I’d argue that she was good enough in Leon and Beautiful Girls to get me to like her performances in Closer, Garden State and V For Vendetta well enough.

But then, the Star Wars movies sit like a giant, festering and confusing turd right there in the middle of her resume, and can’t be ignored…

Wait, what? Has Chev been using me as a glove-puppet on the boards of the internet again?

Having said that, I can’t agree with you on this. If we’re drawing the broad comparison, I’d allow that you could say it was GoodFellas redone – and that Blow was GoodFellas redone as well.

But the elements that Blow owes to that movie are different from the ones that ICAN GANGSTER does. If anything, Blow is a step back from the excesses of GoodFellas, trying to present it’s subject as a well-meaning and hapless free-spirit who ends up saddled with the criminal tag because his ideals aren’t in line with society. ICAN GANGSTER’s criminal protagonist is, while clearly capable of charm, never portrayed as anything other than a sociopath and a monster.

The dropping of the voice-over is a major shift from the other two movies, too.

And where they both take pains to give their central characters the get-out clause of never being as violent as their more extreme associates, those characters still get caught, and do their time, presenting the whole scenarios as slightly regrettable cautionary tales about how crime kinda doesn’t really pay long-term – even though it’s lots of fun in the short.
I think, in those films, you’re supposed to root for them – or at least, the peril in the films is as often about the fear of the harder gangsters or the authorities that are closing in.

The only thing to be scared of in American Gangster is Denzel Washington, who is an absolutely ‘orrible cunt if there ever was one. Even his eventual capture happens pretty much all of a sudden in relative terms – up till then the only real worry in the film is what the hell terrible thing will he do next.

And then he gets off with almost no time served at all. By serving up people who did a lot less harm than him…

Actually, thinking about it – I don’t agree with your reasons for not being fussed about the film, but I’m starting to wonder whether I liked it at all myself… It’s not got a very nice message to it, really, has it?

Portman was good in Leon, after that, no.

Scarlett Johansson I have come to be a little non-plussed by, but as I said, in this film she’s pretty convincing, when no-one else can muster it.

Keira Knightley isn’t good. Though I respect her recent – and overdue – stance on body image, I can’t enjoy her haw-haw delivery.

I probably still would, though. But probably not for good reasons.

American Gangster was just Blow redone. Only Blow was slightly better because I hadn’t seen it all before (apart from in Goodfellas).