Not that significant

Rating: 6/10 (9 October 2006)

Being out of the country at the moment I hadn't been inundated with the hype of this movie (which I think is a good thing). It was a Martin Scorsese movie following the irish mob and corrupt police: my probable expectation was a focus on extreme depravity and violence.
Boy was I right. The violence was extremely graphic and I believe distracted from the story which I thought was of a semi first rate b movie quality. It was entertaining, don't get me wrong. The acting was exceptional, including the (usually ridiculously over done) late age Jack Nicholson, the (usually adolescent) Leonardo Dicaprio and the rapper turned "actor" Mark Wahlberg. Even Alec Baldwin showed up to make some wise cracks which I thought lent the movie it's b quality qualities (are b movies worthless ? I don't really think so). The movie crackled with an energy and I have to admit I did not look at my watch until about the second hour of the movie (which usually for me means I have been thoroughly entertained).
The bad part of it is of course the violence, which I feel Scorsese must love to portray, because his movies are sadistically concentrated on graphic acts of violence. Why this is and why he loves violence so much is probably more for his psychiatrist to figure out (if he is seeing one, which I think he should be). The fact that so many people are lavishing praise on this movie and ranking this as the 161st best movie EVER MADE is probably a sign that the apocalypse is upon us. I do not think a society desensitized to violence is really that great of a sign. The head shots to the various unlucky people were out in the open and not disguised at all, nothing was cut away. Was he hoping to make a statement about how disgusting violence is ? Didn't translate to me if he was.
Anyhow, the movie was silly and there were many unintentional laughs, one being the secret dealing with Chinese terrorists. The movie was completely over the top and wholly, insignificant. I know Scorsese has rarely deals with deep issues in his movies (other than alienation in Taxi Driver), but I think he is a great film director and should probably try dealing with more "internal" issues (and I don't mean internal organs of people blowing against the wall).