American Gangster

So, no offense to Denzel "Gorgeous" Washington, his perfect teeth, or his lovely symmetrical face, but I don't think I recommend "American Gangster." The story was good, the acting was great, and the dingy streets of Vietnam-era Harlem were really believable. There was one scene when I was really excited he killed a guy in the middle of the day in the street... that was awesome, in a "killing a bad man in broad daylight when he gives you attitude" kind of way. But, overall, it was way too graphic. The violence was hard to watch some of the time, it was just so brutal. The naked ladies were way too naked, the sex scenes were gross, and the numerous drug-injecting/infected-drug-injection-sites shots were just way too much to handle. I think that the director meant for the movie to be so difficult to watch. It was really real. Sometimes, though, I think movies like that can be too real, if that makes sense. I just couldn't handle it.
Denzel, however, was one of the most lovable murderous drug-lords I have ever seen. He was really charismatic. You were almost cheering for the bad guy as much as the good guy (Russell Crowe, the cop-- not as lovable a character, perhaps just because of the costumer's denim choices for the man).