The Departed

So I finally got to see this after being turned off by its $15 blockbuster tag.

Definately recommend it if you haven't seen it already. A return to form for Scorsese after the good, but not great Aviator and Gangs of New York.

For those of you who haven't seen Infernal Affairs (the chinese crime thriller on which it is based) the plot revolves around all of Scorsese's trademark themes: Family, Religion, Trust, Betrayl, Identity etc but more specifically about two rookie cops working for either side of Boston's crime world. William Costigan (Di Caprio) is determined not to follow the crime ridden steps of his family and upon graduating he is sent to work undercover for Boston crimelord Frank Costello (Nicholson) in the hope of bringing him down (The police believing his criminal background would give him some credibility). The other, Colin Sullivan (Damon) has been raised by Costello since he was a young boy and now wants to pay him back by giving him inside information that will save his ass and keep the cops from busting him. Eventually both parties learn that they have a rat, who inform their informants. As each side tries to out the rat before the other the tension reaches boiling point and Di Caprio and Damon give us some of the best cat and mouse games I have seen at the movies in a long, long time.

The acting is excellent across the board. Di Caprio seems to get better in every movie I see him in and he totally nails his character. Damon's performance is also up there with his best and Alex Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg prove an excellent supporting cast, injecting the film with some much needed humour to counter the increasing tension.

There are some great scenes in it, particularly the rooftop face off between Damon and Dicaprio and the vibrating phone call between them as well - one of the most intense scenes I have seen this year.

Soundtrack is excellent, including 'Gimme Shelter' by the Rolling Stones and 'Comfortably Numb' by Van Morrison.

I forgot to mention Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello who is almost a shoo in for awards season. His performance is so extravagant though that it does threaten to enter the realm of parody. Thankfully it never quites get there and we are left with another great performance. The guy is a complete fucking psycho, whether he is obseriving at how someone he shot in the head 'fell funny' or whether he is waving a dildo around at a blue movie theatre. The guy lives and breathes violence. He also gets some of the best lines in the movie, e.g 'I don't want to be a product of my environment, I want the environment to be a product of me.'

So yeah, if you're a fan of Scorsese or a decent crime thriller, go see it :p

Only warning I would put on it is the level of violence - not for those of slight sensibility. The last 20minutes in particular are extremely shocking and oh so brutal. One character (I won't give it away though:p) got headshot out of nowhere, BOOM motherfucker, you're gone. Yup. dead. Fuck...

Solid 8/10 I reckon.