Film noir crime thriller set in Boston, Massachusetts which follows the efforts of the Massachusetts State Police as they try to apprehend a notorious gangster and mass murderer played by Jack Nicholson by placing an undercover cop played by Leonardo DiCaprio in his crew to get close to him and gain intel and valuable evidence that will put Nicholson away. But unbeknownst to the Massachusetts State Police, Jack Nicholson has a mole of his own inside their very Department. A good crime thriller directed by Martin Scorsese that flows quickly through its two plus hours with a sharp plot, interesting characters and a compelling vision that is not undone by a lot of machismo on the part of the mainly male characters and a high body count. Matt Damon is excellent as the phoney cop in the pay of Jack Nicholson's gangster and Leonardo DiCaprio is also on form as the undercover cop playing a game of cat and mouse with Matt Damon as the two try to uncover each other's identity. However I felt that the ending to this film was fairly botched, such that what should have been a 5 star film was only a 4 star film, which is a shame because the film was excellent up until this point. Good but not perfect.

First time round I found The Departed a disappointingly average film, but on a second viewing it's clear I misjudged it: it really is a quite bad one. Scorsese's weaknesses as a storyteller have often been discussed, but he's not helped here by a remarkably poor and horrendously overpopulated script from the usually much more interesting William Monahan that at once dumbs down the original Infernal Affairs and simultaneously overcomplicates the storytelling. For all the additional characters and running time there's no grander design at work here to compensate. It may strain for grand opera but it simply comes across as off-key light operetta sung by people with sore throats.

The chief problem is the film's funereal pacing, which the clumsy editing and energetic camerawork increasingly fail to hide. The film takes forever to set up its plot - the film is half over before Matt Damon's undercover mobster who has worked his way into a Boston police task force is ordered to find himself - but never compensates by fleshing out the characters or adding any substance to the story. If anything, underneath all the bloat and bombast the film has seriously dumbed down the Infernal Affairs trilogy's underlying themes of identity, role playing and the need to find some kind of redemption in a world that requires you to be corrupt in order to live with yourself in some kind of peace. Instead, it's become a star vehicle in the worst sense of the phrase, where the central duo of police mole in the underworld and underworld mole in the police are effectively sidelined for so much of the picture that they almost become bit players.

Yet while we get seemingly endless and often incredibly long scenes of Jack Nicholson grandstanding, doing rat impersonations, waving sex toys around, insulting priests and generally impersonating Long John Silver as the cardboard mob moss, they really tell us nothing about either the character or the story. For all the constant repetition of his catchphrase "The point is," there simply is no point to most of these scenes other than padding out a minor supporting character (who in the original had no particular personal relationship with either main character) enough to attract an A-list actor and in the process unbalancing the film so much that he actually becomes the leading role. Scorsese has always shown a tendency to relentlessly hammer home the same point over and over again at great length despite making it perfectly well early in the film, and too many of Nicholson's scenes seem to be like hearing exactly the same joke very slightly paraphrased over and over and over again.

Unfortunately the problem isn't limited to Nicholson's resolutely unmenacing cartoonish villain. While both Leonardo DiCaprio and Damon (looking so much like James MacArthur that at times you keep on expecting Jack Lord to turn up and say "Book him, Dano") give stronger performances than their poorly written characters deserve, too many of the supporting roles have been beefed up or created purely to add more star power. There's no narrative reason for Ray Winstone or Mark Wahlberg's clichéd characters (do Nicholson and Martin Sheen's undercover chief really need sidekicks, especially when Wahlberg's mere presence makes the last act isolation of DiCaprio utterly nonsensical?), while characters like Alec Baldwin's Steve McGarrett figure just leave the film feeling horribly overpopulated with too many people competing for screentime at the expense of the story and what should have been the central duo's dilemma. Not that there's much dilemma left. DiCaprio's undercover cop fares best, but Damon's undercover crook is much less interesting than Andy Lau's equivalent in the original - no longer torn between playing a good cop and genuinely wanting to change and become the good person he pretends to be, he's reduced to a rather bland half-dimensional stereotype while the contrived and underdeveloped romantic triangle is straight out of 30s melodrama, not helped by Vera Farmiga's tendency to change her expression every syllable in what increasingly looks like an impersonation of Corinne Bohrer. With characters this thin it's hard to get involved in the film as more than a disinterested observer and consequently there's not even any tension to any of the setpieces - the surveillance operation that goes wrong tipping both sides off to the moles in their ranks, the failed attempt by one mole to identify another at the cinema or a warehouse shootout all fall surprisingly flat even as exercises in technique.

