The Departed

And this is an Oscar-winning movie? Marty’s weakest work? Ha ha. I haven’t yet seen Infernal Affairs yet, so I should avoid comparing them. The beginning is boring as hell. Plus, I have nothing against cussing and vulgarity, but too much of a good thing... The screenplay must have been awful for a start and the actors must have agreed to do it just because of Scorsese. And what does the Fox say? “You can’t build on wobbly foundations"? But not to be too critical. DiCaprio is really good and the end is quite interesting for an American movie (but not really, when I remember that the story originates from Asia). (07/08/2007)

I've avoided the film for so long that I have to give it a full score without thinking, because this is a great ride full of my favourite stars and what can we say, I've never seen better cast in a film. All is underlined by decent dialogue, great story-building and an excellent bloody climax. By the end, I was growling with a decent amount of pleasure and watching in disbelief as the screenwriter pulled us along. I regret my procrastination, I couldn't have spent 151 minutes better. (26/11/2014)

Until the very end, Scorsese's speedy directing and the great actors manage to disguise the fact that this tale about cops, rats and hidden agents may have too trivial of a plot, in which, unlike Infernal Affairs, there is no room for deeper psychology and surprises. Nevertheless, it is a thriller that can be watched breathlessly and enjoyed at an incredible pace of storytelling. The question is whether it can be watched more than once. (10/08/2008)

When I decided to go see The Departed, contrary to my original intention, I was firmly convinced that I would not try to compare it to the original. And yet in a movie where the best moments are those that copy it exactly, I can't do otherwise. As for the star-studded cast, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Martin Sheen are great, Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg are average, and Vera Farmiga and, to my huge surprise, Jack Nicholson, are terrible. It is his role in The Departed in particular that proves why the remake should not have been made. Instead of a subtle gangster leader, Costello is a sleazy and unnecessarily vulgar arrogant, who doesn't care about anything or anyone, and the screenwriters added a stupidly behaving female character between the two main heroes, which further diminishes the credibility of their mutual duel. And above all, I won't forgive Martin Scorsese for one fundamental thing: the suspenseful, emotionally charged, and, in my eyes, forever unforgettable final scene in the elevator, which was the highlight of the original, became a farce in the remake, cramming three twists into a few seconds, and the absurdly portrayed final shootout of the main characters provoked deserved and almost incredulous mockery in the movie theater. Scorsese destroyed a film that could have redefined the gangster genre if he hadn't merely dissected the original and wildly twisted it – and that has earned him everything possible from me, except for the promised pinnacle of his career. (30/11/2006)

Four stars for that beautifully dry ending, but as a whole it didn’t really thrill me. There are a lot of big names, but the best is DiCaprio, he’s really unlikeable, but his performance is great. His antagonist, Matt Damon, in contrast, is a jerk at times, not because he’s bad, but because I didn’t find him believable in the role. The story moves along quite slowly, there aren’t any proper turns until about the middle and before that, you have to put up with a lot of dialogues that are supposed to be vulgar, dirty and tough, but they are clearly fake and forced. For me, The Departed deserves 75%. (27/08/2008)