The Departed

And this is an Oscar-winning movie? Marty’s weakest work? Ha ha. I haven’t yet seen Infernal Affairs yet, so I should avoid comparing them. The beginning is boring as hell. Plus, I have nothing against cussing and vulgarity, but too much of a good thing... The screenplay must have been awful for a start and the actors must have agreed to do it just because of Scorsese. And what does the Fox say? “You can’t build on wobbly foundations"? But not to be too critical. DiCaprio is really good and the end is quite interesting for an American movie (but not really, when I remember that the story originates from Asia). (07/08/2007)

This arrogant, self-absorbed mainstream ride is supposed to be the best film of this year that has won so many Oscars and other awards? I can't believe it. Martin Scorsese should wake up to the reality of today's world after those beautiful years and understand that “American” stories of tough guys are no longer in fashion and he should stop trying to replicate or hint at the unattainable pieces of his past work. The quality of The Departed, whether it is a good or a bad remake, can only be judged by someone who has seen both films, which I am not, so I take this film as a separate compact entity without any comparisons or regret about how it should have been. However, as a crime story, it is insufficient. There is an excessive amount of vulgarity, with a good half of it being unnecessary. The plot is far-fetched – tough guys, tough lines, shootings every day – just a normal day in the big city. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but this is really overdone and off-putting. For fans, it may be an entertaining film that shows Scorsese makes movies for fun and doesn't worry too much about it, but for the overwhelming majority of rational-minded laypeople, it's just a typical American hyped-up ride without a trace of real subtext. And the Oscar “for merits” is quite laughable considering the previous works of the famous film connoisseur. (28/07/2007)

When I decided to go see Hidden Identity, contrary to my original intention, I was firmly convinced that I would not try to compare it to the original. In a movie where the best moments are those that exactly copy it, I can't do otherwise. As for the star-studded cast, DiCaprio, Damon, and Sheen are great, Baldwin and Wahlberg are average, and Farmiga and, to my huge surprise, Nicholson are terrible. Especially in his role in The Departed, he proves why the remake should not have been made. Instead of a subtle gangster leader, Costello is a sleazy and unnecessarily vulgar arrogant, who doesn't care about anything or anyone, and the screenwriters added a stupidly behaving female character between the two main heroes, which further diminishes the credibility of their mutual duel. And above all, I won't forgive Scorsese for one fundamental thing: the suspenseful, emotionally charged, and, in my eyes, forever unforgettable final scene in the elevator, which was the highlight of the original, became a farce in the remake, cramming three twists into a few seconds, and the absurdly portrayed final shootout of the main characters provoked a deserved and almost incredulous mockery in the theater. Scorsese destroyed a film that could have redefined the gangster genre, but instead he only dissected the original and wildly twisted it - and that has earned him everything possible, except for the promised pinnacle of his career. (30/11/2006)

Four stars for that beautifully dry ending, but as a whole it didn’t really thrill me. There are a lot of big names, but the best is DiCaprio, he’s really unlikeable, but his performance is great. His antagonist, Matt Damon, in contrast, is a jerk at times, not because he’s bad, but because I didn’t find him believable in the role. The story moves along quite slowly, there aren’t any proper turns until about the middle and before that, you have to put up with a lot of dialogues that are supposed to be vulgar, dirty and tough, but they are clearly fake and forced. For me, The Departed deserves 75%. (27/08/2008)

I was really looking forward to this. Power. But maybe too much. The Departed is certainly not a bad film, but from beginning to end I couldn’t get rid of the impression that it's primarily a film that drags on and is unnecessarily long. Yet the number of minutes (the great Casino is even longer, whilst the absolutely fantastic The Irishman is even longer than Casino) is not the problem, but rather what they are filled with. I don't know the original, but it's three quarters of an hour shorter, and I wouldn't be surprised if all that seemed boring or unnecessary here was the work of William Monahan and Martin Scorsese. (26/02/2021)