REVIEW: The Departed

This movie is completely different from anything Martin Scorsese has ever made. I’m not totally certain if that is a good thing or not. The cast includes Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, and Leonardo DiCaprio. I’m a pretty big fan of Nicholson and Sheen, but I can usually take or leave the other guys; however, I think all of the acting in this movie is pretty good. Even Leonardo DiCaprio seems to have redeemed himself a little from all of that bullshit he made in the late 90’s.

The basic plot of the movie from IMDB.com:
Years ago, a powerful Irish mafia figure (Nicholson) placed a small selection of his youngest, brightest men into the Massachusetts Police Academy as cadets. Their purpose is to eventually rise within the prestigious ranks of the city's police department, to serve as the eyes and ears of their boss. While somewhere else, a young cadet (DiCaprio) was assigned with an equally dangerous task: infiltrate the Irish syndicate headed by the man sending in his own to the Boston Police. Now, one cadet (Damon) is an up and coming police official with a torn allegiance to his job and to the criminal mastermind that put him there. While the other cadet is the trusted number two of that man, only finding his professional duties are becoming blurred with his current state. But new clues have lead to unfortunate discoveries, when both sides realize they're being watched by the enemy. It's now all just a matter of time before the men assigned to find out whose the infiltrator, could come to a bloody end when someone's identity may be revealed.

The Departed is two hours and thirty minutes long, which is forty-five minutes too long in my opinion. A lot of the plot drags, and I found myself somewhat bored at times. However, the final fifteen minutes of the movie were so twisted and shocking that I was left asking myself, “What the fuck just happened?” I wasn’t confused. It was obvious what happened, but I was not expecting the movie to end the way it did. I wouldn’t say it was as shocking as the end of The Sixth Sense, but close.

After seeing the ending, I wanted to go back and watch parts of the movie again. Unfortunately, I rented the movie from a hotel pay-per-view, so I had no way of doing that. I am leaning towards the opinion that the slow parts of the movie were worth sitting through. This flick would be worth renting in my opinion, and I may rent it again to see if it’s better the second time around, but I wouldn’t fork out $20 to buy it.

The Departed is being released on DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 13th.