Just saw The Departed.
All I can say is, it’s going to be a long, long, looooooong mother f*****g time before anyone makes a movie that good!
Blockbuster told me it’s out on DVD 02/13. I’m definitely buying it. And I rarely buy videos. See it!! 
I loved it. Saw it four times in the theater- kept taking various friends who I thought would appreciate it.
Hmmm…not to rain on anyone’s parade, but it just didn’t do it for me. I wanted to like it, I really did; I wanted another Goodfellas and got another Gangs of New York. Well, maybe that’s unfair; it wasn’t quite that tedious, but I was seriously underwhelmed, and it confirms my opinion that he’ll never make another movie as good as Raging Bull or Taxi Driver, and that Leonardo DiCaprio, while more tolerable than ever in this movie, is and will never be the next Robert DeNiro. Mind you, there were bits and pieces that were excellent (Alec Baldwin did his patented schtick that is as good here as it is in Glengarry Glen Ross, and Mark Walberg continues to impress), but Jack Nicholson really pulled me out of the movie every time he was onscreen. And Scorsese has now officially overused “Gimme Shelter”.
He still deserves an armload of Oscars, if not for this then as back payment for all the great films he’s been shafted on (but I bet they still don’t give him one). I’m really looking forward to his next movie, though: For 40 years, I’ve been making pictures. And I’ve always been fascinated with the struggles a man must endure when people don’t appreciate him. People say I’m the best. I didn’t say it, they did. I just do my work. But for years they’ve been talking and you know it. You do. I deserve that award, is all I’m saying.
Stranger
Really? I was underwhelmed. There were some good moments, and a couple fine performances, and an intriguing premise, but it just didn’t add up to anything special for me, and definitely didn’t live up to the hype. I wouldn’t mind if it gets the directors nod because most of the scenes, by themselves, were well done - and even if they weren’t its just time he got the nod. But I’ll be seriously disappointed if it wins anything for best movie.
Mostly, it wasn’t a bad movie, it just wasn’t a very good movie, and definitely not a great movie. The two problems I did have with it are that it didn’t feel cohesive - there were a bunch of nice scenes, but they didn’t really gel together; and that it was somewhat anticlimactic - there was this long drawn out build up of dramatic tension that was resolved not with a bang but with a squirt.
Are people who are loving this film just in love with the director’s other films? Did they just dig the premise? What about this film got you off?
I just saw it last weekend and I loved it. My husband liked it, but was less impressed than I was.
I thought all the performances were great. The Quality Kills were all in place, and it didn’t drag (though I did think it was a bit long).
I’ll probably buy a copy, too. And I’m not much of a movie buyer.
I thought it was a good, but flawed, film. My biggest problem, and it’s a problem I have with more an more movies nowadays: basically it’s a movie about cellphones.
Thanks for the heads up. I generally avoid remakes* of Asian movies, so I wanted to read some opinions before shelling out time on something I would probably be disappointed at. (For example, choosing not to see The Lake House, because the original version [the Korean film Il Mare] was so damn good.) But **The Departed ** looks pretty good. Think I’ll check it out.
*When I first heard this was coming out, it was described as a remake of the excellent Hong Kong film **Infernal Affairs ** (a 5-star movie in my book). Since then, though, I’ve heard that **The Departed ** was “inspired” by Infernal Affairs, rather than a complete remake. Not sure what that means in this particular case. Anyone who has seen both care to weigh in? How does it compare?
I didn’t particularly like it. In fact, I started a thread on this board about the many, many plot holes that took me out of the film. I agree with jackdavinci: some good scenes that didn’t come close to a cohesive whole.
It’s an out-and-out remake. I don’t know who’s trying to paint it as just “inspired by”, but I take issue on two counts: one, it’s insulting the original by trying to distance itself from it; and two, I don’t see what’s wrong with being a remake - if it’s good, why hide it?
That said, I thought the original was vastly superior. Infernal Affairs is more claustrophobic, and with a much more successful focus on the personal ramifications for the two leads, as well as the parallels between them. Maybe this is in part due to the fact that Matt Damon is a complete plank, but I just didn’t get the same feeling from The Departed. And while di Caprio is decent, we only ever get to see him acting tortured and hounded. In the original you get a better sense of Tony Leung’s character’s natural personality, and what his job is really costing him. Oh and for lissener’s benefit, it’s slightly less cell-phone based. 
Naturally, therefore, The Departed currently ranks 170-odd places above Infernal Affairs on the IMDb, and is apparently the 76th best movie of all time, beating out such movies as Ran, Fargo, 2001, On the Waterfront… sigh.