Good film, but certainly NOT Scorsese's best...

Rating: 7/10 (31 March 2007)

THE DEPARTED is a long and intriguing film where opposite rival bands infiltrate each other to gain inside scoop info. The guys who do the "infiltration" are Matt Damon, doing the bad guy on the good side, and Leonardo DiCaprio vice versa. The story develops slowly and you have to pay close attention to all the minor details because so much is given that you might lose some info. The bad guy of the story (Jack Nocholson )doesn't appear to be all that mean and bad. In fact, you don't feel much for any of the characters, except maybe for DiCaprio's. This aside, the movie moves at a fair pace, although the beginning is a bit slow. By the time the movie's over you hardly notice what's going on. This is a finely crafted movie, big budget and stuff and a fine Martin Scorsece film, but, in my humble opinion, don't think it deserved a best movie award. I think most of you out there will agree with me that Scorsece has done way better in the past: TAXI DRIVER, CASINO, GOOD FELLAS, RAGING BULL, etc. I think the Academy felt so wrong and sorry for not awarding ANY of his past movies that they just had to give him an award this time around. Having this said, THE DEPARTED isn't a bad movie by any terms! But it is certainly not Scorsese's best.