Amateur production, was this really Scorsese?

Rating: 1/10 (15 January 2007)

What a waste of time! Here I was, thinking I would have a nice Sunday night in, watching a block buster film directed by a well renowned director, featuring numerous talented actors. How wrong I was...
If you suffer from insomnia, this is your solution (alhtough it is a rather noisy option). The Gangs of New York is boring, long, has no exciting plot or development, bad acting, set and make-up, and is so inconsistent in its message (is there one?) that you are left feeling truly robbed of the almost three precious hours lost watching this Z-film.
Where shall I start? All actors, apart from some of the small roles including Liam Neeson, have been thoroughly badly directed. They have accents I don't know from where, their lines are presented with difficulty and feel laboured, almost as in an amateur school production. I've never been a fan of DiCaprio in his older persona anyway, but what about Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz and some otherwise excellent British actors making fools of themselves? The set is dreadful and ridiculous, the make-up and especially the wigs some of the worst I've seen on screen, the costumes unimaginative.
Then there's the story... You are left in the dark for the first five or ten minutes, then the rest is so obvious and drags on so slowly you just want to cry. The end seems to have arrived from another script. Is there a political, racial, or even Shakespearian message? I don't know! Does Scorsese know?
And I haven't even commented on the stupefying violence...
All I can say about this film: Beware!! Watch something intelligent instead, or even something stupid but well made.