Fresh & Exhilarating Crime Thriller

Rating: 9/10 (13 October 2006)

With "The Departed" Martin Scorsese remakes a Hong Kong film called internal affairs.
Taking Place in Boston, young Undercover Cop Billy Costigan is assigned the job of infiltrating the Irish mob ran by a violent crime boss named Costello. Simultaneously, Costello has a criminal mole of his own working in the Police Department. Eventually both the mob and Police realize there is a mole in their operations causing the ensuing action and excitement, when they try and smoke each other out.
Scorsese knows how to do crime movies with such greats as Casino, Goodfellas and Taxi Driver under his belt. He matches and maybe even surpasses those films with the Departed.
I'm neither a Matt Damon or Leonardo DiCaprio fan. In Fact I always saw them as pretty boy actors who are mainly used to attract a female audience. In Departed both attempt to step up to the plate and try erase those past impressions. DiCaprio does a decent job even though his accent was questionable, and Damon is fully believable in his role. They were backed by a great cast including Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Ray Winstone, Mark Wahlburg, Vera Fermiga & Anthony Anderson.
The one actor who I think did poorly was Jack Nicholson. He overacted and really hammed it up by acting plain retarded at some points. Some of his gestures and and facial expressions were ridiculous and silly.
Writer William Monahan rewrote the script without viewing the original, allowing him more freedom. He does a great job translating this oft told story into something fresh that unfolds in an exhilarating way.
Scorsese's directing was also quite impressive. He obviously didn't feel the need to rush things and allows the film to move along at an even pace without getting boring. Many directors would have made the mistake of shortening the script, thinking they would get a tighter movie.
As I said the plot itself is pretty straightforward, but the ensuing results are anything but expected. This isn't a conventional crime thriller so things happen that you would never expect. The story and characters are exciting, and this movie packs a lot in what seems like a short amount of time.
Nothing is excessive and everything is intense, leaving you with a true crime masterpiece.
I give it a nine & not a ten only because of Nicholson. His hamming it up was ridiculous at points . Besides that this was a great movie, probably the best I've seen in years.