Martin Scorsese is a director of astonishing power and Gangs of New York is a movie of astonishing imagination, ambition, and scope. The first fifteen minutes are as dazzling as any images ever put on screen. The rest of the movie veers from brilliant to flawed, but it is unfailingly arresting, provocative, and powerful. (adapted fkom "Movie Mom's Review of Gangs of New York" by Nell Minow)