I wasted almost three hours of my life last night

I watched "Gangs of New York" – all of it, and I'm still scratching my head and wondering why. I had heard raves about the movie, but I can't believe I wasted almost 3 hours of my life watching it.

I didn't even mind the violence and gore. The thing jumped all over the place, the acting was blah (except for Daniel Day Lewis and one or two others), and the ending seemed very anti-climactic. I couldn't even feel sympathy or empathy for ANYONE in that movie, except maybe Liam Neeson, and he died within the first half-hour.

It was just kind of weird - someone on imdb.com said it was like watching "Mad Max" meets "A Clockwork Orange". They hit the nail on the head. Basically the only thing it did do was make me want to learn more about that particular period in NY history - the real story as opposed to what I watched last night.

I didn't mind the violence in the movie. I love the battle scenes in "Braveheart". They're well done, and worth watching, even if they're a bit gory. In the first battle scene in "Gangs of New York", though, there were parts where you could SEE that it was faked - guys getting whacked with knives and clubs that somehow didn't quite "connect" with the intended victims, yet they fell down dead anyway.

The whole Draft Riot stuff at the end of the movie felt like it was just sort of thrown in there, with no real explanation or lead-in. Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't convincing in the slightest. The "romance" between Leonardo and Cameron was just weird all-around, and what exactly was the point of all those other half-naked women?

I couldn't send it back to NetFlix fast enough this morning.