“American Gangster”: Stellar stars, intriguing story, “is that all there is?” finale.

You pay your money, you roll the dice.

“The Godfather Trilogy” notwithstanding, you can’t beat Denzel Washington vs. Russell Crowe for fireworks.

At least in theory.

The problem here with the two alpha males - Denzel as real-life ’70s Harlem crime boss Frank Lucas and Russ as slovenly, straight-arrow police detective Richie Roberts, the man in charge of a new drug-busting unit - is they don’t meet until near the end of the picture.

And then it’s more like shadow boxing than two heavyweights trading punches.

Prior to the mini-climax, “American Gangster” tells separate stories, one about the rise of the polished, deadly drug king, the other about problems encountered by an honest cop whose shady colleagues hate him for rejecting big bag of cash.

Nothing particularly new there - except for a Harlem-vs.-the-Mafia angle and a character-revealing womanizing-cop-fights-for-the-right-to-keep-seeing-his-son subplot.

The scenarios’ famililarity is another problem with the newest “Gangster” drama.

The acting’s as good as you would expect from the two icons. And for a picture that runs 2 hours, 38 minutes, it had better be.

But after the big build-up, the ending disappoints.

After watching it, take another look at “The Godfather” or its first sequel; at “Goodfellas” or “King of New York” and compare them in terms of grittiness, satisfaction and aftertaste.

See what they do right.

A hint: It starts with the writing.

“Donnie Brasco” with its pas de deux by Johnny Depp and Al Pacino is another good choice.

“New Jack City,” “The Untouchables,” “Scarface” - the remake or the original - “White Heat” and “Little Caesar” are more provocative options, the last three in terms of seeing the old-school take on handling hoods.

“American Gangster” is an above-average crime drama. “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II” are genius. The rest are damn good.

Naturally, you agree.

Or do you?

Can you recommend other alternatives?

It would be a crime to keep them to yourself.