A Very Disappointing Re-make

Rating: 4/10 (3 October 2006)

I went to the screening with high hope but was very disappointed for several reasons: 1. The movie is way too long. It added too many uninteresting sub-plots which distracted from the original taut and suspense story. It's confusing and anti-climax. One time during the screening, my friend turned to me and whispered he's lost with what's going on.
2. The movie has a very inconsistent tone to it. From the trailers, most people would think the background of the movie was set a while back, and it said 'Some Years Ago' at the beginning of the movie. However, if you count how many scenes used the compact cell phones and annoying text messaging over and over and over again, then it didn't look right! The mob still acted like mob in 60's but they were using latest cell phones dealing with 'micro-processors'. Eh?! The movie feels and looks like an extra long version of cell phone commercial. What happened to the original nail-biting Morse code tapping scene?
3. The cast has no chemistry! It took me ½ hour into the movie to distinguish Leonardo from Matt. The lead actress is very 'ordinary' and not very interesting at all. Jack is Jack, doing his psychotic hybrid of 'Shinning' and 'Joker' from the Batman. Mark Wahlber (who I usually like) was obnoxious! Alec Baldwin thinks he's still in 'Saturday Night Live' doing all the gay jokes. That lefts Martin Sheen very little screen time to gain my sympathy for his character's death.
4. The key pivotal scenes were let downs from the original, including the falling body and elevator scene at the end of the movie. It supposed to evoke sadness and shock, not disgust and laughs. (Seriously, audience in the screening started to laugh at the elevator scene, which I don't think is the response the movie intended to get out of viewers). And the 'extra' ending was so lame! OK, it got the cheers from the audience, but it was so art-less from the original. Sometimes the ultimate punishment is not death, but to be alive and to carry the burden of shame and guilt forever.
I'd rather watch the stylish original 'Infernal Affairs'.