Scorsese's Best Since Goodfellas

I've always liked Martin Scorsese's movies, he has done several types of movies and has shown that he definitely knows how to make good movies. When you see his name stamped on a movie, you know you're going to get quality work. And he's shown his versatility in directing unrelated films like Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, After Hours, The Last Waltz, Taxi Driver, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Color Of Money, Raging Bull, The Aviator, the list goes on. But what Martin is known best for are his gangster movies. From Mean Streets to Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, and now The Departed, he shows he knows how to make gangster movies. My personal favorite from Martin is Goodfellas (I've seen it a dozen times, and I think it's right up there with The Godfather for best gangster/mob movie of all time), but as good as Goodfellas is, The Departed gives it a run for its money. The thing I like about Martin Scorsese the best is he has a vision. He knows what works for him, and he stays with what he knows. And if he decides to go a different way, he definitely does his homework. He knows cinematography as well and knows what will look great on the big screen, and it looks just as great in the living room after you pop the movie in.

The Departed is an excellent movie with an excellent cast. Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin all put forth performances so real that you believe that they are the characters. DiCaprio, Damon, and Nicholson steal the show with their great performances in great roles; but it's Wahlberg, Sheen, and Baldwin who complete the movie with their excellent supporting roles. Sometimes you see an excellent cast fall flat on their face (Ocean's Twelve), but Scorsese doesn't let any egos get in the way. He does an excellent job of keeping everyone within their own character, and the result is outstanding.

The Departed is similar to the movie Donnie Brasco with Al Pacino and Johnny Depp, but it's way more complicated. Complicated in a good way. It takes a while for everything to play out (it runs in at two and half hours), but it all comes together, and I'm glad Martin didn't skip out on the storytelling by making the movie shorter. I honestly don't know what could've been cut out. It's about a mole who gets inside the mob while reporting to police officers in order to bring down mob boss Frank Costello (Nicholson). Only problem is that he has a cop that's supposed to be on his side who's reporting back to Frank, so Frank keeps eluding the heat. Meanwhile, each side is trying to figure out who the mole is on the other side. There are all kinds of twists and turns which make this movie truly original and great, and it keeps you guessing all the way up to the climactic end.

It's nice to see that Martin finally got his Oscar nod. I cannot think of anyone in Hollywood who has done so much for the movie industry, and yet kept getting snubbed year after year. He finally got what was coming to him, just like the guys who get whacked in his movies, but in a good way. Goodfellas is still my favorite Scorsese movie (favorite movie period), but The Departed is right up there. I was actually kind of surprised to see that he won the Oscar for Departed; not because of the quality of the movie, but because of past snubbings. I thought maybe Scorsese's movies were too violent for the Academy. They finally got it right. Thank you.

The Departed

Scorsese transfers the action to Boston, positioning Leonardo Di Caprio as undercover cop William Costigan and Matt Damon as undercover mobster Colin Sullivan. While Costigan and Sullivan get into plenty of nail-biting situations that almost reveal their true identities, Scorsese gradually unravels his strong supporting cast, including Jack Nicholson as Sullivan's mob boss, Frank Costello; Ray Winstone as Costello's meat-headed muscle; Mark Wahlberg as a hot-headed police sergeant; and Vera Farmiga as a love interest for both Damon and DiCaprio's characters.

The Departed

I know what you're all thinking. Finally, something new! Maybe this'll actually be helpful to me. And I think it will.

This movie directed by Martin Scorsese, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon as Billy Costigan and Colin Sullivan, both men serving undercover. One working for the Irish-American mafia as a cop and the other a cop working for the department as a criminal. Both men become aware that there is a "rat" in their midst and are charged to sniff the mole out. They both work or pretend to work for Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson. Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, and Alec Baldwin play cops trying to put Costello away once and for all. Things really get escalated and both main characters find things aren't always what they seem.

