American Gangster

Rated R for language, violence, nudity, sexuality, drug use

Starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe
In the late 1970s, Frank Lucas (Washington) became the top dog in New York, being able to get better seats at events than even the Mob Bosses could. He views loyalty, respect, honesty and remembering where you came from to be of utmost importance and loves his momma enough to make sure she's secured financially even buying her a huge house, however he makes all his money from selling "Blue Magic." Cutting out the middle man, Frank gets his stuff directly from overseas, making his product the most pure available, meaning it's the best, and he sells it at half the price the others do - it's a better product at a better price. The problem, "Blue Magic" is heroin.

Seeing Frank at a boxing match, with better seats than the Dons, good cop Richie (Crowe), who is known for being too honest in admist of crooked cops (his partner and he find $1 million in a car and turn it in rather than keep it) gets suspicious and starts digging deeper, learning more and more about the Lucas family business. Despite warnings from crooked cops, Richie and his Narcatics force go after the Lucas's and in the process, result in fixing one of the biggest New York corrupt cop problems.

Frank is portrayed as an honest black man, just trying to live the American Dream. Richie is portrayed as one of the few good cops left, trying to do his job (he tells one crooked cop that "where I come from, cops arrest the bad guys") despite his own personal problems. Both are deep characters.

Odds are, you'll see this one nominated come Oscartime.