The Departed

Feb 23, 2007

All the elements are in place for an instant classic, but The Departed never fully congeals. We’re given tiny snippets of relationships between the characters in Martin Scorsese’s ‘competing mole’ flick, and so we don’t really care about them all that much. It’s a pity, because we won’t see a collection of talent like this again unless Scorsese agrees to direct Oceans 14. If so, please bring Alec Baldwin along for the ride; you could put that guy in a room for two hours, film the results and have a box-office smash. I’d watch him prune flowers. The Departed: B. Alec Baldwin: A.

Drew

Tom, stop beating yourself up. Kevin Costner was a thousand times worse than you in Thirteen Days.
Tom Hanks

Alec Baldwin...good in this movie? For the cameo he had, he almost beat me out for "worst Boston accent by an actor" in a movie since I tried to pull it off in "Catch Me If You Can."
Drew

Adam, I just expected... more. Things felt half-baked and rushed. I was very surprised the film won Best Picture, but then again the range of opinions I've heard about this film really runs the gamut.

Yes, a generous 'B' grade, largely for the cast, but also because my buddy Karl is front and center in the rugby scene.
Harrod

I have to agree with Weeks here. I thought the movie was "OK". There was a lot of hype around the movie and in my humble opinion did not live up to the hype. Now that they won Best Flick I'm going to have to reassess the movie. I saw it a long time ago now and thought that there was like Weeks said some "major plot flaws" and they were hoping that the big stars in the movie would keep it afloat. Who knows but I'm more happy that Manny showed up to Red Sox Spring Training then The Departed winning best flick of the year. I'll give it a second look and let you know.
Adam Howitt

I'm no movie buff and have really low expectations for movies. That said, we watched the departed last night and I thought it was a great Tarantino style movie. Like Snatch meets Casino. I don't think this is a one character movie - I think it's about the situation without isolating a chosen few. I would compare it in that regard to Crash for the way the movie pulls together.
Weeks

I might grade it even lower... I'm not sure if the film copy I saw was edited wrong, but it seemed like significant scenes were blatantly out of order and muddled. Maybe I expected too much, hearing only "you have to see this movie - it is amazing" but I found it to be quite a let down and just plain laughable at times. It seemed like Scorsese et al. figured major plot holes and incongruities would be alleviated by the audiences' captivation with the stars on the screen, as if we would be blinded to them by seeing Nicholson, Damon, and DiCaprio mixing it up... And I agree, Alec Baldwin is one of the best around... Really the only reason to watch this or 30 Rock...

The Departed

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