Movie Review – The Departed – It’s Teh Good

The Departed

‘The Departed’ is set in South Boston, where the state police force is waging war on organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Costello (Jack Nicholson). While Billy is quickly gaining Costello’s confidence, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department.

I heard a lot of people saying this movie wasn’t that good and that the original (Infernal Affairs) was much better, so I wasn’t expecting much when I watched it finally.

Suffice to say I pleasantly surprised to find it was a truly excellent movie.

IMDB backs this up, as the movie has gone virtually straight in at the number 76 spot of the best 250 movies of all time.

I have watched both Infernal Affairs I and II but haven’t yet watched III (apparently ties up some lose ends).

Some people say the time transitions in The Departed aren’t very smooth and somewhat confusing, but I have to say it left me a hell of a lot less confused than Infernal Affairs did.

I mean what’s the nonsense with changing actors completely when the character gets 5 years older? It totally threw me off!

Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio played their respective roles excellently, battling against each other through-out the movie.

The Departed

I’m glad to see Leonardo DiCaprio getting some good roles again, he’s been making a comeback since Catch me if you can and The Aviator. I also knew he was a good actor since I saw What’s eating Gilbert Grape.

I thought Jack Nicholson was also excellent as the mob boss Costello, he plays that certain kind of sociopath psycho very well, a lot of people complained it was a bad choice and compared to Eric Tsang..But remember this movie has been changed and a lot of the Asian cultural references had to be removed as they wouldn’t be understood, nor be relevant.

Jack

The cinematography and direction was of course excellent as expected by Martin Scorsese.

The irony of the whole storyline will of course be familiar if you’ve seen Infernal Affairs and this movie does delivery it all, it’s hard hitting and gripping.

If you haven’t watched it, I recommend it.

If you think Infernal Affairs is better…I disagree, in some ways Infernal Affairs is better..but in more ways it’s not.

So The Departed wins.

I give it a gripping 9/10, one of the best movies of 2006.

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11 Responses to Movie Review – The Departed – It’s Teh Good

  1. Mossie`Ol Chin January 31, 2007 at 12:23 pm #

    haha… the dialogues were too freaking fuckish that most of the time i couldn’t catch what the dialogues were…. hahaha

  2. Jibone January 31, 2007 at 1:18 pm #

    It used to be that asian movie makers try to adopt Hollywood films, but it seem that these days it’s the other way around.

    I do agree that Leonardo DiCaprio is a good actor. Anyway nice review,… I think I’ll watch it 😉

  3. Dabido (Teflon) January 31, 2007 at 9:35 pm #

    ‘I also knew he was a good actor since I saw What’s eating Gilbert Grape.’

    I agree. Back in 1996 when I caught the end of Gilbert Grape (I still haven’t had a chance to see the movie all the way through), my wife at the time [now ex-wife], made the remark that the producers should be fired as they actually USED a retarded kid in the movie. I looked and it was Leonardo … lol Needless to say I had to explain to her who it was. 🙂

  4. dylan January 31, 2007 at 9:42 pm #

    i watched this at the cinema (Malaysia). Mark Whalberg never get to finish his sentence in our “clean” version. i was damn pissed off with the censored version cos’ everything was so disjointed and confusing. Anyway, there were too much “rat” reference in The Departed. The last scene was funny thou’

  5. in February 1, 2007 at 8:01 pm #

    Please excuse me for a moment while I go into ‘crazed teenage fan’ mode….
    LEO!!!!…..You’re f*ing hot!!!….*faints*

  6. Ront February 1, 2007 at 10:46 pm #

    well….infernal affairs would be a lot better if you understand cantonese fairly well….

    if you had to rely on the subtitles, i guess that’s where the movie is lacking.

  7. Footy 24/7 February 3, 2007 at 1:11 am #

    Will watch this over the weekend, to get to 75 in IMDB in such a short space of time is good (although there is some right crap in IMDB like LOTR (awaiting flames 🙂

    8.4/10 (55,290 votes) – Looking forward to a big Scorsese lineup

  8. Pinky February 3, 2007 at 11:42 pm #

    oo i saw this on the plane to HK …. more violent than internal affairs i’d say …. and no possible sequels. lol. good movie all over.

  9. ShaolinTiger February 5, 2007 at 2:22 pm #

    Mossie`Ol Chin: Haha, use the subtitles la!

    Jibone: Yah the paradigm has changed, Hollywood is fast running out of ideas (hence all the book to movie and comic to movie conversions lately).

    Dabido (Teflon): Now THAT’s funny!

    dylan: I watched the Malaysian uncensored version, much better 😉

    Ront: Aye that might be it. But still, why the change in actors?

    Footy 24/: It’s worth it, Scorsese rocks

    Pinky: Aye more violent, Infernal Affairs seems like a trilogy though hehe this one more complete.

  10. dcyk February 8, 2007 at 4:40 pm #

    go watch Blood Diamond, bet you’ll like it, Damn nice movie

 
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