Simply put, a Hollywood rip-off of Infernal Affairs

Rating: 6/10 (21 March 2008)

I must admit, I saw this movie before I saw the original - 'Infernal Affairs' - and thought it was good. Mainly, I thought that the plot was very interesting and unique. I never really thought that this film needed so much swearing and gore to make it good, but in Hollywood, those two things are the only reasons why people watch films. However,once I watched the original version - 'Infernal Affairs' - I was really turned off to The Departed for a number of reasons.
1. The Departed literally took the script from Infernal Affairs and stuck a bunch of big-name Hollywood actors in it, but kept everything else the exact same. I would say about 80% of the movie was simply regurgitated from the original (including some of the actual lines), and I thought that was d tacky and disrespectful on the part of Scorsese. I would expect more from a film maker of his caliber.
2. The script here is so rushed and unrealistic. Unlike in Infernal Affairs (were the movie is stretched out over 10 years), The Departed takes place over what appears to be a few months to a year. What is so stupid about this is that we are lead to believe that a mole was able to work his way from a nobody newbie in a mafia gang, to the Boss's second hand man in that short of a time. All I have to say about that is 'bull sh*t'. That would NEVER happen, and everyone knows that.
3. I didn't buy into all the over-the-top characters in the Departed. It is like all of the actors thought they were the lead role, and nobody was willing to take a supporting cast. This leads to constant theatrical rants and over acting by most of the cast.
4. The characters were too white and black. The good guys were cliché good guys, and the bad guys were cliché bad guys. In Infernal Affairs, the moles from either side show their good and bad sides, and struggle to figure out who they really are.
5. The cinematography is nothing special, and compared to some of the scenes from Infernal Affairs, it sucks. The scene from IF on the rooftop at the end is amazing.
6. Again, I am just going to say how disgusted I am at how unoriginal this movie is, and ask people to watch Infernal Affairs instead.
On a positive note, the one thing I did prefer in The Departed over the original was the amount of character development that was done (however at times, that was even too much). Personally, I would have liked to see a bit more of that in Infernal Affairs.
When all is said and done, just watch Infernal Affairs. You may not know the actors, there may not be the amount of character development and a couple of the lines may seem slightly cheesy (only the ones between the moles and their lovers), but at least you will be watching the original film and not some Hollywood knock-off.