Extremely entertaining- nothing more

Rating: 7/10 (19 October 2006)

One of the America's sharpest action films of the year? Yes. A masterpiece? No. A return to form for one of America's most celebrated directors? Yes. An evolution of style and substance? No. Martin Scorsese certainly gives the finger to critics citing his recent geriatric tendencies with his most visceral work in at least a decade, but in turn somehow manages to imitate, not emulate some of his finer styling's, at peak form during the "Goodfellas" era. While stepping away from his traditional mobster and New York flavorings to tell this story about Boston police corruption, some of the more violent scenes, and even some of the environment panning clearly parallels, if not directly imitates classic moments from that prototypical masterpiece. What's worse is Scorsese's inability to change his musical palette when scoring these types of films, as half of the soundtrack also feels like a retread of the scenes he was trying to direct years before. Despite all of the noticeable unoriginality, The Departed still evolves into one of the most engaging guessing games in recent action memory, tightening the rungs around the paranoid plot line until we are all feeling the pressure. While some of the acting might not be academy-worthy, even the likes of Stiff Damon rose to the occasion to contribute to this classy thriller. Dicaprio provides a much needed boost to his sagging relevance as one of our finest young leads with his tense performance, while Nicholson once again shows that he has been done "trying" for some time now, and just gives the camera whatever it is he feels like giving it, which sadly is still way more engaging then most actors, despite his characters becoming way to silly. Ignoring desperate, idealistic preconceptions and bitter Scorsese fanboys who vow to get a genius his directing Oscar, The Departed is a very enjoyable, engaging, and fluid action thriller that will leave anyone with the slightest bit of testosterone feeling very satisfied.