dearly departed
so i saw the departed tonight.
not sure what to say...i left the theater confused. i'm still a little confused, sitting here 1 hour after the movie ended. this isn't typical scorsese.
thinking about it, this is possibly the best scorsese yet. it's also possibly not. but the performances that he gets from his actors are outstanding. i honestly felt that every one of the main actors in the movie give the best performance of each of their careers.
dicaprio is ridiculous in his performance as an undercover officer in the mob that's the best of its kind since johnny depp in donnie brasco. jack nicholson is the most hateful and hate-able mob boss i think i've ever seen. there is nothing sympathetic in nicolson's performance of the very psychotic frank costello. i've always believed in damon's potential, and he definitely doesn't dissapoint here. but i guess the most surprising performance for me was mark wahlberg. in past roles i almost always found his performance or on-screen personna as incredibly difficult to respect. but here i find that his performance finally lives up to the standard of acting set by his older brother's career (see band of brothers, the sixth sense, etc.).
scorsese proves again that he is the master of suspense. there are a lot of directors that can't hold suspense past 80, maybe 90 minutes. then it's almost like they run out of ideas. i didn't find, for 1 second of the 150 minutes of the departed, that scorsese was stretching things out artificially. scorsese's suspense lasts and develops very naturally until there is no more choice but for it to explode. and when it explodes, there is no chance of not getting hit by shrapnel. i found the scenes after the climax of the movie to be shocking. it was tense. almost too tense. i have to see the movie at least one more time to figure out whether i can buy it when it hits dvd. it's so much tension that once it broke i wasn't sure if i wanted to go through it again.
after seeing this movie, i arrived at the thought that everyone who sees will be faced with a decision, you're either pro or con. it took me a while to figure out whether i was pro or con. i think i've decided pro.
posted by johnny m @ 10/08/2006 03:08:00 AM
9 Comments:
So long as it nots another Gangs of New York, that does me.
yeah, i have a hard time figuring out why nobody liked gangs. i thought it had a great story and really solid acting from everyone except for cameron diaz. it's actually the one that convinced me dicaprio could act. but i actually think this one has a much more universal appeal.
OK....um...if YOU were shocked, then I am pretty much convinced that I will not be able to handle this movie.
Did you see I "heart" Huckabees? I thought Mark Wahlberg was great in there.
i didn't see huckabees, i thought it looked too much like a tenenbaums clone. yes, that's judging a book by it's cover. maybe i'll see it someday.
ok, saw it last night with rachel. first, you're right about it not feeling stretched out - even rachel didn't notice it was two and a half hours - this from someone who typically likes or dislikes a movie based on how long it is! (i.e. anything over 90 minutes is too long and won't be good).
There was no pretense to this movie, the acting was outstanding across the board. alec baldwin's character was hilarious - and still 100% believable. Nicholson was at his best, and everyone else lived upto that performance too.
one of the best endings ever to be made for a movie. shocking and unconventional, and perfect!
without giving anything away (i guess don't read this if you dont want any kind of a spoiler)....when we left, rachel said she wanted to know what was in the envelope. i replied that if this were a regular movie, that probably would've happened. but, was the ending in any way shape or form like any other crime drama you've ever seen?! it was just so good. i have a feeling there was alot missed in the dialogue, and it will definitely be worth a second viewing.
holy crap, paulie's alive! thanks for stopping by and lending your point of view. i'm glad to see that, for the first time in 10 years, i'm not the only person who likes the scorsese movie.
i definitely agree with everything you said. it's hard to remember baldwin, though, when there are so many other top notch performances here. he kind of reminded me of his performance in glen garry.
paul, i keep telling myself and the warden that i need to call you soon, but it's one of those things that all of a sudden i'm too retarded to do it when i get time. hopefully we can chat again soon.
paulie...don't forget to catch up on my other blog. i'm really curious to hear your ideas about "hate me".
thats alright, friends dont call - they show up! i'll sit down and think about the other posts sometime soon; just glanced over that Hate me one so far. you're right, i can't remember the baldwin parts much either, i just remember they were frickin hilarious!
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