All this would be forgivable if the film was more interesting or even sporadically exciting, but sadly it's a very dull and drawn out affair that never justifies two-and-a-half hours of screen time. The original was a tight 100-minute thriller with a great pulp premise elevated by good writing and fine performances by two directors with barely a fraction of Scorsese's talent. There's absolutely no reason that it shouldn't have been the basis for a terrific American remake that could even have improved on the original, but sadly this is a case of far too much talent for the film's own good. Distinctly Mediocrefellas.

Aside from the Scorsese on Scorsese documentary, extras are surprisingly light for a two disc set - some deleted scenes, a couple of short featurettes and a trailer.

OK so this isn't Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy or Goodfellas but its film-making in a different class from most of what comes out of Hollywood today. It doesn't quite deserve five stars but if you've given it less than three then maybe mob movies aren't your thing anyway.

A cracking cast, all give fine performances. This is certainly the best thing I've seen Leonardo Decaprio do, by quite a margin. Jack Nicolson is in top form and there are some good smaller roles for both Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin. Scorcese directs with the pace and panache that you've come to expect from the director of the five classics above.

It is a remake of the Hong Kong movie "Infernal Affairs", and Scorcese gives full credit to that movie in the credits. Lets not forget that many of the classics Scorcese directed above were influenced by earlier films (see The Public Enemy 1931 as a good example).

This is a hugely entertaining film and strongley recommended.

This movie literally kept me on the edge of my seat when I first saw it in the theater. It has everything you could possibly ever want in a film: Superb acting, drama, action, violence, suspense, and a great unsuspecting ending. Its a fantastic ride. There is no question this deserved its Oscar win.

One of the best movies out there, love it from beginning to end, should have won more Oscars but they are predjudiced in Hollywood, very intense

I just kept waiting for this movie to be over. It was agonizingly long, there were no redeeming characters, and shooting everyone in the movie in the head got a little repetitive. This is an excellent example of how just because you have big names involved in the movie, it doesn't automatically make the movie good. I wish I could have those fwe hours I wasted watching this movie back.

Given the Academy's miserable recent record in selecting Best Film, I watched "The Departed" simply to see whether it was worth a nomination (let alone the Oscar it won). It was.

Scorsese was never an "in your face" director, but in "The Departed" he reaches a new level of disappearing altogether. (That's a compliment.) This film has "style", but one is not consciously aware of it. As with many great artists (think Fred Astaire or Miles Davis), Scorsese's work gets simpler as he matures. And "The Departed" is perhaps the most brilliantly edited film I've seen, its layered complexity complementing the acting and direction's simplicity. Thelma Schoonmaker richly deserved her Oscar.

The most-controversial element of "The Departed" is Jack Nicholson's performance, which, good though it is, seems rather more "emphatic" (shall we say) than the other performances.

Watching "Five Easy Pieces" on a flight more than thirty years ago, I heard two passengers arguing whether Jack Nicholson was a great actor, or simply "playing himself". My feeling is that he's a very good actor, but not in the top rank, because he seems incapable of disappearing into a role. We're always aware we're watching "Jack" -- not the character he's playing, however well-rendered. * Compare his work with Robert Duvall's or John Hurt's (see my review of "The Proposition"), and the gulf is plain.

Perhaps the fairest judgement of Nicholson's performance in "The Departed" is that it's neither good nor bad -- it's simply the sort of performance Scorsese wanted, and he cast Nicholson to get it.

"The Departed" is one of Scorsese's best films, but I wouldn't rank it above "GoodFellas" or "King of Comedy". If you're in the mood for a double feature, the last scene makes a great seque into "Ratatouille". Really.

* His worst performance is arguably in "Prizzi's Honor". He plays a dim-witted hood who comes across as a college-educated actor pretending to be a dim-witted hood.

This is one hellova boys night in movie . All the main leads are great & the twists & turns , music , chases , one liners made me give this 5stars without hesitation .

A special nod to Ray Winstone - you guys over your side of pond won't know much of him but he has rocked in many such 'hard man' roles . Well done Ray on another topnotch turnout especially as you were up against 'Jack' .

