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Gangs of New York

Gangs of New York

List Price: $29.99
Your Price: $23.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst Movie Ever
Review: By far, this has to be the worst movie I ever saw. How it was nominated for awards is beyond me.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Martin Scorsese this is your style ? i don`t think so
Review: If there's one word that I can use to describe this long-in-waiting film by master filmmaker Martin Scorsese, it is "disappointing".
the biggest problem wasn't its runtime as much as it was the story, which felt like it was trying to appease too many agendas at the same time, and ended up not truly fulfilling any of them. Is this film about gangs in New York? Sort of...but not entirely. Is this movie about a love affair between an angry young man and a cute pick-pocket? Sort of...but not entirely. Is it about revenge, is it about the history of New York during the late 1800s? Sort of. Lots of stuff is kind of covered in this movie, but none of it goes into much detail,
If you're going to make a 180-minute long movie and expect us to invest ourselves in the lead character, why not show more of his anger and thirst for revenge (see THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO for a great example of this)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: drifting and lifeless
Review: yes i agree daniel day lewis was amazing and i did like the fact that leonardo brought had the fire of revenge in his eyes but ultimately this movie was too long. it was a story i was not a part of. i know the point was to document a certian period but there was so much going on and so many sub-plots that i was lost and never really cared about the action going on. movies are supposed to draw you in and make you become part of the plot. (good movies anyway) so that you leave with a sense of having been a part of something. you get so drawn in that you feel your on that roller coaster ride with the characters. this movie never did any of that. i was bored and indiffernet to the whole thing.
the story is about new york city in the 1800's. Irish immigrants were pouring off the boats in droves and the "native americans" (white folk) were up in arms about the foreign scum invaders taking their work, their country away from them. there was one point in ny city that held a large amount of business potential and out of said point were five roads. named the five points, it was the center of corruption, power control, slum life, gangs and gang war.
daniel day lewis plays "bill the butcher" (so named for his skill with a knife) who is at the top of the players involved. he was well connected and had good muscle behind him to maintain a good deal of control. leonardo plays amsterdam vallon, an irish immigrant who see his father killed when the irish rise up against the native americans for a gang fight. he vows vengence and set on the road against bill the butcher and his "federation of native americans".
good idea for a story but the movie failed to execute it accurately. as for the dvd, i did enjoy the real history channel special about ny city during the 1800's. that was quite interesting. there is also a tour thru the making of and thru the various sets but for me the movie itself was a waste of my time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic Epic
Review: Even though it is almost 3 hours long, I did not find myself staring at the clock halfway through to find out when it would be over. Instead, I was so totally engrossed in the story and with the actors' performances (namely Daniel Day-Lewis), that when it did end, I found myself in sort of a shock to find out that I had not moved off the couch in the whole entirety except to change the discs!!! I won't go into plot details, as there are probably too many of those already, but I will say that this was a fantastic epic, both in story and with the lavish sets and costumes, and the actors did a wonderful job. Even Cameron Diaz was good, and normally I do not like her work. I highly recommend this movie. It was well worth the wait.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: There is a tremedous sucking sound during the first scene
Review: of this movie. Yeah, it's because this flic is more fiasco than Felini. It is a very very confused wanna-be epic with a diffused theme and catoonish characters. The actors, rather than appearing like quirky iconoclasts come off more like bit players from Pee Wee's playhouse. Save your money, it'll be on TBS pretty soon and then you can nod off when you watch it for free without the remorse over what the DVD cost you.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: YES!.....but why Leo???
Review: You can seldom go wrong with a Scorsese picture. A brilliant director doing brilliant films and GANGS OF NEW YORK is up there with his best work. But why, oh why, did he cast Leonardo DiCaprio? Being the genius Martin Scorsese is, he manages to squeeze out a passable performance from this little twirp who, in lesser hands, would not even make it as a pimple on a leading man's *ss. The ONLY lead roles suitable for Leo would be a remake of the Andy Hardy series and an Arch Hall, Jr. biopic. Otherwise...no credibility! Looks like a 12-year-old who should be out playing hopscotch trying to impress prepubescent girls. The face-fuzz isn't fooling anybody. But I digress! This 2-disc set is worth the bucks just for the extras alone. An overabundance of info and the Discovery Channel doco on '5 points' is fantastic. Daniel Day Lewis steals the movie and if you can get used to Leo in the lead, you're in for a great spectacle about New York in the Victorian Age. Highly Recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Top notch performance by Daniel Day Lewis
Review: I have never seen a movie where a character was so dispicable in the beginning, yet without changing their behavior one bit, was admirable by the end of the movie. Lewis puts in that great of a performance.

