Better than Infernal Affairs, but still more of a mess than it is a masterwork.

Rating: 5/10 (7 October 2006)

Unfortunately there are millions of people out there who will watched this movie with a positive bias as most believe that Martin Scorsese is utterly infallible, but I am strictly in the middle with this director.
I know I am going to be totally controversial (and perhaps SHOCKING) when I admit that I really hated Goodfellas. Now, before you immediately vote against my review, just please read on so I can explain myself. I find Goodfellas to be one of the most ridiculously over-rated movies in history (along with DePalma's phenomenally misinterpreted pile of crap Scarface) but I do LOVE Casino. They are almost two sides of the same coin, so you can see how I am split over Scorsese.
I saw the original Infernal Affairs a few years ago and I hated it too. Yes, some good moments, but mainly an over-wrought bore. It's not because it is an Asian film, as I often enjoy them, but I just found it to be slightly inaccessible and alienating. Scorsese's remake is easier to identify with but is also a whole 50 minutes longer.
The plot has undercover cop Leo Dicaprio infiltrate the Boston Irish Mafia in order to flush out a mole in the Police Department. Matt Damon is that mole and his job is to flush out the undercover cop in the Mafia. Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg and Jack Nicolson play the respective bosses, lawful and lawless. Within this set-up characters bounce back and forth off each other, swearing, shooting, swearing and swearing. Man, this film is effing hardcore! (Sarcasm!)
Asking Jack Nicolson to play evil is like asking a Rottwieler to bark. It's what he does best. 'Ooh, but what about all the subtle nuances?' Come on, it's an easy, easy performance for someone like him and it's nothing you ain't seen him do before. The best performance actually comes from Matt Damon, closely followed by Mark Wahlberg (if you ever had trouble telling the difference between them then don't see this movie).
The cinematography is ugly as sin. Scorsese has gone for the same dull as hell color pallet of brown, brown and dark brown he used in Goodfellas. Yes, I know this film is not supposed to be bright, happy colors and blue skies. But if the dank colors are supposed to reflect the gritty realism of the doomed plot threads then they totally contradict the perfectly set-up camera angles. I am not saying that this film could only have been shot in a Paul Greengrass style jitter but a little less and a little more of the former and latter could have set the balance straight.
And the plot is completely all over the place. If you get into this movie you'll walk out of the cinema shocked and astonished, which will make you forget about some things that simply don't add up. Since I had already seen Infernal Affairs I didn't gasp at the ending when the rest of the audience sucked the air out of the cinema. I was too busy trying to make sense of it all, but you can't because there are too many holes in it.
Remakes are becoming more and more common these days and they are increasingly scoffed at (even when they are really good, such as Dawn of the Dead 2004 or Poseidon) but as soon as apparently unimperfect Martin Scorsese does one most of you turn a blind eye to the fact that the film is near-enough a shot-for-shot remake itself. I don't think it took a great amount of talent to crank out a film like this. And where the hell the $90 million budget went to is the REAL mystery!
But lads will love it. The screening I went to was sold out to many groups of 10 or 15 guys and metrosexuals with their blonde girlfriends. I am mentioning this because The Departed (like 2004's Crash) is a film that philistines go to see because it makes them feel clever. Sort of like penance for watching crud like When a Stranger Calls or The Fog. I just wish that people would find THEIR OWN good movies instead of always choosing what everyone else likes. Which is the only reason I can give for Goodfellas being so mysteriously well-regarded.
Martin Scorsese is not the Mafia expert he thinks he is. Boston is not his turf. It's not a world I think he understands. And the result is a cartoonish, exaggerated shoot-em-up in which every character is lined up for the sole purpose of eventually being gunned down.