Better late then Never-Thoughts about 'Gangs of New York'

I am a little late on this, It's hard for a man such as myself to stay up on all the events of film, television and music. So often times hit songs, summer blockbusters or witty sitcoms go unwatched or unnoticed by me for some time. Case in point; 2002's 'Gangs of New York.' A film almost a decade old now... I know, I must be slipping in my old age, but if anyone out there actually reads my blogs I'm not too terribly fascinated with modern things. I love 'Back to the Future', 1994 and the dixie chicks for God's sake.

I digress.

After hearing basically nothing but rave reviews over 'Gangs of New York' for the past 8 years I decided it was high time I watched and got my mind blown by another Scorsese picture, ole Martin rarely disappoints. So with the aid of my best buy gift card I was finally able to watch this critically acclaimed piece of cinema.

I was unimpressed.

Let me explain a few reasons why.

1. I felt it was way too over the top. The movie as a whole felt much more like a Michael Bay/ Jerry Bruckheimer production then a Martin Scorsese film. Relying too heavily on stylized action sequences, explosions and exaggerated outfits and weapons then story telling. Civil war era meets Tim Burton's 'Batman Returns' was all I could think of.

2. The character development of Amsterdam Vallon, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, was severely unbalanced in comparison to Daniel Day Lewis' character, Bill "the Butcher". Basically they show us that Amsterdam's father got killed by Bill the butcher when Amsterdam was a boy and he wants to avenge his fathers death. Thats his goal in life, kinda Like the shark from 'Jaws' Amsterdam only wants blood. And also like the shark from 'Jaws' Amsterdam is equally one dimensional. Meanwhile we see Bill the Butcher go through a range of different emotions, stages and insights into his life and just generally feel a more deep connection with Bill's character. Now I'm sure a good portion of that is due to the fact that Daniel Day Lewis is a much better actor then DiCaprio but that still doesn't excuse it. We're suppose to feel more connected to the protagonist, we want them to succeed, we want to feel for them but when the protagonist is completely void of depth and dimension we feel nothing for them. That is certainly the case with Amsterdam Vallon.

3. I'm an american, I don't like watching 3 hour long movies.

4. Any movie that Bono writes the music for I want nothing to do with.