Denzel Washington brings drug kingpin Frank Lucas to life in American Gangster.

When it comes to gangster movies, there’s Goodfellas, the first two Godfather films and everything else. It’s admirable that American Gangster so fervently aspires to join that elite company, but just because Ridley Scott’s (Gladiator, Black Hawk Down) film is a long, ambitious epic doesn’t make it great.

Aside from the solid performances and inherently interesting storyline, there’s a distinctly bland, almost indifferent tone to the proceedings, which denies them style and emotion. Most of the time merely being “good,” which American Gangster is, would suffice, but with clear Oscar aspirations and names like Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe attached, a more apt description is “not good enough.”

The script by Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List), based on a true story, keeps drug kingpin Frank Lucas (Washington) and the cop on his trail, Richie Roberts (Crowe), apart for the bulk of the 157-minute running time. It is the late 1960s in New York City, and while Roberts is besieged with personal problems, Lucas goes straight to the source of his heroin supply in Bangkok and uses the coffins of U.S. soldiers to smuggle the drugs home. He calls the 100 percent pure heroin “Blue Magic,” and soon his brother Huey (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and other brothers and cousins help him run the most profitable drug ring in Harlem.

As Lucas’ and Roberts’ storylines slowly converge, a sense of inevitability takes over; you know where it’s going, and become frustrated that it’s taking so long to get there. When the plot lines do intersect during the last half-hour, the dialogue is so casual and uninspired that the two talented actors virtually sleepwalk through the scenes, instead of bringing vitality to the climax.

In a way, that’s reflective of the movie as a whole: It has a lot of appealing elements, but lacks vigor and a sense of urgency. The beginning is 10 to 15 minutes too long and there are too many subplots — a crooked cop (Josh Brolin) who blackmails Lucas, a rival drug dealer (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and a Sicilian mob boss (Armand Assante) who’s unhappy about Frank’s prosperity. These segments, along with Lucas’ marriage to Miss Puerto Rico (newcomer Lymari Nadal), detract from Scott’s ability to build suspense around the main storyline of Roberts’ efforts to track and bust Lucas’ cartel.

The movie also lacks emotion. Not since Thelma and Louise (1991) has Scott successfully gotten to the heart of his characters (with the exception of the underappreciated Matchstick Men). Here he fails to give us anyone to care about. Although Washington makes his character likable, there’s no mistaking that Lucas is a murderous, dope-smuggling war profiteer who deserves to fall. Similarly, Roberts is an adulterous, estranged father who’s walking out on his marriage for the sake of his career. It’s clear who you’re supposed to root for, but a feeling of indifference slowly overtakes the movie as you realize how flawed each man truly is.

And yet reactions to the movie are sure to be more favorable than indifferent. One cannot discount the inherent thrill in seeing Washington and Crowe share the screen, and because the crime saga is so naturally captivating it’s easy to get wrapped up in what’s happening in spite of the movie’s shortcomings.