But Q - WAS the bad guy who got shot in the stomach & knew Leonardo was the rat , a policeman . If not why didn't he tell the others .....think Mr Brown in Reservoir Dogs lying in a pol of blood here .

This was my first foray into Martin Scorsese territory in years--since I fled, screaming, after being bored to tears by the director's insipid "Gangs of New York." And now I've got Scorsese--and annoying Leonardo DiCaprio--teaming up again, only this time a boatload of Hollywood talent is in tandem. The result: A gritty, good cop/bad cop thriller that had me at the edge of my coveralls; THE DEPARTED delivers the goods enthusiastically, augmented by nonstop F-bombs and enough over-the-top Beantown twang to shame a sold out Fenway.

DiCaprio and Matt Damon headline this flick, and both give solid performances as two cops--one corrupt, the other bipolar but honest--literally looking for each other. In fact, this is the very first time DiCaprio actually looks, and comes across, as a grownup--not some gangly adolescent running around on an ocean liner. Yet Jack Nicholson (and doesn't he always?) creepily steals the show, playing an underworld kingpin--the target of an intense police investigation--aided and abetted by a very capable, and nasty, lieutenant (Ray Winstone). Nicholson chews up every scene he's in with an eery dominance that lends a plethora of cred to the plot and story--a story that moves with breakneck speed.

Yet this movie is populated with other heavy hitters that make it so much fun to watch, movers and shakers like Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, and Mark Wahlberg. These guys drop their F-bombs and answer their cell phones and contribute to the story in grand fashion. With his stellar cast Scorsese takes you through a breathtaking, incredibly violent ride, culminating in an ending that took me completely by surprise--and absolutely made me go, "Wow."

As this is the two-disc special edition you'll also enjoy (or maybe not) several deleted scenes, some of the cast talking about gangster movies, and Martin Scorsese talking about. . .Martin Scorsese. And why the heck not? This director can talk it up all he wants; THE DEPARTED is definitely one of his best efforts, a tour de force not to be missed.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning

While the story is not an original (adapted from a Chinese film I believe), the directing and acting makes this a must own for any dvd collection.

This movie is simply a masterpiece. As everybody know, this movie is simply a Hollywood version of "Infernal Affairs". It is a good translating as I can see. All people act good. I loved it!

Say what you will about the movie, some people like it and others don't, but Leonardo DiCaprio out-acted every big star in this movie including Jack and Matt. Who garnered the most sympathy and carried this film? That's correct it was Leonardo.

I have watched his performances over the years and he's shown mostly a gentle side. He started to come out in The Aviator and that may have been where he garnered the energy to put this performance together.

When I checked the movie out, I thought the casting was remarkable. They put together an expensive, very expensive cast. Jack was a big as ever, maybe bigger. Matt was big too, when he had the sound stage to himself. All this celebrity carried their own scenes. Leo in contrast to Leo looked remarkable.

His superior acting became obvious when he interacted with Matt. I consider Matt a king among actors, especially his performances in the Bourne series. In the Departed Matt looked vacant compared to Leo.

What distinctions do I see that had Leo as the superior of the cast? First, he held his own against Mark Wahlberg, which I consider generally difficult to do unless your a beauty wearing lots of skin. Next, he held his own against Jack. That's not only difficult to do, but Jack didn't have to act down to his co-stars. Jack acted straight on with Leo. Jack put in a remarkable performance, even though his character lacked sympathy. He still had to bring his "A" game to his scenes with Leo. I didn't even know Leo had an "A" game.

We can break this down scene by scene, but you can judge this yourself. Watch the movie and notice who gets your attention the most. In every scene, Leo takes over. My eyes went back in forth when Leo and Jack worked together. Perhaps I was nailed by Leo's character. I don't really think that. I would have them do a role reversal and Leo had the most energy. That energy put him over the top.

Finally, toward the last scene when Leo's character is killed so suddenly, I couldn't believe it. It was in such a shock that time seemed to stand still.

Only a Martin Scorsese could make all these superior actors work well together. He balanced and juggled as well, if not better, that he ever has. This film has little redeeming value without the star power including the director.

I'll never know who brought Leo out. I suspect Leo did, but that's a guess. I wonder if Martin has the time to coach Leo. Again, I'll never know.

