Sorry to disappoint, Dim Entity...

I can't remember I still picked up so much about a movie on third viewing, it's so layered and fascinating. Some of the best camera shots of the decade, many of which people here haven't even been mentioning. One that realllly stuck out was when Damon was on the computer, then the focus shifts to DiCaprio opening the door and escaping now knowing he's the mole. The multiple shifts really compares and contrasts those two so brilliantly.

Bradley, I didn't think it was possible to give something like The Departed the same grade as a Drano-smoothie like American Dreamz, but you managed.

I tend to read bradley's reviews only to see if I can find (and I have!) any more evidence to add to the 'have bradley committed commission', but he said something up there (and I too am surprised he liked it!) that defines The Departed perfectly:

It's a movie's movie.

And it puts all those shitty movies that try to obscure their shortcomings by calling themselves 'popcorn movies' to shame. This, friends, is a popcorn movie. A big ass tub.

The best movie of the year. I absolutely loved it. It's the shortest 150 minute movie I've ever seen. DiCaprio gave the best performance of the movie but I still thought he was a tad better in Aviator. Damon and Nicholson were both really solid but one surprised me the most: Mark Wahlberg. Definately the most enjoyable performance of the movie. I wished there would have been more of him. I thought the ending was ok, not exactly what I wanted but ok. The rest of the movie was flawless. The first movie I consider a second viewing in theaters since Goblet of Fire. Great film. [font=Century Gothic]A[/font]

A-

Didn't like the ending that much, they could have spared the last scene, other than that it's moviemaking at tis best. Great writing, acting and directing. Just superb

A


This is flawless filmmaking at its best. Going into this year it was among my top anticipated films of the year and that for several reasons. For one, I loved the cast (even DiCaprio who I used to dislike grew on me over years). For another, I loved the original, its great storyline and it was refreshing to see such a big name director/cast take it on a remake. The original was great, but not flawless, so I could see possible improvement. As the release date came closer, I found myself anticipating the film more than any other flick since the last Harry Potter movie. Of course I was there, the day ir opened in Germany and...IT DELIVERED!

I should rewatch Goodfellas soon since I can't remember it very well and I shave yet to see Taxi Driver, but those two aside, this is the best Scorsese film I've seen yet (Raging Bull and all of his post-Goodfellas outings except Age of Innocence). This is Scorsese at his finest and most exhilarating. I always thought he was a good, though slightly overrated director, but this film made me eat my words. However, it is not just Scorsese to be thanked for this year's best movie (and the third straight A, I gave this year). William Monahan's adaptation of the Infernal Affairs screenplay is mostly phenomenal. Incredible considering how many problems I had with his Kingdom of Heaven screenplay.

A lot has been said about The Departed's cast and I can only agree with it. The ensemble is the best I've seen this year and one of the best I have witnessed in any film of the last couple of years. Every single role is perfectly cast and there is not a single unconvincing performance. If it was up to me, I'd nominate DiCaprio, Damon, Nicholson and Wahlberg for the Oscars...yes, each of them. DiCaprio, Damon and Wahlberg deliver career-best performances, without a doubt. I used to dislike DiCaprio since his Romeo & Juliet/Titanic days and my hatred grew with The Beach, but Gangs of New York/Catch me if you can got me used to him more and see the good actor in him. The Aviator was impressive, but his performance was a bit overshadowed by Blanchett's there to me. With The Departed I can safely call him one of his generation's finest actors. Some years ago if someone had told me that DiCaprio can pull off a rough undercover cop role very well, I'd have laughed and shaken my head. Now I know better. It is not the best lead male performance I've seen this year (Sacha Baron Cohen simply takes the crown), but it is darn close. However, with all the hype around his performance, many seemed to forget Damon's turn as Colin Sullivan. Indeed, his role wasn't as fleshed out as DiCaprio's, but he did splendidly with the material given and deserves the Oscar nod for the performance. Mark Wahlberg was great, but it wasn't a surprise to me since I read all the reviews and comments before. Still, he stole most of the scenes he was in and his stand-off's with Damon and Baldwin are pure gold (here kudos to the screenwriter once again). Jack Nicholson, well, he's Jack Nicholson. Some say that in the end, his performance was a bit underwhelming, but I suppose that was because the expectations were sky-high. He stole most of the scenes he was in as well and had many great lines too ("She fell funny"). As much as I liked the three aforementioned performances, Nicholson still impressed me the most. He never went too much over-the-top and never made his character a caricature. In some scenes he is just calm, in others he oozes menace...the performance is not Nicholson's best, but it is his greatest at least since As Good as It Gets and as of now, I'd hand over this year's Best Supporting Actor Oscar to him. In smaller roles, Alec Baldwin and Ray Winstone were stellar. Vera Farmiga wasn't given a very fleshed out role, but she did well with it, though she did lack chemistry with either of the leads.

However, back to the film's visual impact...it does great. The editing is superb as you'd excpect from a Scorsese film. Cinematography and score are great as well, though none will be going for the Oscars, I'd say. I loved the movie's soundtrack and Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter is just an awesome song!

