The Departed

I had pledged to get Part II of my Bond series out today, but I just didn't feel like it. I know you're all devastated. Fear not, I have another movie post for you since I watched The Departed last night.

Let me say at the start, it was very good. Be that as it may, anyone even mentioning it in the same breath as Goodfellas has a screw loose.

By now, everyone who cares knows its about the Boston mob and the fact that the cops have a rat in the mob and the mob has a rat in the cops. That plot runs its course in entertaining fashion over the length of the movie.

What stood out to me was the performances of Nicholson, Damon, and DiCaprio - Nicholson in particular. Damon plays the mob's rat and brings back that "Southie" accent from Good Will Hunting. It reminds us after a couple of those dreadful Bourne and Ocean's movies that he still can act.

Back when we all cheered at the end of Titanic because pansy ass Jack had just sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic with the boat, if you told me Leonardo DiCaprio would one day be a bad ass in a Scorsese mob movie, I would have laughed at you and punched you in the testicles for saying something so absurd. Shockingly, it turns out DiCaprio is a pretty good actor. Since that Titanic nonsense, he's turned out quite a few decent ones like this one, The Beach, and The Aviator (Blood Diamond is still on my to see list). He plays the cops' rat here and has to do some pretty messed up things to get "in" with Nicholson's crew.

Nicholson's performance was the best though and somehow he didn't get an Oscar nomination. For the first time in years, he doesn't play himself. Though the Boston accent comes and goes, he gets the aging, racist, cold hearted mob boss just right.

Where I dock points is Scorsese's style. He has developed a certain directorial style over the years that I really enjoy. In this movie, he seems to abandon that. Any decent director could have made this. Thats why I would say Goodfellas, and even Casino, are better.

One last note to Marty: Its time to give "Gimme Shelter" a rest. How many times have we heard this on one of your movie soundtracks?