The Departed movie review

The Departed is Cheesy
By Josh Board

Martin Scorsese could make 50 crappy movies in a row, and he’d still go down as a genius in my book for giving us Mean Streets, The Last Waltz, King of Comedy, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The Age of Innocence, Alice Doesn’t Live Here, and one of my biggest arguments at parties….that I think Goodfellas is a better mafia movie than Godfather. And when I saw trailers for The Departed, I really looked forward to seeing it. With so many bad films that come out these days, it’s always nice to look forward to something. Boy was I disappointed. Sure, the movie keeps you entertained. I just couldn’t decide if Nicholson was trying to be more like his Joker, or the devil from Witches of Eastwick (with a little Shining thrown in). And to have him walk out covered in blood one time, and another time casually holding a persons cut off , bloody hand, as he nonchalantly talks, is just over-the-top Tarantino stuff. Sure, the supporting cast is great. Matt Damon will get a well-deserved Oscar nomination. Alec Baldwin was interesting. DiCaprio continues to grow up in the roles he’s taking. Another Oscar nomination for this movie should be “Best Supporting Gadget,” which would go to the cell phone. It was used in at least 5 crucial scenes (I still can’t figure out how Damon could text message, while it’s in his pocket and he’s not looking at it). Too many unrealistic things happen in this film; from different cops punching each other every couple scenes, to the predictable, edge of your seat scene where one bad cop is going to delete all the info on the computer of the undercover cop, so nobody will believe he wasn’t a bad guy after all. I read one critic say how great the music was. I agree; but Scorsese has used The Rolling Stones “Gimmie Shelter” in at least four movies. Does he not own another Stones record? Sure, hearing the Dropkick Murphy’s blasting out of the car as Nicholsons holligans (hey, that would be a good name for a group), goes off to commit some horrible crime, was perfect. Usually the songs he picks are. But I’d rather watch a great movie, not a great music video. And without giving anything away (oh, don’t send letters telling me I already did; hell, the trailer shows Martin Sheen being thrown off the building), the ending has perhaps the cheesiest scene in movie history. A character is murdered, and as the camera pans up, we see a rat on the window sill. Lame.