Very good but not Scorseses' best

Rating: 8/10 (2 June 2008)

Film takes place in Boston. It deals with two men (Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon) who are both working to bring down a crime lord (Jack Nicholson). Problem is they're both working for different agencies and neither knows about the other. Things quickly go out of control.
OK--this is not Martin Scorsese's best film. That goes to "Raging Bull" and "Good Fellas". However it is one of his best. The plot has many twists and turns and surprises I didn't see coming. There's excellent use of music throughout and Scorsese really manages to capture the mood and feeling of Boston (not easy to do). Also--since this is a Scorsese film--the word "f***" is used a few hundred times and the violence is VERY extreme and bloody. This isn't for weak stomaches. My only complaints here are that the movie is too long--it has one climax too many and some lousy acting lessens it. DiCaprio is excellent in his role. I was very impressed--I never thought much of him as an actor but now I've changed my opinion. Nicholson, Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen are good too. Vera Farmiga holds her own in a male dominated cast. But Matt Damon is a blank in one of the main roles. His face never changes expression and I didn't know how to take him. Mark Wahlberg is bad too. How he got an Academy Award nomination for this I'll never know. He's as blank as Damon and just swears non stop for no reason and keeps giving obscene finger gestures. I was just hoping somebody would kill him off soon. He wasn't playing a character--he was doing a caricature. Those two bad performances lessen this. Also some of the cast fake Boston accents pretty well (Damon and Wahlberg are from the area so they didn't have to fake it).
It got Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards because Martin Scorsese was long overdue for both. So--it is worth seeing but not Scorsese's best by a long shot. I give it an 8.