less fake blood, more (some) plot

Rating: 5/10 (29 December 2002)

For this whopping undertaking, Scorcese would have been well-advised to have spent less of his huge budget on fake blood and whacking sounds, and a little more on a plot. The tedium of the gray simplistic, uni-dimensional and incredibly long-developing plot, sprinkled with gratuitous half-naked women kissing each other -- a little male fantasy having nothing to do with what plot there was -- gave a feel as if we were watching a kid at work who was trying to be a big movie maker. Maybe the "catch me if you can" kid. Where did Scorcese get his reputation anyway? Even had his plot had more than one dimension, he would have benefitted from remembering what Shakespeare mastered -- break up the tone, the mood, then to return for better effect. The monotony of the atmosphere and blood and more blood and whack, whack, whack, whack was, well, utterly boring. Too bad. Interesting period. The good news -- Leonardo can escape into character.