Compared to Infernal Affairs, The Departed is an improvement in almost all areas. This is mostly the result of an almost 50 minutes longer running time. I rewatched Infernal Affairs again recently and it really struck me again how in that film you are simply thrown into the story and have to figure out what's going on by yourself mostly. The characters aren't as fleshed out either. The Departed takes its time and goes the more traditional and in this case, more successful approach. However, I was not fond of combining the two females of IA into Vera Farmiga's role in the remake.

The only other thing I thought was decent, but done better in the original was the ending. It was a bit too much for me in the remake. The original's ending was very clever and quite brave too. The way it was changed in the remake certainly undermines the message of the original ending. Then again, the original had an overall different tone and message anyway. The acting in IA was great as well, but the whole cast of the original is equalled or even topped by the remake except the polive chief (Anthony Wong in the original, Martin Sheen in the remake). This role was simply too short in the remake and thus the impact of Queenan's death wasn't as strong as this death was in IA.

At last, I just had to think that I wish I had not seen the original before this film. While I loved the remake and recognize its superiority, it simply hurts the movieviewing pleasure when you know most of the movie's keypoints coming. The original was very new and refreshing and I'd have felt the same way about this film had I not seen IA. This is why The Departed will not enter my all-time favorite pentheon, but it is currently still my #1 film of 2006 and that is something that's unlikely to change anytime soon. It is a pitch-perfect crime thriller as you get'em and probably the best of its kind I've seen since L.A. Confidential.

What are the other two A worthy movies this year?

I'd love to say that DiCaprio is great in this film, but... so is Nicholson. And Wahlberg. And Damon... and Baldwin... and everyone. There's not a weak link in this cast. It is the true Best Ensemble. Everyone's great.

The screenplay of this movie SHINES. Absolutely shines. I'm tempted to say that it was the best thing about this movie. I haven't been so motivated in a long while to keep interest in a movie. The irony of having a rat on both sides was played out to the full extent, and I found myself thoroughly engaged and so pleased at the way it was executed.

Scorsese's direction was strong and focused, and so well attributed to the style of the film. What's great about Scorsese is that he adapts to whatever he is tackling. He works for the style of the film.

Ultimately the direction, writing, and acting all work together as a cohesive piece of film making that reminds me just how great this kind of cinema can be. We put up with the tired old genre films for so long, and finally somebody (and not just "somebody" in this case) comes along and wakes us up and reminds us just how great it can be.

A

Peace,
Mike.

I don't think this is a perfect film. There are problems with character motivations that I think plague the film the whole way through.

But this film is so head and shoulders above anything else I've seen this year (save for United), that I can't not give it an A. The skill involved is undeniable -- the acting is uniformly great (not even one weak), the story is complex and layered but entirely lucid, and the script doesn't strike one false note.

It's huge entertainment with an artsiness that is never self-congratulatory.

Mission: Impossible 3 and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (staright A's)

I really, really liked this movie, actually. Up until the last five minutes. Until then, I think this was a real director's and actor's piece. I wasn't moved, I had no revelations, but man, was I rivetted throughout.

More to come later...

Good enough. It isn't perfect, but I think it is the closest thing we've had this year. I loved it and I'm glad you "really, really" liked it, haha. More can't come soon enough!!

Well, I have two things to say about Departed, but they are both in response to how I experienced the movie. First and foremost, this movie is really about unfolding realtime. Its not profound, or something one can argue about days later, it is just a great, taught, suspense movie. I like it better than films like the Godfather that tried to create human drama out of the mob. This was just an all-around engaging cops and robbers thriller.

Everyone did a great job, and I had no problem with the movie until *spoilers* the last five minutes when the second plant shows up, and then when Wahlberg shoots Damon. That just seemed very random compared to how tightly Scorsese had built up everything else about the movie. Mostly, I wish that perhaps in Damon's "searchings" for the police plant he had stumbled upon a mysterious figure (maybe only accidentally once) that was a bit of a planted hint as to the fact Cicholson had more than one man working in the department. That way, even if the audience forgot about that moment, or thought that was an unclear reference to DiCaprio, it would still later manifest in the big gun fight.

Of course, I also wish we'd learned how Wahlberg found out about the scheme. Even him just receiving something in the mail (indicating Di Caprio had a sense who to contact), or the mysterious manilla envelope he passes off before fleeing had marked instructions to relay its contents to Wahlberg should anything happen to DiCaprio, etc. *end spoilers*

These are all minor details that didn't affect my viewing of the movie, but only affected my thinking about it afterwards. This is why I said it was really a director and actors' piece...because I was very engaged and didn't feel there were any flaws for the first two hours. And while I would have done a thing or two differently in retrospect in order to make the ending a little tighter, I can acknowledge that I really enjoyed looking at this movie, and would watch it again. Though with the weak resolution, this won't hold up on multiple repeat viewings as well as, say, L.A. Confidential.

Because of that, its not an A+ or A movie, but its definately A-/B+ territory.

