I rarely see movies these days because they're overpriced and repetitive, but I let a friend talk me into seeing The Departed, and I'm glad I did.  Depsite it's length (2.5 hours), I was entertained the entire time and the acting, direction, and editing were all pretty darn good.  I've only seen four movies in theaters so far this year, but this was the best of those four, so that's gotta count for something, I guess.  Anyway, it's a good film, so if you get bored of arguing about world politics on a video game soundtrack message board, go check it out. :-)

Hehe... I'm not sure "bored" is the right word, perhaps "fed up" with arguing about politics is better!  At any rate, yes I do plan on seeing The Departed, since it does after all take place here in Boston...  Not that I've seen many films that take place in this city, but it'll be neat if I recognize any backdrop in the film
I also head that The Illusionist is quite good.

cheers,

-avatar!

I saw a review for this on one of the Boston newscasts and man, you'd think that the one reviewing it was auditioning for one of those orgasmic shampoo commercials. Couldn't find anything other than praise to say about it, including that it seems to be a remake of a Chinese film, Mou Gaan Dou (also referred to as Infernal Affairs, which is silly as all hell). I realize it probably has a hell of a lot to do with the fact that some of it was filmed in Boston, and thus seeing it is apparently my duty as a Massachusetts native. Maybe when it's on TV.

I'm much more likely to take in Illusionist or The Science of Sleep (Charlie Kaufman nerd).

I've been meaning to see this.  It's Martin Scorsese doing crime, which is always a treat (not that Scorsese tends to suck or so on), and it's been getting virtually universal praise to boot.  Of course, I'll probably have to see Infernal Affairs after I see it...

I liked it, but the ending of "The Departed" killed it. "Infernal Affairs" (which is a rather brilliant pun, if you ask me) was all about imperfect justice, whereas "Departed" sought to tie things up into a nice little package for American audiences while adding a pretty lame sex scene that wasn't in the original. I was quite disappointed with its ending. And the emotion of the ending scenes was tepid -- or maybe that shows you how U.S. audiences are blase about violence. In the final elevator scenes, the audience in the theater LAUGHED at all the shooting -- probably because it was so quick, it really didn't have time to sink in, and all told, it did seem like it was being made into a comical farce of "he shoots him, then he shoots the other guy." The original movie did those scenes better.

Hmm, I didn't know it was a remake.  It's still supposed to be good (I'll find out soon), but I wonder if Hollywood produces much of anything along the lines of originality these days?  I do have to admit, Scorsese is quite a master, and the last film of his I saw (the Aviator) was excellent!

cheers,

-avatar!

Well, I saw the film, and first let me say that it's definitely no masterpiece.  However, it was entertaining and well done.  It certainly was made for US audiences in mind, but I have no problem with that, because I am an American after all   Anyway, I thought the sex scene did NOT detract from the movie, rather it showed that the two had made an important physical and emotional bond (which also helps explain her presence after the elevator scene).  As for the elevator scene itself, I didn't hear people laugh at the theatre.  Rather I heard all these girls gasp.  Although to be honest, quite a bit of the violence in that film was fairly comical.  I thought the acting was great.  The original film might be better in certain respects, and since it is the original you could argue everything else is just a copy.  You could also argue the same thing for the movies Ringu and The Ring.  I personally prefer The Ring because it's a bit more surreal and there's more imagery, but to each their own!

cheers,

-avatar!

I saw this today and I was hugely impressed. I should state that I've always been a Scorsese fan, but even taking that into account this was undeniably pure entertainment. The pacing, performances and script were spot-on. I laughed a lot during the movie, there's some really funny stuff in there - and yes I did laugh at the elevator shootout and I think that was intended by the filmmakers. There's a certain point at which that scene becomes absurd, but in a good way. It's acknowledged slightly in Damon's performance, as he pauses for a moment almost in disbelief trying to comprehend everything that's happened in the past few seconds.

The violence is often laced with that kind of black humour - such as when Costigan injures his hand while beating up the Italian mobsters, or the guy upset that he didn't go into shock after being shot... but on the other end of the scale there's some proper down and dirty stuff that really hits hard. I liked that the film was able to mix those tones together and stay true.

Alec Baldwin stole every single scene he appeared in. I'm really liking his tendency to come into a film with a strong suporting part, blow people out of the water and move on. Having said that I think that everyone involved gave superb performances. Nicholson was reigned in and DiCaprio (who I'm a fan of anyway) is confidently moving ever away from his teen heartthrob image. Still looking a bit cherubic (oh, what a curse!) but I never for one second failed to believe in him as the character.

I've seen Infernal Affairs so obviously most of the plot wasn't news to me, but I for one did like the slightly altered ending. It did come a little as a surprise as I'd completely forgotten about the character involved but it was a good payoff for the whole thing.

My film of the year by far.

I watched The Departed again over the weekend.  Man, what a sexy, sleek soundtrack from Howard Shore.  The contemporary Latin tango guitar style really works, and while the numerous arrangements of the The Departed Tango main theme can begin to sound same-y after a while, the various change-ups in rhythmic patterns and the guitar ensemble's performances keep it lively.  Cops or Criminals and Miss Thing are among my favorite variations.

The faaaackin' depaaaahtid, kid.