Nicholson, DiCaprio, Scorcese remake a Hong Kong film

Rating: Null/10 (1 November 2006)

The Departed is a remake of a Hong Kong film "Internal Affairs." Having not seen that film I can't compare the two movies.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays a mole who is tight with mobster Jack Nicholson while Matt Damon plays a mole in a police force unit headed by Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin with Mark Wahlberg as a cop. Vera Farmiga plays a love interest.
The plot is essentially a cat and mouse game between Nicholson and the police as they try to bust him.
The acting is first rate, as you'd expect, with Nicholson perfectly cast as a crazy-eyed genuine nutcase, creepy to the max, always dangerous, and very vicious. Vintage nutso Nicholson as we've seen him before in many films.
There isn't much character development in the film with little background information given about Nicholson, DiCaprio or Damon and this hurts the film turning it into basically a cat and mouse plot. There are plenty of graphic shootings and spattering blood and, since the characters are people we care something about at least, the violence hurts, unlike the cartoonish violence of a horror film.
This is not a great movie by any means or even one of Scorcese's best and it certainly does not compare to Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather." With the exception of one scene where Damon and DiCaprio follow each other, Scorcese's direction is not very exceptional or remarkable.
I would recommend this film but it is brutally violent so beware.