Matt Damon is the perfect poster boy for his role as the guy who gets all the promotions, charms everyone, and gets ahead in life but is really a rat on the inside. He has such a winning personality that everyone just wants to believe him. But the guy you really want to root for is Leonardo DiCaprio, the guy who has never had it easy, and has always had all the odds stacked against him and persecution like crazy, particularly from Mark Wahlberg. He's dubbed a failure and put in prison to get a reputation and thrown out on the streets again to get recruited ultimately by Costello. He goes through so many hardships and injuries and emotional turmoil while Matt Damon checks out the view from his upper class apartment and shags his new therapist girlfriend. The parallels from their lives are so facinating to watch, even if it does go a step too far with them both pursuing the same woman.

Jack Nicholson is crazier than ever. He beats, kills, does all that mafia stuff. Starts to really come unhinged and just walks around with blood on his hands. Gets a little careless and both main characters have to jump through hoops to protect him. I have to say all the roles in this movie were well played. Particularly Leonardo DiCaprio, you just really had sympathy for what he had to do to try and earn a little respect that no one will ever know about.

I was really into this plot all the way till the last fifteen minutes or so. I don't want to put any spoilers out here, let's just say a lot of people got shot in a very short period of time with no premeditation or recovery time. I still think this was a pretty good movie, but falls a little short of spectacular due to the confusing ending. All in all, I still liked it. It gets an A-. I'm expecting to see some nominations out of this one.

They are all but one The Departed

Do people really live like this? It's Boston, which is a long way from where I live. But it reminds me of the spy-counter spy movies from the past that we went to see in the 1960s and 1970s--only bloodier. It is also so complicated that it reminds me of "The Big Sleep."

In the movie, we have an Irish Mafia leader (Jack Nicholson) with a spy in the police (Matt Damon). But we also have an undercover police captain (Martin Sheen and his assistant Mark Wahlberg) with a spy in the Mafia (Leonardo DiCaprio). The cat and mouse game is the root of the story. Who will outsmart the other and figure out who is the spy for the other side? And additionally, who is the cat and who is the mouse? The use of two or three cell phones by each character makes this a movie that could not have been made before now.

Unknowingly, the two spies have the same girlfriend played by police-
psychiatrist, Vera Farmiga, who is pregnant at the end of the movie. An unresolved issue is who is the father, which to me would have made the movie much more satisfying if we had known. There would have been a victory of sorts for one of the characters.

On the downside, the movie contains constant cursing in language that would tremendously offend conservative, church-going people. Additionally, there is a tremendous amount of bloodshed--especially gunshots straight through the brain spattering blood all over the place. There is also other violence--people being pushed off of buildings, glasses smashed into faces, broken hands smashed again, and lots of karate type moves.

You have to have a certain tolerance of lots of action and be willing to accept lots of coincidences and being in the right place at the right time to like this kind of movie. I for one prefer a simpler story that is true entertainment--but not slapstick comedy.

This movie, however, was cleverly done. Jack Nicholson plays the part that he plays so well--grody, sexual, fearless, tragic, and always on the edge of being caught by the police. Also great is Mark Wahlberg, who for once plays a good guy but only in a roundabout way. (He is really a curser. It almost makes you laugh if it weren't so vulgar.)

Martin Scorsese finally won his Best Director Oscar for this movie. I assume that he deserved it, but really I think that it was one of those Oscars given because he had lost so many times in the past.

Finally, this movie is for those of us who still thrive on lots of violence, action, and a story full of coincidences and being in the right place at the right time.

"The Departed" on Blu-ray Disc

An excellent example of a character-driven drama, this movie has plenty of twists & turns to keep you guessing; it'll leave you talking, it'll make you want to see it again & again, and on Blu-ray it'll be beaitiful each & every time.

Matt Damon is Staff Sergeant Sullivan, a detective with the Boston Police Department; he's also in the employ of Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), the crime kingpin of Irish Boston. Leonardo DiCaprio is William Costigan Jr., a new thug with Costello's organization, and nephew of one of Costello's dead ex-compadres; he's also an undercover detective in the Boston Police Department's Special Investigations Unit. When this world of crime, betrayal and murder comes together, you'll never see the hits coming!

Great writing and an absolutely stellar cast make this a powerful drama with thrills around every corner! Also features Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, and Martin Sheen.