THIS won an Oscar? Any Oscar?

Rating: 1/10 (26 March 2007)

I wasn't surprised when it won. The "oh, he/she has never won, so we've got to give it to he/she" has been VERY busy the last few years. Plus, I hadn't seen it. I was really looking forward to it. WOW!! This was bad in a number of ways, but mainly because this has to be the worst screenplay EVER to win any Oscar, never mind a best pic. How else was it bad? Casting Nicholson as a tough guy that would scare everyone else has always been a laugh. Nicholson is a little pisant. He wouldn't last a year in South Boston, never mind decades. Nicholson's games with hookers were pointless and just distracting. The woman shrink, whatever her name was, sleeping with both Damon and DiCaprio was ridiculous. Wahlberg (was that him? I hadn't known he was in the pic, and for a few minutes I thought Damon was playing two characters.), looked and sounded like a local village idiot in Charlestown. Truly, the entire police force, local, state and FBI couldn't have lit a 100 watt bulb. The idea that Nicholson's character wouldn't have fingered and killed DiCaprio's character quickly is also ridiculous. Let's see. Nicholson has, oh, a half-dozen henchmen, all of whom have been with him for YEARS, all of whom have KILLED for him. Then DiCaprio shows up. He is an EX-COP! Hicholson takes him in. About a year later, it becomes clear there is a rat in the group. Gee, who do we suspect?
Now here is one that gets a little tricky. I noticed the guy told DiCaprio to go to #314 instead of #344. The guy noticed that DiCaprio still showed up at #344. Now, we aren't sure if that guy was an undercover cop or not. The TV said he was. Nicholson doubted it. If the guy wasn't a rat, why didn't he tell his cohorts that DiCaprio was, ahem, suspicious. Gee you think?
Another reason it is so ridiculous he hadn't killed DiCaprio by then. When the TV fingers one of his guys as a rat, Nicholson won't believe it, though he knows there is one. This is like a "which one doesn't belong in this group" game for a 2 year old, but Nicholson failed it!
There were a few more crazy plot holes and foolish setups. It was hard to keep up with them. As for the almost everybody-gets-shot-in-the-head ending, don't get me started. There are too many inanities there to begin. At least Wahlberg's village idiot knows how to put on foot covers. Was that to hide the fact that he didn't know how to tie his shoes?
All in all, I understand why MS got the Oscar. The direction and acting was pretty good. But, giving this a Best Pic or voting it anything over a 6 is ridiculous.