The Departed

[Amazon Link]
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[4.0
stars] [IMDb Link]

This movie is based on a Hong Kong cop movie, Infernal Affairs that I blogged about back in November 2005.

It gets the full Hollywood Important Movie treatment here, directed by Martin Scorsese, with huge stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin, all pretty much dripping testosterone. And, oh yeah, it also won a pile of awards, including Oscar for Best Picture.

I suppose it might be possible for these guys to make a bad movie, but this isn't it.

A surprising amount of stuff is carried over directly from Infernal Affairs, so if you're in the mood to do a compare-and-contrast, it's kind of fun. Boston gangsters, cops, and the psychologically corrosive nature of undercover work have a great deal of similarity with their Hong Kong counterparts.


Last Modified 2024-02-02 4:37 AM EDT