Very well executed

So much average

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

If you saw "American Gangster" with Denzel and Russel Crowe, you might have thought you got a view of the 1970's black gangster scene- and you did- but it was the fake Hollywood version. The character played by Denzel named "Frank Lucas" is really a montage of all the top Black gangsters of the era like Nicky Barnes, Pee-Wee Kirkland, New York Freddie Myers and others. But the king of them all, and even those guys themselves have admitted this- will tell you Frank Matthews was the KING of the Black underworld in the early 70's. The Federal Prosecutor who tried to take him down compared him to recent high profile Mob convict Whitey Bulger like this -"Whitey Bulger was a thug...compared to Frank Matthews....Matthews was a true pioneer in drug distribution and controlled the Eastern seaboard". Frank Matthews ran an operation that spanned multiple states and countries. When he was finally indicted the CIA showed up at the prosecutor's office. If you like any Mafia, crime, gangster documentaries THIS IS A MUST SEE. You could almost call Matthews the Black Lucky Luciano.