Susan Hated Literature

Dec 01 2006

The Departed

Published by Fence under Moving Pictures

Dir: Martin Scorsese
Writ: William Monahan based on previous screenplay by Siu Fai Mak & Felix Chong

Leonardo DiCaprio - Billy Costigan
Matt Damon - Colin Sullivan
Jack Nicholson - Frank Costello
Mark Wahlberg - Dignam
Martin Sheen - Oliver Queenan
Ray Winstone - Mr. French
[Alec Baldwin - Ellerby

It took me a while, but I finally managed to go see this film last night, and now I want to go again, because it really is fantastic. Bloody, violent, full of no-good nastiness and general scumbaggery. But wonderful to watch all the same.

The film begins “some years ago” where we see a young Colin Sullivan being approached by local bad-guy-boss Costello and groomed to join the police force and become a mole. Billy Costigan also joins the police force, but he is sent out as an undercover cop to infiltrate Costello’s gang. Sullivan meanwhile has succeeded in rising through the force and is now doing the exact opposite, infiltrating the police for Costello’s benefit.

Thematically the film is mainly concerned with betrayal and family and loyalty. Both DiCaprio and Damon are playing the character of a rat, but in very different ways, and I’d have to say that DiCaprio plays it better. Or maybe just got the better role. Damon is great as the cocky, upwardly mobile cop, but it is DiCaprio’s character who has more emotion and development to explore.

All the acting is top-notch, though on occasion I thought Nicholson went a little over the top. It could be argued that his character is over the top, so we’ll let it go. It is two and half hours of a great film, you won’t notice the time passing at all.

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Tags: 9 Stars, Alec Baldwin, based on previous film, betrayal, Boston, crime, Felix Chong, gunfights, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, loyalty, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Scorsese, Martin Sheen, Matt Damon, police, Ray Winstone, Siu Fai Mak, The Departed, undercover cops, violence, William Monahan

6 responses so far

Aug 10 2006

Miami Vice

Published by Fence under Moving Pictures

Dir: Michael Mann
Writ: Michael Mann & TV show by Anthony Yerkovich

Colin Farrell - ‘Sonny’ Crockett
Jamie Foxx - Ricardo Tubbs
Li Gong - Isabella
Naomie Harris - Trudy Joplin
CiarÃ¡n Hinds - FBI Agent Fujima

If I’m honest there isn’t much to say about this film. Overall it is a huge amount of meh. Nothing more, nothing less.

Maybe I should at the very least try?
Basic blot outline, Sonny and Ricardo are undercover agents, and after one an interagency force gets discovered, they go undercover in order to find out what agency is responsible for the leak, and how the drug dealers discovered this. So off they travel, to some poor drug-ridden, crime-infested South American country. And get the gig, now they are in with the baddies. But not quite trusted.

And then Sonny starts to fall for the main badguys’ girl, who is also a very efficent “business woman”

But I just didn’t care. Scenes and scenes of talk, talk, and wait for it, yes, a little more talk. Interspersed there are some very pretty shots. But scenery and talking doesn’t make for an entertaining film… actually I was entertained by Cave of the Yellow Dog which was very much scenery and dialogue, so I guess you can. But not here. It is all just so pointless. There’s no tension or drama. And while the action scenes do look great, they don’t feel great.

My final verdict? I’ll paraphrase the woman who left the cinema just after me “In all fairness now, that was fucking woeful.”

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