if it's too big, it can be bigger

Rating: 3/10 (13 January 2003)

For the first time in my life i feel as though I've been tricked into seeing a movie. After reading Herbert Asbury's GANGS OF NEW YORK, i couldn't imagine that in a million years a film could be made. There's so much information pertaining to the early gangs and the beginnings of organized crime in New York City, but there's no real story. Jay Cocks, the ghostwriter behind the oscar sweeping Titanic (1997), has not used many of the events in the book, but only one as a platform to spin a cliched, boring Titanic-like tale. So basically, Gangs of New York is historical fiction, although some of the characters are based on real people. Martin Scorsese's, America's greatest living director, has gone out of his way to make sure to give Gangs of New York a cutting age look, but there's nothing new here. The battle sequences are too reminiscent of Braveheart, and the tacky love subplot feels tacked on (going to california, bull***t), as it bears no connection to the Dead Rabbits battle with the natives, as the Dead Rabbits battle with the natives has nothing to do with draft riots. A film about the draft riots could have been much better and shorter but who wan ts to see two hours of blood and guts. Duh...EVERYBODY!