American Gangster (Ridley Scott, 2007)

[Antoine Doinel]

The trailer is here. And it looks great.

[flyonthewall2983]

That it does.

[Oedipax]

The great Harris Savides delivers again. Oh, and hopefully Ridley Scott, too.

Can't wait to see it.

[patrick]

Great trailer - further proof that Denzel is at his best playing badasses (even when they're "good" badasses like his character in Inside Man). He's got a lot of charm and it never seems to shine through in his "decent man overcoming adversity" parts.

Great use of the Jay-Z song too.

[Via_Chicago]

I don't really like Scott (I don't think he's made a truly good movie since Blade Runner, horribly jumbled and compromised as it is), but I do like Denzel, so I'll probably be checking this out if the reviews are at all favorable.

[Highway 61]

Totally different than what I expected, but very enticing.

[Handsome Dan]

The trailer looks pretty nifty, but is anyone else sick of movies called American _____________ ?

[marty]

It looks like a poor cousin to The Departed but for black folk. We all know black gansters are hopeless and just shoot one another and don't have the charisma and class of the Italian mafia.

[exte]

Yeah because The Departed was all about the Italian mafia... And no, not everything can be The Godfather either, I suppose....

[marty]

Yeah because The Departed was all about the Italian mafia... And no, not everything can be The Godfather either, I suppose....

All of the black gangsta films made in recent years have been pretty poor films. I can't recall any that were truly awesome. They are all about bling and rap music and guys in tracksuits who can barely speak English.

[lord_clyde]

Yeah because The Departed was all about the Italian mafia... And no, not everything can be The Godfather either, I suppose....

All of the black gangsta films made in recent years have been pretty poor films. I can't recall any that were truly awesome. They are all about bling and rap music and guys in tracksuits who barely speak English.

You forgot the solid gold shotguns.

[flyonthewall2983]

That's gotta be heavy to carry around.

[lord_clyde]

That's gotta be heavy to carry around.

I wonder if it takes solid gold ammo?

[TedW]

Can't say that movie looks in any way remarkable, or even good.

[flyonthewall2983]

Extended Trailer. God Damn, this looks good.

[Oedipax]

Ridley Scott joins the cell phones are killing cinema chorus. Personally, I prefer David Lynch's more direct "Get fucking real!"

[Antoine Doinel]

Jon Polito is in this too? Awesome.

[cubebrick]

All of the black gangsta films made in recent years have been pretty poor films. I can't recall any that were truly awesome. They are all about bling and rap music and guys in tracksuits who can barely speak English.

You're walking a fine line between criticism of film and criticism of culture. Keep the somewhat racist undertones to yourself please.

[The Invunche]

Criticism of culture can be perfectly valid.

[John Cope]

Criticism of culture can be perfectly valid.

I second that, but it's not even culture we're talking about. The description above applies to a form of society not culture, which is ideally supposed to transcend the limitations of set groups. It has a more extensive application, in other words.

[solaris72]

Ridley Scott joins the cell phones are killing cinema chorus.

I think movies are getting dumber, actually. Where it used to be 50/50, now it's 3% good, 97% stupid.

Yeah right, like it was ever 50/50. The dumber ones have just gotten louder.

[Via_Chicago]

Ridley Scott joins the cell phones are killing cinema chorus.

I think movies are getting dumber, actually. Where it used to be 50/50, now it's 3% good, 97% stupid.

Yeah right, like it was ever 50/50. The dumber ones have just gotten louder.

Ridley Scott has done his part to contribute to the 97%. Besides, he's reached the age now where he can sit back at a critical distance and forget about the past.[/quote]

[Antoine Doinel]

Ridley Scott meets Norman Rockwell.

For whatever it's worth, Jay-Z is recording a new album "inspired" by the film.

From Pitchforkmedia:

Jay-Z Records Sorta Soundtrack for American Gangster

So maybe Kingdom Come didn't exactly see Jigga coming "back like Jordan wearing the 4-5." But, cobwebs adequately shaken out over the last few months, you can raise those hopes again for a new Jay-Z album. According to The New York Times, Jay has been working on a record inspired by American Gangster, the forthcoming Ridley Scott film starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Common, T.I., and RZA. The disc drops November 6 via (duh) Def Jam, according to Billboard.com, and the movie is out November 2.

If you've seen the trailer for the film (which, if you've been to a theater in the last three months, you almost certainly have), you've caught the strains of The Blueprint's "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)" rolling through the background. But that's old news, as Jay told the Times he's got nine new songs done for the disc already.

There's no tracklist yet, though it's supposed to include "Pray", "No Hook" (sounds like an outtake from his last record, LOL) and "Blue Magic", reported by Billboard.com to have been produced by that cutie Pharrell Williams. Jay-Z's American Gangster apparently isn't the film's official soundtrack, which will be released separately.

In other Jay-Z news, that new "I Get Money" remix is pretty good.

[flyonthewall2983]

A short EPK.

[Antoine Doinel]

Apparently the film has leaked to the web, and you can download the script here.