Leo is great in this movie – I’m not a big fan of gangster/violent movies but he MADE this movie for me.

Could it have been all the hype and awards won that elevated my expectations, only to have them left unfulfilled by movie’s end? I admit I am not a huge fan of Scorcese – his films for me are hit or miss. I do not mind the blood and guts, but the pacing I found slow, and I think the movie could benefit from tighter editing. In this movie, Leonardo was great, the only real standout, and his performance had me recalling the greatness he exuded in Whats Eating Gilbert Grape. The rest of the main characters were flat, if I even found them believable at all.

I found this movie comparable to Gangs of New York – bloody, gang-centered, test of loyalties, and just too too long.

http://rasml.org/?p=882

Good, yes. Great, maybe. I’m glad Scorsese got a couple of oscars for this. As cops-n-robbers movies go, it’s probably among the best. I’m just not convinced it ranks with Citizen Kane or Gone with the Wind as a timeless classic. Some years, the “best picture” award should go vacant.

This film is bloated, dull and full of characters who one does not care about. Di Caprio sleep walks through the film and Damon is just…Matt Damon (as usual). Jack Nicholson needs to retire ‘nuff said. Martin Sheen, does he really need the money? And as for Martin Scorsese well he’s not made (and never will now) a good film since Raging Bull. The cliches come thick and fast the Irish stereotypes are abominable and where were all the black people in Boston? I saw two (minor roles). This film proves how out of step the Academy Awards have really become. Vera Farmiga, why the long face? Now Inland Empire…

Worth consuming…barely.

It was too violent and too long, but the ending delivered and the acting was great.

After watching The Departed on DVD, I immediately regretted not watching it in the theater. To have seen it larger than life, surrounded by other people, would have been amazing. Still, watching it on my television screen was extremely rewarding as well: while not the best movie Martin Scorsese has ever made, it is still very, VERY good.

Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan take a lot of time setting up the story: introducing the characters, revealing motivations and relationships, showing just how the two main characters work their way deep into the worlds they’re only pretending to belong to. It gives the audience a chance to really take it in, and allows the actors to really play off each other and flesh out their characters, something that this movie does just a little bit better than did the original, the teriffic Hong Kong action movie Infernal Affairs. At two and a half hours, The Departed is less of an action movie and much more a character-driven drama, albeit with quite a lot of violence, something Scorsese does very well.

The actors all bring their best to the table, from the leads to the supporting cast. Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon do an outstanding job, making their characters distinct yet similar, and when they finally meet onscreen, the scene is explosive. Jack Nicholson plays yet another crazy villain, but he does it very well and with a lot more depth than I wanted to give him credit for. Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen are great, and Mark Wahlberg takes a throwaway character and makes the audience take notice (although I would argue that Nicholson or Baldwin deserved the Academy Award nomination more). The lone major female character is in the capable hands of Vera Farmiga, who deftly shows her character’s struggles while staying strong. It was an odd choice to combine Infernal Affairs’s three female characters into this one woman, but it makes for a lot of interesting storytelling and it connects Damon and DiCaprio’s characters without ever having them meet.

The Departed is not without its flaws; both characters seem to move up the ranks with astonishing speed, and Nicholson chews the scenery a bit too much on occasion. Overall, though, it’s a great movie, and one I could watch over and over again. Highly recommended.