If you haven't seen this movie, then watch it. The blood and guts didn't bother me at all because it was so much a part of the fabric. I disliked blood and guts movies as they are about B&G. The Departed is about character and strength and ingenuity.

Judge it for yourself.

This is a great movie made even better with a 2-disc special edition. The extras are surprisingly interesting for this intense cop drama/thriller.

By Far Next To Transformers,Scarface,The Pursuit Of Happyness & Casino This Is The Greatest Movie Ever Made. From The 1st scene to the ending this movie is great. Great Movie Great Cast Great Music Just GREAT!!!

The Departed is a must see film. It will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. It is what I would consider an ultra-violent film, but in a surrealistic way. Keep in mind it IS a Scorsese film, but in my opinion one of his all time best. However, as with most mob movies, if you dislike seeing people shot, are very sensitive to violence, etc., stay away. There is one gratuitous sex scene in the middle of the movie that it could do without, but other than that it is "just violence" and language that earned it its R rating. This is not a family friendly movie, but it IS a phenomenal film.

The extras in the two-disc set are nice, but more targeted at Scorsese fans, than general fans of the movie. There are some deleted scenes which are interesting, and a documentary length item on Scorsese as a filmmaker, among other things. In general it is worth the extra money, and especially so if you are into films seriously.

I already send the movie back. so I rented "The Departed" from Netflix so it was very volience,

I rarely watch thrillers but I enjoyed this one a lot. The plot was pretty clever. Actually I should say I enjoyed the first two hours of it, because they slapped on a lousy ending. If you were watching with a few friends and stopped the movie before the last 20 minutes everyone in the room could come up with a better ending than the one they used.

Leonardo DiCaprio was great, but when I see Jack Nicholson clowning around in roles like this it just makes me think of Foster Brooks.

This is the first Scorsese film I have really enjoyed since 1995's Casino. All the performances are great, but the real standout here is Jack Nicholson's psychotic mob boss. The documentary about the real life events upon which the movie was based are useful to viewers who want to find out more about the real life events that inspired certain things in the movie and with the documentary included I consider this edition to be the "complete" version of the film.

Ivan Rorick

Martin Scorsese made a surprising choice when he agreed to film "The Departed," because it is a very loyal remake of the Hong Kong 2002 demi-classic, "Infernal Affairs." Scorsese has gone the remake-route before with 1991's "Cape Fear," but he has largely made his mark as one of cinema's most original directors.

The question of any remake is whether it can be separated from the original. "The Departed" succeeds on that score, not by reinventing the plot, but by reimagining the characters. While the broad outline remains the same, the characters who inhabit "The Departed" are very different from those who populate "Infernal Affairs," and that's all to the good. The fact that Scorsese was able to line up a stellar cast of Jack Nicholoson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Mark Walberg, Ray Winstone, and Vera Farmiga (along with a solid supporting cast) ensures that William Monahan's screenplay is never dull.

The plot is well-known. Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) is Boston's south-side crime lord - a mix of Tony Montana, Melvin Udall and Larry Flynt. (Jack, God bless him, is actually a bit of a distraction because he never disappears into Costello.) He finds a trusted laddie at a young impressionable age and grooms him to become a stellar young player in the Boston police department (Matt Damon). This way, Costello can stay one step ahead of the Boston cops trying to nail him (Baldwin, Sheen, and Walberg all shine in their brief roles as cops, particularly Walberg).

But the cops aren't stupid. They know that they can't bring down Costello by conventional means. So they find their own young cadet (DiCaprio) - intelligent, but running away from a family who has long connections with Boston crime. They arrest him and put him in jail for several months, and when he emerges, he inserts himself into Costello's crew. Eventually, DiCaprio and Damon are charged with finding the mole in Costello's and the cop's operations - they are essentially ordered to find themselves.

What could have been played for nothing more than slick, cool operations becomes a soul-wrenching march toward fate. Both Damon and DiCaprio give solid performances as the pressure of living dual lives wears away at their identity. How can you be happy if you strive for success in your world, but the world you live in is the very thing you are trying to destroy? Damon is glad-handed by cops he is undermining, or worse. DiCaprio is trusted by the same men he is trying to put into prison and who will kill him if they even suspect he has one toe out of line.

