Scorsese never fails .... to disappoint.

Rating: 2/10 (7 October 2006)

Overall, the Departed can be summed up in 2 words. "Taxi Driver." Meaning just like Taxi Driver, The Departed has incredible acting, a powerful story, that had a tonne of potential. But all of it came crashing down when Martin Scorsese directed, almost totally killing the movie. Rendering it boring, lame and impotent.
The movie is about an undercover police officer (Leonardo DiCaprio) who infiltrates a crime boss (Jack Nicholson) who is also looking for a corrupt cop (Matt Damon) who works for the crime boss (Nicholson). And the same corrupt cop (Damon) is looking for the undercover cop (DiCaprio).
A simple case of hunter vs. hunter with ironically a powerful, yet impotent ending.
When it comes to acting, specifically with Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Mark Walberg, and others, they probably would all be competing with each other for the Academy awards for best actor or best supporting actors.
If the Departed were directed by anyone else, Quentin Tarantino, Bryan Singer, Michael Mann, Curtis Hanson, then the Departed most likely have limited competition for both best directing and best picture at the Academy Awards.
But with Martin Scorsese at the helm, successfully diverting our attention away from the excellent acting and incredible story, he guaranteed himself a well deserved Razzie award for worst director and allowed a worst screenplay Razzie award as well.
The brutality and the violence of the movie was very impotent and boring. Though having noticeable amounts of humour, thanks to the excellent acting and stories, they were almost totally overshadowed by the dullness of the movies poor pace, thanks to Scorsese.
From the background, one person said that the the movie was confusing. And another said that it became more stressful, but felt like it was going nowheres.
But if you can only focus on the story and the acting, the Departed is recommended. Actually, either just read the book or listen to the audio book with the actors doing the voices. But if you have to see the movie as a whole, watch something else, cause the Departed is a waste of time.
Future note to Hollywood, let Scorsese set everything up, and leave him out of it after that.
For story and acting alone, the Departed is definitely worth a 9/10.
But with Martin Scorsese successfully putting in his infamous "going no wheres fast" feel to the movie, overshadowing everything else, give the departed ....... 2.5 out of 10.