"The Departed" NOT the Best Scorcese Movie Ever!

Rating: 6/10 (22 October 2006)

Contrary to what some of the Scorcese devotees have posted here, this is not his best movie! "GoodFellas" was much better! And why is it that "epic" dramas always have to be so long? Have we become so programmed as a movie-watching society that we won't take your movie seriously unless it's two and a half hours long? In my opinion, there was way too much padding in this movie. It could easily have been cut down to less than two hours, and would have been vastly improved.
I haven't seen "Infernal Affairs" so I won't comment on comparisons between the two, but I hope that the Academy doesn't think that remaking someone else's movie (even if it's well done) is worthy of an Oscar! I think that the "best of the best" should be original ideas (although I'm well aware of the fact that there are few "original" ideas left in Hollywood).
That having been said, I thought "The Departed" was a good movie, but not great. I thought most of the performances were good, if not particularly memorable (although Alec Baldwin was hilarious!). I thought that for the most part, the principles pretty much play their parts about the same in most of their movies. And will Leonardo DiCaprio EVER look like he's older than sixteen!? On to the ending...from reading other postings, it sounds like it's a pretty straight redux of Infernal Affairs' ending, but I don't think a "gritty" crime drama should have the audience laughing with increasing volume as each character goes down with a shot to the head!