A violent, macho movie, "The Departed" is widely recognized as one of Scorsese's better films, but definitely not one of his best. So it will always have a bit of notoriety as the movie that won Scorsese's first Oscar - but Hollywood has a long tradition of rewarding second-class work as payback for earlier snubs. After all, Russell Crowe won Best Actor for Maximus in "Gladiator" but was not honored for his other stellar work in "The Insider," "Master and Commander," etc.

If you can separate "The Departed" from its "Best Picture" status, it is an enjoyable film. If you have recently seen "Infernal Affairs," you will recognize the basic plot instantly, but you can still savor the performances by one of the best testosterone-heavy casts recently assembled.

It's a good thing my husband and I watched this on DVD in our living room so that we could keep rewinding whenever we didn't follow something (which was often). There was a scene where Jack Nicholson walks over to two priests in a restaurant and hands them a piece of paper. We had to rewind about 5 times before we could pause at the right spot to see what was on the paper. The acting was great, but the plot was too disjointed and confusing. To add to the confusion, Matt Damon and Leo DiCaprio even look alike! We're not prudes, but the constant use of the F-word was wearisome after awhile and the fact that literally none of the characters had any redeeming values was depressing. To sum up the plot: Everybody's crooked, lots of blood, lots of profanity, everybody (almost) ends up dead. The End.

Got this movie because Matt Damon was in it. Nothing good happened till Wahlberg kills Damon. Decaprio was the best I have ever seen him but i'm not a fan of his. Never like Jack either. I will not watch this movie again.Too dark for my taste.

Sean Penn is much better at being a back-water irish (take it from someone who is one) and both "Mystic River" and "State of Grace" are a better portrayal of the contradictions that are Irish Catholic Americans. Nicholson was the most disappointing, sloppily repeating his "Joker" character in "Batman." This film is also poorly crafted. There is much young talent in Hollywood in screen writing, production design, cinematography and all the other skills and talents that make a movie worth watching. Instead, what we get here is celebrity actors, celebrity directors and a tired sound track of the same old "classic rock." I apologize to Martin Sheen, who was the one shining star.

Of course Jack is wonderful, but I was really surprised that Leo was awesome! He can really act and is easy on the eyes ;)

Bravo! A must see movie.

The Departed is a very good movie, full of big name actors that throw down some of their finest performances. The Departed is deserving of every bit of praice and accolades it has seen. The plot line was entertaining, thrilling and entirely unpredictable. The movie was a bit long, but kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire 2+ hours.

I don't give out 5-stars very often but "The Departed" is deserving of the acclaim. This has to be Nicholson's best performance in a good while. I don't even really like Damon or DiCaprio but I thought they did phenomenal jobs.

I don't want to give anything away but I thought the ending was the best part. It's nice to see a movie that doesn't go for the idiot-pleasing, happy-ever-after, good-always-triumphs drivel. This is an intense film, from beginning to end.

Highly recommended.

A great movie with a fabulous cast, director and script. Violent for sure and not a good show for young kids, but for those who like to be scared alittle and into a place of constantly guessing the outcome, this is for you.

My wife and I purchased this movie with the expectation that it would be a great movie, a fun couple of hours. It was not. It was simply boring and tiresome. We have all come to expect a great deal from Scorsese. While these expectations are high and maybe unfair, they are fairly earned as Scorsese has provided great movie after great movie. With that in mind, one can safely say this was a letdown of epic proportions. It was a just a rehash of Scorsese's previous movies with a helping of "southie" accent thrown on top. It was slow and boring. Skip this one, unless you have a few hours and a couple of bucks to kill. Sorry, but it was this bad. Honest!!!!

What a great movie! Full of great acting and a great story. Both men (DiCaprio and Damon) find themselves in a situation where honesty is a luxury they cannot afford. Every action they take is carefully thought out to see if their cover will be blown. the plot takes some very unexpected turns, and I was suprised! But it has a satisfying ending that is sure to please all. A+

I bought this DVD from Amazon some time ago and just got around to watching for the first time. As an admirer of Mr. Scorsese's past work, I was, frankly, amazed at how universally weak this film was. And to win the Oscar no less. It's clear he got the sympathy vote - well deserved for Good Fellas among others - just not for this mess. All 'tough guys'; no humor; no likable characters; plot holes to drive a truck through (ex.: what are the chances the psychologist would just happen to date both these guys?) There was so much use of cel phones, I was surprised to not find Verizon or AT&T in the producer credits. And hey, I'm no prude, but a profanity in every line? - come on. An average episode of The Sopranos is far more entertaining, and better written, than this. And the coup de grace in the film's last scene: - the rat on the balcony rail. My wife and I howled with laughter! - a laugh of disgust after being dragged through nearly 3 hours of this convoluted nightmare. I was glad all the principals were shot dead, so there could be no sequel.

