Great film, but not his best job in director's chair.

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2006)

I really think Scorcese created a unique way of depicting criminals in unconventional forms , whether you are a police captain or a member of a mob family working double shifts. The story is real. It's modern, the writing is smart and the film lets you know in the opening scene that it's setting takes place a few years ago. But in reality, it's a story that takes place right now, present time to near future. There are hints of political jabs concerning levels of power now given to the local police departments and FBI and all other agencies of law enforcement for that matter. So the writing was smart and I was really never bored once throughout the entire 2 and half plus hours.
Now I'm not going to tell you what this film is about, just go see it. It's a modern cops and mobsters/Donnie Brasco/state of grace type film. The cast has all stars everywhere. This film has a B-movie feel to it, set wise, and firefights were OK, but nothing major..very little extras, very little car chases or anything else that looks expensive to produce. Most of the budget must of went to the cast. Starting off with Jack Nicholson. He was at his best here comically since Batman. He is great comedy throughout the film, and acting wise he does a good job at showing valence, and is believable as a mob boss. The show stealer in my mind was Leonardo DiCaprio. In my honest opinion, he overshadows everyone else in the film and that's saying a lot considering how good Damon was. The only good character development Scorcese paced well is the character Leo plays named Billy Costigan. I didn't care what happened to anyone else in the film. He was as emotional as anyone has ever gotten on film. It was almost as if other actors who were on screen with DiCaprio were intimidated by his overpowering acting. The other great performance that stood out was Baldwinn's character as a vulgar fast trash talking cop. He had me laughing throughout.
So great story, smart unpredictable writing, and top notch acting; What else does this film need? well, other the split screen time between Damon and DiCaprio kind of took away from good character development. Scorcese paced the movie in choppy manner, with cuts at inappropriate moments, and some scenes were just time fillers. He might win the Oscar this year, but its all politics.He deserved it plenty of times before, but not this one. Don't take it the wrong way though, this movie deserves at least 3 Oscars, one for DiCaprio, other for Screenplay, and perhaps a third for score. This movie had some pulsating scenes in it, due in part to it's great rock and roll trademark 70's Scorcese soundtracks.
The love story was OK, nothing like Stone and Deniro in Casino, or even Diaz and DiCaprio in Gangs of NY. But there is a subplot love story in the film. The story is about going crooked in life. Monsters could be anyone, and some are saved, some are only going to wind up dead. Every dog does have it's day. Scorcese will in March, when this film racks up some awards. 8 out of 10.