Good Movie

Rating: 8/10 (16 October 2006)

"The Departed" was good but not excellent. Jack Nicholson hammed it up through most of the movie. If he had less screen time I would have thought he made the movie but there was too much of him being too much. Matt Damon portrayed the nasty little sh!t I always thought was in him. He was great. Leonardo DiCaprio was also very good portraying the mental stress I would think a mob mole would have. Mark Wahlberg could have been a bit over the top but I think his character's personality evolved from working with big ego macho cops and, for me, he was very believable. Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone were good in their supporting roles. Vera Farmiga was OK. I guess I didn't believe her as a therapist. I think she need a bit more meat, emotionally, and as the girlfriend, physically. I didn't see the original, "Infernal Affairs" so I can't compare the two. This version's story, especially towards the end, seemed rushed and forced to finish with the big gun battle but the mechanics of the movie's cop story was secondary to the story of the two moles. If the movie is examined for the story of the cops trying to get Jack Nicholson it comes up short but the mole parallel story was intriguing and Matt and Leo were great. It was a violent movie and the ending was a bit much. Well worth seeing but not Scorsese's best. His best are icons, "Raging Bull", "Taxi Driver", "Mean Streets". "The Departed" was just a good movie