The Departed was good. But it was not the "best film" (that goes to Babel). But the acting was good and it was a fun movie to watch. Very gory and the ending is something shocking, but I liked it overall

I love Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon and they both kicked butt in this movie, but haven't I seen this almost exact plot line before? I swear that the same idea's about the same gangster type deals are being recycled out in Hollywood. While this movie was fun to watch, the tired old "Godfather" act really losing it's touch. The original Godfather movies still hold up to today's crap, and even this is enjoyable, but PLEASE make some more unique films!!!

This movie is great if you have about two hours to pay close attention. Compared to Goodfellas among other ganster movies it is a modern version. The cast is full of familiar faces and interesting swirls of how the individual characters connect. At the end your jaw will be in your lap!! You will not believe this ending! It's worth buying just to have in your collection, but even more so just to see the ending!!

"The Departed" is garbage. I've seen more plot, and less bloodshed, in PETA slaughterhouse videos.

"The Departed"'s appeal is strictly to those who like watching heads explode on camera and think that if a movie uses every naughty word in the book -- in every line -- that makes it deep and profound. Anyone who swallowed "The Departed" needs to have his stomach pumped.

Good grief. Shakespeare, the Greek tragedies, classics like "The Third Man" would be lost on these people. As would a truly fine movie from 2006, "The Lives of Others", beside which "The Departed" looks, at best, amateurish and adolescent.

I want my money back. And I saw this movie for free.

I was so bored I started rearranging the groceries in my bag about ten minutes in. I looked at my watch at least half a dozen times. I thought up drinking games you could play every time Jack Nicholson utters the word *&^%.

Several characters are shot -- or dropped -- to death on camera. A man's eyes are poked out. One character is reduced to a drug dependent, quivering wreck. I didn't care.

I was amazed at how much I didn't care. I thought about why. I examined the desert emptiness of the script, other than for its resplendently brandished naughty words; reflected that the plot was so bankrupt it could be in chapter 11; I noted how absent characterization was, except to mete out how often each character said %$#^, or his posture when exploding a head.

I pondered gossip column narratives involving Alec Baldwin and remembered how cute Mark Wahlberg was in that Calvin Klein ad; I wondered if Leo were still dating the model.

An hour into the marathon that was this Guantanamo torture, I realized that I had been so pounded into boredom and apathy that the only thing that would have aroused me was if the entire oh-so-manly cast were, suddenly, to don black net hose and stilletoes, and sing the rest of their lines in Gilbert and Sullivan musical style.

I hoped against hope that Leslie Nielsen would appear and reveal the entire thing to be a very obscure farce whose humor would gel once Nielsen put it all into "Airplane"-esque perspective.

Was Martin Scorcese trying to prove his own manhood by creating a dystopic Disneyland in which every ride is manned by a cop or a mafioso exploding heads and blurting out swear words?

Scorcese insults manhood worse than Andrea Dworkin.

As for art? I guess Scorcese never heard the phrase, "less is more."

As it happens, I had just seen 1947's "The Third Man" the night before. "The Third Man" is black and white; its budget, compared to "The Departed"'s, was tiny. The cast, excepting Orson Welles, consisted of character actors or unknowns.

In "The Departed," Jack Nicholson, playing a Very Bad Man, toys with a severed human hand. What hits you is not the shock and awe the scene demands, but the pathos that the movie is so desperately needy for its audience to respond, and so without skill at provoking that response, that it resorts to the kind of gorey tricks a Halloween prankster would pull.

In "The Third Man," Orson Welles delivers "the cuckoo clock speech." All he does is talk -- and what he says chilled me and frightened me so thoroughly I'll never forget it.

Now *that's* a classic film.

"The Departed"? Garbage.

I have just never responded to Scorsese [okay, I liked Kundun]. I just don't find much meaning in all that macho blustering, and I find his movies very unemotional and cold. I also just don't respond to gangster movies. I don't find them compelling at all. So this may account for my feeling of intense annoyance when walking out of The Departed.

