The original is just hard to live up to

Rating: 6/10 (16 October 2006)

I was really looking forward to this remake. The original and it's sequel (more accurately, the prequel) were two of the best Asian movies ever made.
Without making any comparisons to the original cast, I think Leonardo DiCaprio did a good job in this movie. Everyone else was their usual - Matt Damon's performance was a tad too Talented Mr Ripley for me, Mark Wahlberg was just his usual Four Brothers self. There was nothing notable about Alec Baldwin or Martin Sheen's characters.
Oh and Jack Nicholson can't be taken seriously acting that way. Really.
I did expect that changes would be made to the original, after all, Infernal Affairs contained too many Asian nuances to be universal, but I liked that what really happened was implied rather than shown. I feel that script was just too literal, and everything had to be played out. You hardly have the chance to feel the anguish anyone goes through, because they're yelling it all the time.
I guess the biggest problem I have with the The Departed is that everyone was a one-sided character. Besides maybe Leo Dicaprio's Billy. And that's just not how life is. The original movie really took the trouble to show that part of the characters. No one was truly honest, and no one was truly evil. And that's where The Departed failed.
Honestly I did expect a lot more from The Departed. Lots of big names were attached to it, and with a director like Martin Scorsese, you really expect to have your socks knocked off. I expected Cape Fear, or Goodfellas.
But alas. It was just an OK movie for me. I'll watch the original versions over this any day.