Gangs of New York

Martin Scorsese's newest film takes the viewer back to New York City in 1863, the same year as the infamous draft riots and right in the middle of the Civil War. The characters are compelling, however I've never been impressed by Leonardo DiCaprio. Daniel Day Lewis, however, gives a fabulous performance as Bill the Butcher. Cameron Diaz was...well we'll just call her acceptable...her work I'm never really enthusiastic about. Martin Scorsese directs it phenomenally up until the very end where he cranks the volume up on the music while images are shown. This really ruined the end of the movie for me because the music was neither appropriate nor tasteful. Other than that, the imagery was beautiful and foreshadowing was used tastefully in an excellent script. At times humorous, but mostly purely dramatic. Some comment on the amount of violence in the film, but I think that isn't important. Nobody seems to have a problem when the violence accompanies a plotless disasterpiece like XXX or the Matrix, but a dramatic movie gets criticized for it. Overall I give this movie a

A-