Aristed on 6/11/2006 at 15:59
I’ve seen infernal affairs and thought that it was brilliant. My friends are now telling me that the departed is excellent and I should go to watch it, but I’m not convinced. The two lead actors in internal affairs were, for me, what made it great. They were subtly and deep each with their own dilemma and I empathised with both. Whilst I thought some of the rest of the actor were only ok (the psychotherapist women for example) most of the supporting was ace as well. And now the remake stars Leonardo DiCaprio and matt Damon. Whilst Damon is pretty good in most of his films he’s often about a subtly and deep as a sledge hammer and I can’t think of a film that Leonardo shot where I didn’t spend the whole time dreaming of punching him in the face. It sounds to me like the film focuses on the support actors rather than fully developing the lonely hero and guilt ridden villain who only differ because fate dealt them a different hand. So I was hoping that someone who’s seen both could tell me whether or not this film has completely missed the point?
henke on 6/11/2006 at 17:11
Well, AV Club's review said it was the best thing Scorsese has directed since Goodfellas, and it's already at (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/) #65 on iMDB's Top 250 list.
I'm defenitely gonna watch it, although I wasn't crazy about the original.
Random_Taffer on 6/11/2006 at 17:38
I took my wife to see it and we both loved it.
It's definately worth it.
Renault on 6/11/2006 at 19:40
Overhyped and overrated. Nicholson plays pretty much the same character he plays in every movie. Surprisingly though, i thought Dicarprio was pretty good.
Random_Taffer on 6/11/2006 at 19:45
Quote Posted by Brother Renault
Surprisingly though, i thought Dicarprio was pretty good.
I second that. I was never really a leo fan, but he does a fine job in this movie.
In fact, he was my favorite character.
Strangeblue on 6/11/2006 at 20:25
I'm having a hard time talking myself into this one, since the original was so good. From what I've heard, Scorsese altered the ending slightly (not quite like either of the original film's two endings) and he made some significant changes to a couple of the characters to make Boston fit better. Now, this might be good or might be bad, but from what I've seen, I'm not impressed--and especially not impressed with Nicholson and the much bigger percentage of story he's apparently taking up than was given in the original while his opposite number, the chief of police, seems to have been cut to the bone. The original film had a great balance and parallelism, but The Departed (wtf?) sounds like it's not quite as well-built from that perspective. Everyone is raving over DiCaprio--whom I usually don't care much about--but I might consider seeing it on DVD to see what the hoopla is about. But I think I'll skip taking myself to the theater for it.
I know I would miss the stereo scene a lot.
system shocker on 6/11/2006 at 22:12
The cast makes this movie really cool, but I saw this with my mom, my friend, and my friend's mom and it kind of held me back from enjoying the movie. I'd say to get it on dvd.
Fafhrd on 6/11/2006 at 22:26
it is definitely a movie to see in a theatre. Easily in my top 5 for the year.
Scots Taffer on 6/11/2006 at 23:48
I've heard reliable and unreliable accounts of it being a good movie - many were fans of the original too. They say it stands well on its own and as a remake with Gimme Shelter shoehorned into the soundtrack it works pretty well too. I can see it being a good movie from the American cop-criminal angle but I don't think it'll be the subtle work that Infernal Affairs was, most mainstream American flicks don't allow for that sort of silent and slow character development. I just shudder when I think of Oldboy being remade.
Madin on 12/11/2006 at 04:14
Direct answer to your question is no don't bother. Its a scene for scene remake, the problem being that scene for scene the original is better 9 times out of 10. It adds nothing of any interest at all to the original version and the extra half hour or so added by the director mean that the originals impressive pacing is lost. It even retains the original films cardboard cut out female characters (although melding them into one character was a good idea).
When I watched the original film and heard of the planned remake, the first thought in my head was that there was no chance of hollywood allowing the originals ending to stay intact, and sad to say they did not disappoint. The departed ending is lousy. The focus in the remake is very different. This is jacks show no doubt, the others do a good job of making their presence felt, but jack's character gets far too much air time. A good showing from the guy from titanic, but he's no Tony Leung. A very good performance from Matt, but he could never match Andy Lau's screen presence and charisma. The two actors doing Athony Wong's role, together do half the job he does. And what was the point of Mark Wahlbergs charcter other than fucking up the ending?
I'm not even going to bother buying the departed. Has a footnote I would have liked this film a lot had I not seen the original.
Has for 'Hollywood why embarrass yourselves' remakes, Battle royale takes the biscuit.
