in the end, it doesn't stack up as the portrait of an era (the 1970s, in this case) or an important tale of a criminal mastermind.

A review by Mick LaSalle for San Francisco Chronicle around 2007-11-02

New York Magazine (Vulture)

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.

A review by David Edelstein for New York Magazine (Vulture) around 2007-11-02

Slate

The movie is never quite pop enough to get audiences hooting and hollering and quoting favorite lines, nor smart enough to inspire passionate post-movie debate. Scene by scene, the film is unassailably well-crafted. But there's something oddly dull, even respectable, about Scott's adherence to the rules of gangster-film grammar.

A review for Slate around 2007-11-02

The New York Times

Greatness hovers just outside American Gangster, knocking, angling to be let in.

A review by Manohla Dargis for The New York Times around 2007-11-02

Chicago Reader

With one of these two alpha males anchoring nearly every scene, Scott really can't go wrong, but the lead characters are pretty thin, a fact highlighted by generic subplots.

A review by J.R. Jones for Chicago Reader around 2007-11-02

Newsweek

There's a great story here, but it feels like American Gangster hasn't been mined for all its riches.

A review by David Ansen for Newsweek around 2007-11-02

Film Threat

The acting is unquestionably strong, the songs are integrated appropriately (functioning as both audio bridges and dramatic enhancements), and yet something is missing in how the individual pieces of the film--the story, the themes, and the violence--fit together.

A review by Stina Chyn for Film Threat around 2007-11-02

Charlotte Observer

Steven Zaillian never seems completely at home with these characters, not because he's white but because he's a cerebral screenwriter frustrated with a story that gives him little that's meaningful to say. Like Washington and Crowe, he's a chef functioning here as a short-order cook: The meal's perfectly edible but falls short of delicious.

A review by Lawrence Toppman for Charlotte Observer around 2007-11-02

Boston Globe

The result is kitschy entertainment that wants to celebrate Lucas's chutzpah and acumen while loosely condemning what they wrought: "Scarface" with a ghost of a conscience.

A review by Wesley Morris for Boston Globe around 2007-11-02

New York Daily News

The problem is that the movie spends as much time on the boring detective chasing Lucas as on the drug lord himself.

A review by Jack Mathews for New York Daily News around 2007-11-02

The new perspective Scott and Zaillian want to bring to this material never gels convincingly, and despite some effective set pieces, a cast of memorable faces and attitudes, and evocative cinematography by Harris Savides, this would-be epic feels tired and rote.

A review by Glenn Kenny for /reviews/publisher:

Empire

An entertaining romp through familiar cop-and-crim cat-and-mousery, bolstered by strong star turns from Washington and Crowe. Still, it has neither the intelligence nor the grip to jump from the merely good to the truly great.

A review for Empire around 2007-11-02

Baltimore Sun

Misplaced hero-worship and glibness get in the way of its amazing true story.

A review by Michael Sragow for Baltimore Sun around 2007-11-02

Salon

Offers only the stingiest platform for its actors, and as a piece of storytelling -- built on the foundation of a great story -- it's an epic that's been sliced and diced into so many little morsels that almost nothing in it has any weight.

A review by Stephanie Zacharek for Salon around 2007-11-02