An explosive crime-thriller! Could be the best movie of the year.

Rating: 10/10 (29 October 2006)

Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) are two new Police Academy graduates who are trying to make it into the police department. However, Colin has been raised by the notorious Irish mafia crime-lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) and is only there to infiltrate the police dept. He makes it through the interview and becomes an employee of the unit whereas Billy is denied the same opportunity. Instead, Billy is offered to take an assignment as an undercover cop to infiltrate the mafia. But this is a very special assignment and only two police officers, Oliver Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) know that Billy is actually a cop.
So, we have two men each working secretly for the other side and no one, except their bosses, knows their true identities. Soon, each side realizes that there is a mole in their unit and tries to uncover his identity. That's when things start to get tricky. As each party tries to inform their boss about the possible future actions of the other side, it turns into a dangerous game. Colin warns his boss Costello ahead of time because he knows about the operations of the police department and Billy tries to inform Oliver and Dignam about what Costello is up to.
This is truly an excellent film that will keep you at the edge of your seat until the very end. The plot is very well-written and, despite the many twists and turns, it feels completely natural. I feel the need to say a few things about Leonardo DiCaprio. I have always liked his acting but his performance in this movie is truly magical. He has matured as an actor and he completely steals the show in this one. He is explosive! All the other actors are actually performing very well.
I am not a big fan of remakes and this is a remake of an originally a 2002 Hong Kong movie, "Mou gaan dou" (see the name Siu Fai Mak in the writing credits; he is the screenplay writer for the original movie). Having said that, I must admit that this movie really blew me away and I am not a kind of guy who is easily blown away. This could be the best movie of the year.