There were about half a dozen ways Wahlberg could have found out so I've always been a bit puzzled by why people want to see why. Were his suspicions confirmed and his boss and the mole he was protecting murdered it makes perfect sense like a crazy bulldog fucker like him would take Damon out.

That really would have made the ending of the film better. My whole problem with it was that it looked like it was set up JUST to be shocking, instead of being set up by the previous 3 hours of the film. If there had been mention, even if only once, of a possible second plant, then the ending would have felt a lot less manipulative to me.

If you pay attention the film does hint at this. Rough transcript of the dialogue from memory:
Damon: (On Nicholson knowing about his promotion to search for the mole) How the hell did you know about that?
Nicholson: I have my sources.

To be fair I didn't pick it up on first viewing either.

Too useless and vague. What I meant to say is, if that head of computers who had "accidentally" failed to place a camera in the back of the building, and who had "unanticipated" blind spots throughout the building had been the second man...I would have been pleasantly surprised about how all the cards had been placed on the table and yet I had missed one. It would have made alot of sense to have him helping Jack out. This just seemed random, and I'm not one for complete twist endings. I need a few clues placed throughout so that I can slap my forhead in shock that I didn't see it comiong. Scorsese did a great job because his audience was supposedly omniscent and still didn't know how it was going to turn out. Rather than surprises, he pretty much shows up everyone's alliances from the get go and just lets us enjoy the ride. Also, while Wahlberg 'could' have found out a million ways, I'd like to know in which way he found out.

For instance, Jack didn't like African-Americans, so for me it made sense that Leo called up his school buddy who was Black. It was almost sure-fire that Anderson wasn't working for Jack. But then Leo goes and calls up another local Irish Southie officer? Where was the logic in that? If it had been the computer surveillance guy who shows up, we could assume he had just planted cameras on Damon, just as he had failed to plant the appropriate cameras on Jack during the transaction. Why did Leo trust Wahlberg at all? I would have liked to see how he decided to contact Wahlberg, or if he was afraid and didn't, but the therapist did (would have played up her role a little more if she had). Dunno, there was no need for guesswork, considering how little guesswork there was throughout. It was a great movie because I wasn't guessing who was alligned with who, just who was going to figure it out first and how, etc.

I'm sounding overly picky, though. I really genuinely enjoyed this movie up until the last five minutes, and I didn't mind the last five minutes even (great, blunt violence) it was just weak compared to the intensity and weaving of the previous two hours. It's just no Rollo Tomase, which makes the final revelation seem less well thought out than everything else leadig up to it, rather than conversely.

I did like this movie, so rather than dwelling on the flaws of the last five minutes, I'm going to conclude by saying I was really captured and lost myself throughout most of Departed.

Couldn't agree with you more, Dolce. I wish they had ended with the scene in front of the elevator and basically let the bad guy win. From what I heard that's what the original did, so Scorsese probably just changed it so he could drift away from Infernal Affairs a bit more.

This makes up a bit for your Casino love...but only a very little bit.

Come On Galia, you must admit that you're in the very minority with your Casino hate

I never claimed I was a populist...only that I am right.

Departed is a excellent action flick, Bond is a mind-numbingly, condescending, colourless, snoozefest of a mess.

B+. You're too kind.

finally a movie that lives up to the hype. I can see why everyone is confident that this is the movie to beat at oscar time. i was engaged throughout the whole movie. the acting, script, music, everything about it was awesome.

well, except for the unnessary use of homophobic slurs. i just didn't get it. so A-

A fantastically bloody cops and robbers tale, with outstanding acting and superb direction. The profanity-ridden script ain't too bad either. Despite the over two hour running time, the film never drags or even lets up on the action and suspense. It builds up slowly throughout, amping up the tension until the shocking conclusion. The pace feels a bit off at the beginning, but it soon settles into form and doesn't falter again for the remainder of the film. All in all, just an excellent film.

The story is fairly straightforward, but it's exceptionally well-written with great dialogue and lots of memorable scenes. There are some elements that seem out of place - the therapist in particular - but they soon are woven into the fabric of the story and just add to the overall tale. Each character is fleshed out adequately, and there are no obvious weak spots among the ensemble cast. DiCaprio and Nicholson are the clear highlights, each playing their role to perfection. Wahlberg and Baldwin are great fun to watch, and Damon and Sheen provide solid work. Among the lesser-known actors, Vera Farmiga does a good job as the aforementioned therapist who deals with both of the moles. All around, a solid achievement.

Martin Scorsese certainly pulled out all the stops in trying to nab his elusive Oscar, as the direction is simply outstanding. The chase through the back alleys of Chinatown, in particular, is so well-crafted that the suspense is relentless. But this is not an anomaly - the entire film is superbly shot and cut. The final elevator sequence also comes to mind. It is literally mind-blowing because of the amazing technical aspects. The production design, sound effects, and music are also a part of this. This is technically faultless filmmaking.

Despite some occasional faltering in regards to the story, this is a fantastic film all-around. Though the excessive violence and language may turn off some, for those of us who enjoy these types of films, this is a welcome achievement.

I've watched this film like three times this week and it never, ever gets old.

I gotta take this grade up a notch.

A+