Not digging it

What with all the Oscar hype surrounding Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York,” allow me to be the first to offer the following criticism: This is a silly, juvenile, slasher-flick of a movie that reminded me more of a period-piece remake of “The Warriors” than anything else. I kept waiting for some face-painted thugs on roller skates wearing New York Yankee uniforms to join in one of those Five Points rumbles. “Can yooooooou dig it?”

The fact that Scorsese admits the idea for the film had been with him since he was 7 says it all: This movie appears for all the world like it was conceived and directed by a 7-year-old. Jim Mallon

San Luis Obispo