Is a coherent & satisfying story too much to ask for?

Rating: 3/10 (9 October 2006)

I'll give Scorsese credit for assembling a crackerjack cast and borrowing an intriguing Asian action flick plot and hiring a clever American screenwriter to Westernize it. But am I the only person who's angry that he took all those promising elements, spun them out in 2+ hours of pretty entertaining cinema and then wrapped it all up by unveiling a second "surprise" rat w/in the police department who proceeds to casually blow the brains out of everyone who could rat out the first rat that we knew about for the whole movie? (And how, by the way, did the 2nd surprise rat know that Damon and DiCaprio were going to be up on the roof of the deserted building having a secret meeting?) This is lazy, sloppy, bad film-making, which Scorsese then tops off by having the first rat (who, surprise surprise, blows out the brains of the surprise rat) whacked to cap off this symphony of carnage and draw his film to a conclusion. Pathetic storytelling, rendered even more pathetic for having been committed by a man who knows better, or at least USED to know better. Hats off, ladies and gentlemen, Martin has departed the building.