Rating of
2.5/4
Not bad but unfortunately not great.
jmoney1776 - wrote on 10/27/07
I was very pumped up to see Gangs of New York. It seemed to be that Scorsese was making an epic about the city he had grown up in and set most of his movies in, and I didn't think there was any way he could fail. Unfortunately I was only partially right. There are parts of GONY that are spectacular. Daniel Day Lewis, the direction, the story, the cinematography, the sets, and the editing are all wonderful. There are two major problems. Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz. They are both horribly mis-cast and that's a big problem. Cameron Diaz as the street wise prostitute, I don't think so. Leonardo DiCaprio going toe to toe with Daniel Day Lewis. Leo's good, but DeNiro might get eaten up by DDL. All in all the film was a let down and I was glad to see Scorsese and DiCaprio bounce back with the Aviator which had the exact opposite reaction from me. I didn't think I would like it that much but I ended up loving it. Thinking about GONY these days I'm just curious as to what would have happened had Scorsese made it in the late 70's like he had originally planned. Would it have been a better film or would it have gone the same way as Heaven's Gate and Scorsese the same way as Cimino and Bogdanovich? Sure would have been interesting to see a young DeNiro as Bill the Butcher.
