Solid return to the crime drama for Martin Scorsese

Rating: 8/10 (31 October 2006)

An American remake of the Infernal Affairs trilogy from Hong Kong.
Story is essentially the same: a powerful mobster wins the attention and soon the loyalty of a young boy who later joins the local police force and gives him critical information to help the gangster carry out his underworld operation. Meanwhile, the cops send in their own undercover man to find who sends them critical information from within the crime lord's empire. Soon, paths become dangerously close as both cop and criminal know that someone is out to expose their real identity.
One of the world's finest directors once again works with a powerhouse cast to deliver a powerful film. Nearly epic in tone and riveting with its great performances for its admittedly lengthy runtime, but you'll hardly notice that. This is also one of the rare times where remake measures up to the original, mainly in that Scorsese pull no sucker punches or cheap shots. He controls the characters, sensationalism, and critically, the violence and steers them out of Hollywood cliché. The film has literally non-stop profanity/offensive remarks and brutal scenes of violence, but it is all convincing when shown next to the two-faced nature of undercover work. Nothing happens just to show off a slick location or gun-play, but all measures up to what crime drama fans have been waiting to see from Scorsese since he made "Casino" a decade earlier.
The film does end slightly abruptly and the scenes seem to jump a bit towards the end. The lengthy duration of the seems to the have caused Scorsese to speed things up there in order to reach the conclusion, but overall this great stuff. Jack Nicholson has never looked so evil and a film has rarely been so dark in parts and funny in others, so depressing in certain scenes and uplifting in others. And the best thing is, most of these scenes ring true.
Even if you have seen the original (and will be able to predict major story turns) this is still a film worth watching in how its core has been placed in America.
However, the biggest strike against the film, and Scorsese at Oscar time, will probably be the poignancy of the film. Scorsese is more than likely to once again square off against Clint Eastwood who directed the great, and POIGNANT "Flags of our Fathers." This film lacks that punch in that it deals with issues that don't affect everyone, but war reaches an entire nation as you have, inevitably seen in recent years. Though this still ranks as one this year's best. 8/10
Rated R for strong violence and profanity