great if you haven't seen Infernal Affairs

Rating: 7/10 (9 October 2006)

I was a skeptic. I saw Infernal Affairs for the first time a few months ago and thought it was an excellent movie. One of the best Asian flicks i've seen (and i've seen a lot of them). I thought "great....another American remake". There was a small glimmer of hope. It's Scorsese after all. I waited....great rotten tomatoes rating. Great IMDb rating. Was this the comeback of American cinema? I was excited. It was what a wanted. A great story, great actors (well...more on that later), and a great great director who understood the genre.
Well...apparently, my guess is everyone that raved about this movie hasn't seen Infernal Affairs. This film, in no way, lives up to the original. I think, if you haven't seen the original, you would probably think this is the greatest film ever. The story is that clever, and Scorsese is that good. Unfortunately, it ALMOST all ways (not all...almost all) the Chinese movie betters this one.
You would have thought Scorsese learned after Gangs of New York that Leo does not make a good tough guy. Guess not. I hope Leo plays to his strengths and take roles more similar to Catch Me if You Can or the Aviator.
Martin Sheen's character is no where near as prominent as the Chinese flick. and in the end, as great as Matt Damon and Leonardo Dicaprio are, they do not have the "coolness" factor that Andy Lau and Tony Leung brought.
There were some correction of plot holes that were re-written to make more sense, but in general the plot changes were no good. Some scenes were done different to the original, but some scenes were done shot by shot. Unfortunately, even these copies scenes didn't deliver as powerfully as Infernal Affairs.
Infernal Affairs had such a great "coolness" factor to it. And the chase/action scenes were executed in a way that built up WAY more suspense than The Departed.
All that said, still a decent movie. But seriously.....if you've seen Infernal Affairs, don't expect this to live up to the hype it's been getting. If you haven't seen Infernal Affairs, I'll leave you with two options.
1) You are OK with watching non-Hollywood films and don't mind reading subtitles. By all means grab the Infernal Affairs DVD and watch this!
2) You hate reading subtitles and dislike non-Hollywood films. Watch The Departed and enjoy it. It is good.....but i fear only because the original story was good.