But I have to say that this is possibly most overrated films I've seen in a long time. It's poorly edited, gratiously violent, and even badly acted in certain instances (Dicaprio did shine. He is undoubtedly one of more talented actors in Hollywood these days).
Martin Scorcese, this was not your best work. I hope you don't actually believe these sycophantic reviewers. Hire a real editor next time and learn to get your audiences out of there in less than two hours please.
The movie was ruined by the ending which made no sense. I won't spell out the problems in public in case some one hasn't seen it.
Not only was it long but apparently not long enough to make sense. Seemed like something was cut.
It was not up to Scorcese's standards and Nicholson was playing his standard lunatic.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Southie (because my Dad grew up there) and,as a result,I'll probably see it at some point...perhaps on DVD.
I almost completely disagree.
I liked the length, pace and editing.
The ending wasn't the typical feelgood ending that Hollywood's Crapomatic Script-o-tron 3000 would churn out.
Real life isn't always a neat story that makes sense.
I actually enjoyed seeing worfwess Arek Baldwin say "I LOVE THE PATRIOT ACT!!"
I expected to see Jack steal the show but Leonardo DiCraprio was great.
I didn't think it was gratuitously violent given the characters. IMO it didn't glamorize the mob guys.
There were all kinds of plot points they never really resolved because you could not possibly believe everything the characters said. Like real life it was much more informative to watch what the characters did than what they said.
I don't know if it was Scorsese's best work or not but I thought it was worth the price of matinee admission.
I liked it. It was a good solid Scorcese mob movie. Not his best but without the usual "team" (DeNiro, Pesci, and based on a story by Pileggi) I wasn't expecting his best. But it was good. My one big hit on the movie is the soundtrack didn't seem quite up to Scorcese's par, one of the great parts about Goodfellas and Casino (and really most Scorcese movies that take place in roughly modern times) is you can generally tell what's happening as well or better by listening to the music than listening to the script, and he usually takes over songs (I can't hear the piano part of Layla without thinking about the end of Goodfellas). That just didn't happen in Departed, it was a good soundtrack, with good source music placed in fairly well, but I'm used to using the word "great" when discussing Scorcese sountracks so "good" just isn't good enough.
And I liked the ending, that was the right ending. And I loved the length, I get so tired of short movies that never really develop the story or the charcters. Taking the time to fully envelop the viewers into the movie makes better movies.
I saw it today and nearly walked out in the middle because it was so boring. This could have been a decent movie, given two or three more rewrites. The ending was rushed and made little sense, especially when the genius hero, who spend months surviving undercover in the mob, suddenly acts like an idiot.
I thought it was awful. I thought the foul language and over the top violence covered up a lack of real character development, and the lack of a real story arch that would have resolved at least some of the issues that the characters faced.
Scorcese refuses to allow you to identify with any one chracter. There is little in the way of reflection or growth on the part of any chracter.
If you want to see a really excellent cop/undercover movie, see "Donnie Brasco", which is superb.