A good move, not a great movie

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2006)

************* Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD********************
I feel that Departed was not excellent: I thought the film had
a) too many coincidences (2 moles passing each other on their first day, both fall for the same girl and sleep with her, good cop seeing incriminating envelope on bad cop's desk)
b) trivial things ala Hitchcock McGuffin in the form of 20 computer chips for $1million
c) confusing plot (and I'm above average in following them). Like: why didn't the police arrest Costello -- as the good cop said -- for the many things they had him on. In real life, Al Capone was put away for tax evasion.
It wasn't quite on the level of a James Bond flick where the villain says "I'm about to kill you Mr. Bond, but first let me give you a tour of my laboratory." (Gee: I am ambivalent if I should watch the new Casino Royale movie coming Nov 17 2006.)
On the other hand, I felt that it was a bit like "Easy Rider", which was called a mediocre movie with a great ending.
Yup, I felt that a top star dying before the end was incredible, just like "Dressed to Kill". The realistic ending of the cop who quits coming back using all his cop skills to act as an avenging angel was great. That showed real ingenuity and realism.
By the way, I apologize in advance for not reading the 53 pages of other people's reviews before writing mine.