Scorsese's worst

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2003)

While certainly not a bad film, this is undoubtedly my least favourite Scorsese movie (well,out of the ones I've seen). I was so excited when I heard about the film and the actors because I do actually feel DiCaprio is not a bad actor in general and he's not bad in this either. The problem with this film, I think is the plot. All it is is one guy kills other guy's dad, years later first guy takes his revenge. That's it. There is no more to this story. Does Scorsese not realise that this is the story of The Lion King? Does he not understand how ridiculously unoriginal the film is?
So I hear you ask - how come the film is a whopping 2hrs and 45 mins long? Because to make up for the lack of anything to do in the story Scorsese tries to put in every random event that happened in that period into the film despite the fact they have little to do with the plot. What was the point in going on about the drafts for so long. Amsterdam himself says that none of the gangsters were going to be drafted so why do we keep hearing about these things that have nothing to do with the characters? Why go on and on about the riots when none of the people we have been introduced to are taking part?
However like I said earlier this film is not bad. The battle scenes while sometimes grotesque are epic and worth the watch. Day-Lewis's De Niro impression is spot on as well and he is quite a good bad guy. Be warned however, this film is severely depressing. My friends and I walked in with intentions to go for a drink afterwards. However, by the end of the film we all felt so down we all just went to bed.