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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Gangs of New York (B+/A-)



Short Version:  If you have three hours to kill and like movies that are well shot and acted but sometimes have a slow storyline then give it a short.  For my full opinion keep reading below.

Long Version:  I am going to dive right into this I am mixed on this movie for a couple of reasons.  First Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis are great actors in this movie.  Their characters are believable throughout the entire movie and very well played.  What is my problem with the movie if the acting was good and it was well shot by director Martin Scorsese?  Well my problem comes into play with the length of the movie.  For me and this is my opinion if a movie is going to be three hours long I have to be able to sit down and watch from beginning to end and not realize it has taken up three hours of my life.  It has to be entertaining and captivating for the entire time.  This movie was not that way for me half way in I was thinking could they not have made this two movies instead of one.  For that fact I just don’t think I can give it an A rating so I have split the rating into a B+ and an A- for the reasons listed above.
Now to do what I normally do first tell you quickly about the storyline of the movie and who plays what.  The beginning of the movie we start out in a cave with Priest Vallon played by Liam Nesson and his son Amsterdam Vallon as a young boy.  They march out of the cave with a growing following as they go until they reach the top of an old Brewery and kick the door open to reveal a wintery day in the Five Points section of New York City.  Priest and the group file out onto the square and quickly another group in blue called the Natives filed out on the other side.  You get your first look at Bill “The Butcher” Cutting played by Daniel Day-Lewis.  Bill is the leader of the Natives and quickly a fight breaks out between the two groups.  By the end Priest is dead and his son is running off.

Quickly forward sixteen years and Amsterdam Vallon is all grown up and played by Leonardo DiCaprio.  He spent his time away outside of the Five Points area of New York City and is now returning to seek revenge for his father’s death.  Now in the time that he was gone Bill Cutting has kept his gang in control of the Five Points section of New York.  Amsterdam quickly learns that he must get on the inside in order to get his revenge.  Through some twist and turns in the story Amsterdam lands himself as Bill’s go to guy to get things done.  Amsterdam plans his revenge but fails and gets casted out from the group, but by this time he has enough follows that he starts his on gang to oppose “The Butcher’s” Natives.  To not give up the ending I will say that the person you cheer for throughout the movie comes out on top in the end.

Oh and yes there is storyline parts I did not mention because you really need to sit down and watch it for yourself for the full effect.

Caution there is nudity, Language, and Blood in this movie making it not suitable for all audiences if you know what I mean.

You can click the picture below to purchase on Amazon or you can watch on Netflix which is what I did.  I also believe it maybe on Starz this week to.

Gangs Of New York
Adam

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