Talent was well used

Rating: 8/10 (2 February 2015)

My immediate reaction is: Wow! There is a lot to process.
I'd heard about this movie and actually saw a bit of a spoiler from WatchMojo. I never bothered to watch it before because I understood it to be a drama and I usually need to be in the mood for dramas.
With a movie so star studded it got me thinking about other star studded movies that actually delivered. First, let me qualify "star studded". I mean a movie having four or more actors/actresses that are legitimate "A" listers: e.g. Ocean's Eleven, Rat Race, Casino, Pulp Fiction, Independence Day, Blues Brothers, and Roots. I'm sure there are at least a couple names I'm missing but these were the ones that immediately came to mind. I'd now like to add The Departed to that list.
Some of my least favorite star studded movies are: Armageddon, Be Cool, Grown Ups and Soul Plane to name a few. With star studded movies there are usually high expectations. With high expectations there is either a meets, outperform or underperform. It's so easy to underperform because the bar is set so high.
This movie did not disappoint. It was very cleverly written and of course, well acted. I would say that they all performed well but DiCapprio delivered an even better performance than the rest. Scorcese did not waste the talent he had to work with.