Doesn't deserve the ratings

Rating: 6/10 (28 March 2007)

Sigh. After seeing the raving comments here for this film, I have to do a double take.
I watched it and enjoyed it, but it's just an average movie, with big stars and a famous director.
It's OK at best. Worth a watch, but not worth getting to excited about, which is why I think there is a reality distortion around the ratings here.
I think most people will watch this in 10 years and wonder what all the fuss was about. It's probably because this is the first film of this type that has been made successfully in a while, and so subconsciously we must be pretending it's going to make us feel warm inside like True Romance or Goodfellas; probably because most people haven't seen Internal Affairs and so the main plot is new to them; and probably because it bagged an Oscar and everyone figures it's hip to dance at the winning party.
Lets be clear, the original Internal Affairs worked because it left gaps, which helped get a sense that time had passed and you accepted that each of the main characters had gradually worked into their respective positions over many years.
This gave a sense of increasing tension as each of their relatively comfortable positions were made more vulnerable, when essentially, they were activated for the first time by each of their masters for the end game.
With this remake, it fails because they tried to fill those gaps with well known actors and then provided them with excess dialog to warrant their appearance; as a result the situations the protagonists find themselves in, feels forced.
If Costello was really the evil, guilt free gangster Nicholson was trying to portray, then frankly, he'd have had no hesitation taking Costigan outside to dance with a few bullets and put the doubt out of his mind once and for all.
It reminds me of another Scorsese film where an evil, guilt free gangster had a few doubts about his associates and did exactly that.
It felt real in that film, because, well, it was based on the real events and well... thats what evil, guilt free gangsters tend to do.
As for the Oscars, well, it says something I suppose. The Aviator was a better made film, both for Scorsese and DiCarprio who nailed Howard Hughes. They should have bunged it Scorsese's way then, now it just feels arbitrary and robbed Little Miss Sunshine of best picture, of which it most certainly is.