Catching a drug dealer who can disguise himself while leaving no trail behind, has power above the mafia and ships heroin overseas in the coffins of soldiers is no biggie, right? In “American Gangster,” Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is assigned the hard task of tracking down Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), the tricky drug dealer responsible for the man in charge of getting people hooked onto heroin.

The movie opens with a shot of Lucas accompanied by his mentor, a man who taught him everything about being a gangster, setting a debtor aflame and shooting him in Harlem. Nothing is clear about the story line until Lucas’ mentor dies in a television store.

After the old gangster dies, Lucas takes over the deceased man’s drug dealing business. He obtains pure heroin and opium from Thailand, where labor is cheap, and sells the drugs in the U.S. for half the price. Lucas manages to bribe the mafia and military into helping him with his moneymaking schemes, making it hard for the police to track down. No one suspects Lucas’ true roots; he owns a nightclub and is the perfect brother and son at home. Meanwhile, Detective Richie Roberts tries to track Lucas down. The job, predictably, proves to be tough, since the police agency is chock full of bribed police officers.

This movie is not the “must-see” film of the year. It is far too lengthy with a total running time of 2 hours and 37 minutes. There are unnecessary scenes and the beginning is crudely made, slow and very confusing. The camera work is far from spectacular and disorients the audience in several scenes.

Nevertheless, the story line progressively becomes more interesting and hooks the audience’s attention around the middle of the movie. I hung on to every word of the film until it ended and kept wondering about the event that would happen next as one thing led to another.

If you do not normally watch gangster films, you may enjoy “American Gangster.” But for avid movie watchers, the film is nothing more than a run-of-the-mill gangster flick.