Great entertainment but come on ................

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2003)

I was so looking forward to this but left feeling somehow disappointed, mostly because the whole thing was frankly rather unbelievable. Yes the direction and acting is brilliant and the cinematography is wonderfully beautiful. Daniel Day Lewis is amazing and his head in hand scenes and face and body language are worth the admission money alone. I do have problems though, first, Leonardo is undoubtedly a very pretty boy and good actor but he is certainly NOT a hard-man, Daniel Day Lewis brilliant though he is, hams it up in such a Faganesque manner that you do wonder how these two would last 5 minutes on Six Points with some of the characters and rival gangs that are lurking about nevermind that they are supposedly bossing the neighbourhood. Next, why does Amsterdam spend so long in the Butchers company and defend him so vehemently, does it really need 'Monk' to remind him that 'your father was always loyal to his people' and then return his cut throat to remind him that revenge is surely what should be on his mind?. The violence is strong and seems a bit over the top, also again a bit hard to believe that anyone could for example possibly survive the first mass battle. If you dont care for violence at the cinema this is certainly not for you. On the flip side the knife throwing scene is brilliantly exciting and Cameron looks genuinely frightened, I know I was, fell in love with her again - damn. The immigrant and civil war recurring theme does work well and is cleverly worked with immigrants arriving and being packed straight off to the south on one side of the dock while the bodies in coffins are being returned on the other. Don't get me wrong Im giving it a 7/10 and yeah its a good entertaining movie alright, I was just hoping for a 9.5 from 'Don' Martin.