Hallo... my name is Amsterdam.. prepare to die...

Rating: 5/10 (4 January 2003)

Gangs of New York had so much potential. It could have been a powerful, gut-wrenching, pseudo-historical epic... but alas, no such luck.

It suffers most from a lack of aim. It doesn't know whether to be a tale about an aggravated period of New York's history, or a simple tale of revenge. And after stumbling back and forth for three hours trying to decide which direction to go in - it ultimately fails to satisfy on both accounts. Daniel Day Lewis pays wonderful homage to Deniro (although I'm not sure if that was intentional), and the rest of the cast do an okay job. But if I were you, I'd leave after the opening sequence 'cos it ain't going nowhere but downhill from there my friends.