Ridiculously overrated.

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2014)

Maybe it deserves a 7. It is quite to very suspenseful, with a valuably complex but not arcane plot, well-made, solidly acted (meaning in part that Jack Nicholson does not just re-enact his job as the Joker. DiCaprio was better in Blood Diamond.) The cast is indeed stunning.
But right now it is ranked above such trivial fare as Citizen Kane, The Shining, North by Northwest, M, Vertigo, To Kill a Mockingbird, Eternal Sunshine, Bicycle Thieves...(citing only a few whose lower ranks make me want to vomit). I know I am beating a dead horse. It probably is, after all, better than Shawshank (dumb fanboy movie of the world, I guess), Cuckoo's Nest, Inception, Forrest Gump, and arguably 5 to 15 others in the top 46.
But it has limited to no imagination and makes no contribution to film history. Its best picture Oscar should've gone to Pan's Labyrinth, or Volver, or conceivably The Lives of Others, or Letters from Iwo Jima, or Little Miss Sunshine--three to five other films to rank ahead of Departed. I haven't yet seen Infernal Affairs, so I can't make that comparison. But in a nutshell, I know Taxi Driver and Departed is no Taxi Driver (#68. Makes me nuts.)