The Departed is a treat to watch if you enjoy intense acting, quick dialogue and a well paced movie. I even found it quite funny at times.
There are those out there who believe Scorsese is overrated, I am not one of those people and while I don't love violence in movies I can handle it from Scorsese more than most directors. The Departed is not the most violent movie I've ever seen in the "gangster" genre, but it is prevalent. In typical Scorsese fashion the violence is quick, shocking and realistically graphic, there are no slow motion replays or gimmicks which somehow makes it easier to handle for me.
It's hard to pick out one, or even just a few great acting performances in The Departed. In the era of ensemble casts this is one for the ages. DiCaprio, Wahlberg, Baldwin, Damon, Sheen, and of course Nicholoson are all brilliant. My only complaint is the lack of female characters, save one played well by Vera Farmiga.
So did it deserve best picture? I'm not so sure. I was pulling for Little Miss Sunshine but assumed it would not win. I've heard others say Babel was more deserving of the Oscar. I certainly think highly of The Departed and will watch it again, but it wasn't the best of what 2006 had to offer in my opinion. Still this was a great movie; in the gangster genre which nobody does better than Scorsese, this is one of the best I've seen.
The Departed is on my 'Watch It' list and I give a value of $8.
March 11, 2007
The Departed - $8
I've been asked what I think of The Departed for months now but I didn't actually watch it until recently. I've eagerly anticipated this movie for some time and when the Academy chose it as the best movie of 2006 and gave Scorsese his long overdue best director award, I finally got around to seeing it.
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4 comments:
agree...good but not great...but still great. You know what I'm saying.
not great, just good. probably only the cast made it good. otherwise it is a pretty normal movie. babel was better and so was sunshine.
give scorsese the oscar but don't give it to the movie, i say, but whatever.
I think I'd still call it great, this was an intelligent and complex movie in what is commonly a one dimmensional genre.
I'm also a sucker for great acting performances and this was full of them.
I still haven't seen Babel though I agree about the best movie because I would have given it to Sunshine or even the unnominated Pan's Labrynth before The Departed.
My beef with this film, and the reason I probably won't watch it, is that it's an unnecessary remake of a perfectly nice little Hong Kong flick, which again was good but not great.
That, and the fact that I think Nicholson is a ham, DiCaprio is overrated, and Scorsese's best films are behind him.
Not for me, this one, even though I'm sure it's probably well made.
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