The first 20 minutes are fantastic. Scorsese lays out the histories of Damon as Sullivan, being a good boy and rising up the police ranks while all the time beholden to Nicholson's Boston crime boss Costello. DiCaprio has a more troubled history [during which I was never convinced WHY he wanted to be a cop], but both of their stories are laid out in a very quick and energetic way. The friend I went with was talking about the quick, staccato editing here that "is almost like the intro to a TV show where they tell you what happened last week," but for me it really worked.

So Damon goes on this elite police force and DiCaprio is asked to go undercover with Costello. From there it's all Donnie Brasco, Donnie Brasco, Donnie Brasco [okay, there's one gangster movie I responded to], with the additional wrinkle of that both guys need to discover the identity of the other one. There are lots of near-misses, lots of one-person-relaying-information-while-the-other-is-too, and gallons of macho bluster and OTT mugging from Nicholson [who wasn't quite as bad with that as I expected]. There is funny faux-Mamet patter like Alec Baldwin quickly saying "I'm gonna go outside and get a smoke. You want a smoke? No? What are you, some kind of fitness freak? Go f*** yourself," or a guy, after being shot in the knee. Whining "I thought I was supposed to go into shock. I'm not in shock. It hurts!" that are amusing, but that's when you still believe that this story is going to come to something.

I can't even be bothered to talk about the many twists and turns, because in the end they turn out mostly to be just time-wasters, and as we headed into the last hour I started thinking "Why do we need this scene? This scene could go. And what about that scene before? That was just another version of the many scenes we've seen before" which is not something I think any filmmaker wants the audience to be concerned with while they're watching a film.

And finally, it just doesn't come to much. Maybe it's a case of my expectations; I thought we were building toward a big showdown between Damon and DiCaprio where they would really have at it, and then it's getting to be 30 minutes `til the end [I was definitely waiting], then 15 minutes `til the end.... And that's when I really started to turn against the movie. Which is not even to mention the overall dissatisfaction of the ending. I want to avoid giving anything away, but suffice to say that the thing I wanted to see, we did not see. And we saw a whole lot of something else that, yeah, I guess it's one worldview, but it's not a worldview I find particularly compelling or interesting. And it's kind of a worldview that you don't need two-and-a-half hours to express, and is probably why I was so bitter that I felt this movie wasted so much of my time... for that. But Scorsese seems to be unable to make a movie that is less than two-and-a-half hours, and if he did, well, how would we know that it's an important film?

My friend [who liked it a little more than I did] asked me "well, how is this different from De Palma?" [And I was indeed sitting there wishing De Palma had directed it instead.] My answer was, well, in De Palma there is emotional content that gives me something to get involved with, whereas with Scorsese it's all tough guy blather with a little emotional stuff [here, the psychologist] thrown in for a little color, but the focus is on the guns and the cell phones and the tension and just how very hard these guys are. Wow, they sure are hard, tough guys, Marty. Wow.

Secondly, when De Palma enters into a set-piece, the sense I get from what's on screen [and this is highly subjective, just my feeling] is that he's inviting you, the audience, to play along and he wants you to enjoy it. The sense I get with Scorsese is that he wants you to passively sit back and admire his skill. Add that to how cold I find his films, and the sense I get is of Scorsese casting himself as the tough guy through his show-offy-yet-stand-offish technique, just as his films are filled with tough guys that he is unable to be. Yeah, yeah, Marty, you're the man, okay? Now go be the man over there.

The final shot is a somewhat sledgehammer-subtle message that there will always be corruption in the highest offices of power. Is this a statement? Well, obviously it's a statement, but is it an interesting statement? Did we need a 150 minutes to tell us this? Especially given the current state of Congress?

Everyone else loves this film, so take that as you may. As I said, I just don't respond to gangster movies and I just don't respond to Scorsese movies. The performances here are all very good and it's certainly well made but... take a half hour off and I'd be fine. And change the ending.

What a great cast--- Leo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, Jack Nicholson....they are all just awesome and give superior performances. It's a thriller, a game of cat and mouse in which a Boston mob moss is trying to use his infiltrator on the police force to find out the identity of the officer who has gone undercover and infiltrated the mafia. It is a thriller that keeps you going till the very end and I did NOT expect the ending.

You must see this movie. I've seen Martin Scorsese's other films but this one triumphs as the best one so far. Thank goodness he won an Oscar for it, it deserved it!!