Sure Diaz and DiCaprio don't add much to the movie, but Lewis steals every scene, so it does not matter.

The sets are tremendous, the music/sound is very well done, the recreation of locations mentioned in the book are so close to the author's description. The DVD extras are exceptional.

I don't understand all the criticism on this movie - New York was just a violent place back in this period in history.

Buy this, and watch it over and over.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Powerful and Tangible (If Flawed) (4.5 stars)
Review: "Gangs of New York" is my first movie directed by the much-lauded Martin Scorcese. And I must say I was impressed. Scorcese brings New York amazingly to life in the early 1860s' and during the escalating Civil War. Driven by exquisite and extraordinary production and costume design, Scorcese drops you into New York and fills your eyes with color, filth and a good amount of blood. The opening fight scene between the native and Dead Rabbits gangs is a raw, blood-soaked battle that brings to mind, surprisingly, the vicious hand-to-hand combat of "Braveheart." A boy named Amsterdam witnesses the battle (Leonardo Decaprio, eventually) and his father slain at the hands of William Cutting (a superb Daniel-Day Lewis). From then on, he is bent on revenge, wanting to kill Bill the Butcher, but make it convincing and a spectacle, the same way he killed his father.

But a revenge-dominated plot has been done so many times in movies, but Scorcese has a trick up his sleeve. The bulk of the movie focuses on the political corruption, lawlessness and turmoil of of the Five Points, Amsterdams' stomping grounds. The Butcher has plenty of savvy here, and Day-Lewis hits every note right about him. Day-Lewis creates a multi-layered, complex and unpredictable character from the moment he shows himself on screen. Dicaprio stumbles at first with Amsterdam, but as the movie goes on, he becomes more confident, leading to the films' fiery and explosive climax when the Draft Riots insue. Also, Cameron Diaz is effective as the pickpocket Jenny Everdean, but has the same problem that mirrors Dicaprio in her early troubles but eventual growth into her character.

Where the "If Flawed" part of my title comes from a script that is at times too ambitious and overreaching. Where the screenwriters paint a vivid picture life and strife in the Five Points, they have difficulty developing characters other then Bill the Butcher and his cohorts. Diaz was able to pull a respectable character of Jenny Everdean from a part that was often lacking. There was the same problem with Amsterdam, though not as much. They needed more text to describe Amsterdam in as much detail as they did Bill the Butcher. Over the course of the movie though, the character of Amsterdam becomes clear, but not as readily or as satisfying as William Cutting.

Is "Gangs of New Yrok" Scorcese's best film? Probably not, considering his past successes. But it is a worthy entry in his repatuare, for its powerful vision of Civil-War era New York and Daniel Day-Lewis' deft and steady development of his big, bad William Cutting. With repeat viewings, "Gangs" will reval itself more, showing more of its bravado and sinewy nature.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Theatrical release VS DVD
Review: My opening salvo about this DVD concerns formats. Not too many people have shelled out the big money for a widescreen tv. Therefore I am totally against WS editions in the 2:35 aspect ratio. While viewing on a conventional tv this ratio cuts off heads! It also removes emotional expression because of the distance from the actors face. The 1:85 is the way to go. It is the best at capturing 70mm for the average viewer. The best of both worlds at satisfying director/viewer I saw this movie in the theater and never thought about the time, thought the movie was over-long, or was in gerneral bored in any way. The full impact of the movie in DVD 2:35 is considerably lessened. No close ups. The action is so far away emotions are lost. I was really dissapointed. A great though addmitedly flawed movie. 2 other points: Robbie Robertson of "The Band" compiled the music and did a stellar job. Also I agree that the script was a bit of a mess, but I maintain that CASTING could have been more inspired. While the charismatic DiCaprio does a creditable job, I believe the Irish Colin Farell would have been a better match against the Day-Lewis caracter. Cameron Diaz??? WHAT were they thinking? Too modern. Nicole Kidman would have been a better choice.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: movie & special features "divided" in both discs
Review: I didn't like this edition,well, sort of,
first, the edition is ok, but WHY did Miramax "divided" the movie and the special features in both discs???
Its ilogical!
it'd be better if disc one had the entire movie and comentaries and disc two the rest of the special features, that would be LOGICAL but nooo... They did a mess
what do you think??????
I live in Mexico and region 4 of this DVD is better (and that's strange 'cause I prefer region 1)


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