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By Cole Smithey

‘American Gangster’

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Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe deliver inspired performances as rivals from opposite sides of the law in director Ridley Scott’s restrained true-crime epic about ’70s era Harlem drug king Frank Lucas (Washington) and Richie Roberts (Crowe), the honest cop who brings him down. Before smuggling 100 kilos of heroin from Southeast Asia with help from the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, Lucas usurps his respected crime boss mentor Bumpy Johnson when he drops dead from a heart attack. An upstanding Harlem community figure, Lucas undercuts his competition’s drug prices and builds a cartel that enables him to marry Miss Puerto Rico, and move his family to New York from North Carolina. Although entertaining “American Gangster” fails to rise to the level of movies like “Scarface” or “The Godfather” due, in part, to a lack of vision by cinematographer Harris Savides and Marc Streitenfeld’s underachieving musical score.

There’s never any question that Scott’s Americana-now gangster movie will pay out in deep character dividends from Washington and Crowe — two brilliant actors working at the height of their powers. However, this objectively gritty movie never makes the electric emotional connections to make it sizzle.

Crowe’s detective Roberts is the “Serpico” of his day. He wears an indelible reputation of honesty from turning a huge amount of drug money in to the police department after finding it in a car trunk. Roberts is also a womanizer willing to confront his own inability to function as a partial parent to his son. His ex-wife hates him with a ferocity that only comes from passion. But Roberts’s ardor lays in breaking up the drug cartel that’s eating Harlem like cockroaches on steroids. Though committed to his undercover work Roberts is also an aspiring attorney, and it strikes the movie as false when Roberts nebbish trail demeanor seems at odds to his poise as a cop. Crowe’s decision to overplay Roberts humility in this instance carries a snake-in-the-grass affectation that further splits the film’s arc.

A movie entitled “American Gangster” should be about one man. Screenwriter Steven Zaillian doesn’t heed the distinction, as evidenced in his misguided attempt to give equal time to Lucas and Roberts. Lucas is the underdog protagonist hero that the audience wants to see win. Washington plays the character as cunning, fair and generous. There’s nothing to connect Lucas to the mean streets of Scorsese’s ’70s era Manhattan. It’s here that the screenwriter and director conspire to some narrative sleight of hand by substituting Washington’s spotless leading character for Crowe’s ethically-willed cop. In doing so, the true-crime-epic gets relegated to a standard issue police procedural, rather than the soaring tale it hints at but never achieves.

Supporting performances from Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cuba Gooding Jr. Armand Assante, John Hawkes and RZA add a wealth of character texture and emotional color to a movie that should be better than it is. That said, “American Gangster” is a great movie to go see. CV

By Jared Curtis

‘The Final Season’

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After living in Iowa for most of my 27 years and playing baseball throughout my youth into high school, I was surprised that I didn’t know about Norway baseball and its tradition. But after watching “The Final Season,” I related to the story, even though the sentimental shutdown of a small town baseball program never affected me, and in the end, “The Final Season” falls flat.

The story of coach Jim Van Scoyoc (Powers Boothe) is chock full of tradition. After winning 19 championships in 23 years, Norway baseball put the small town (population 586) on the map. But a decision by the school board to close the school and merge with a larger district caused an uproar that not even their sacred coach could help. After deciding to fire the beloved coach, the school board believes that the team will destroy their season, bringing an end to its winning tradition. But they were wrong. After working as an assistant coach the previous season, Kent Stock (Sean Austin) is asked to leave his job and return to coach the team in its final season.

Star of “The Goonies,” “White Water Summer,” “Rudy” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Austin has been acting for a long time, even though it doesn’t show in his performance here. He ho-hums his way through the entire film, trying to be the heart and soul of the team, though he fails to bring enthusiasm to the role.

After moving from Chicago to live with his grandparents, Mitch Akers (Michael Angarano) becomes a big fish in a small pond. Moving to Norway, which has a population as big as a Chicago city block, he mopes around causing trouble for his grandparents with the kids in town, who are gang-like and won’t allow “city boys” into their group. They argue and poke fun at each other until we find out Akers’ dad Burt (Tom Arnold), was a former Norway standout. Akers gives up his rebellious attitude and makes the team (what a surprise?).

The team wins its first game of the season, but begins to struggle like they never have before. Better players have moved on and other players aren’t interested in playing for anyone but their beloved Coach Van Scoyoc. After Coach Stock gets the boys believing in themselves, the team manages to roll into the playoffs.

Director David M. Evans knows how to direct a baseball movie. “The Sandlot” is one of the best baseball movies, even though its main focus is about a group of kids growing up and building a friendship through baseball. I think he was trying to do the same here, but reversing the formula, showing us how baseball is more important than life. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. “The Final Season” isn’t filled with an entertaining cast of misfit pre-teens; it is just some small town farm kids playing the game they love.

When a baseball movie only has a few moments of action spread over a thin story, you know you’re in trouble. Rachael Leigh Cook (“She’s All That,” “Josie and the Pussycats”) shows up as an advisor to the school board. Pushing for the merger, she quickly turns into a love interest for Coach Stock, which could have been left out all together. Cook adds nothing to film, and, among other things, slows the films pace.

Overall, I was bored with the film. The final game was intriguing, but after looking into the story, I knew the outcome. A great moment, however, came before the team got on the bus to play in the championship game when players grabbed a little bit of dirt from their home field and carried it to the game. After taking the field, they dropped their sacred Norway dirt onto the field, giving them the power of home field advantage. Still, when a moment like this is the best part of a baseball story, the director and the film have struck out. CV

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