Casting Decaprio as the undercover tough guy ruined the movie. He was only convincing as the innocent young cop and since much of the movie revolved around a sense of sympathy or at least belief in the tribulations of his character, Decaprio's cardbard portrayal destroyed any emotional engagement in the characters. As usual Mark Walburg stole the show becuase his character was lovable but Damon really showed his prowess in creating a character of depth, with frailty and orginality. Unfortunatley brilliance on his part was dependent on Decaprio's reflection. The script was a little heavy handed and frankly seemed to try to be a little too hard in the final sequences to be a Tarintino movie. The Gen Y's I went with seemed to think it was the "pulp ficiton" of thier generation.. hopefully they will get something more uniquely thier own than this canned attempt.… Expand

A waste of film on every level. Scorsese is in bad need of a dominatrix.

I've noticed that most of the positive comments of this movie tend to come from people who are essentially Scorcese worshippers - people who will praise anything the 'great director' comes up with. While this film might have its merits, this movie suffers from terrible characterisation, enough to kill this film. As somebody called JR M posted earlier, "Since much of the movie revolved around a sense of sympathy or at least belief in the tribulations of his character, Decaprio's cardbard portrayal destroyed any emotional engagement in the character". It was hard to care about a guy who spent the whole movie whining. [***SPOILER***] I cheered when Dicaprio's character got shot, and then I asked myself, 'Hey, aren't I supposed to be rooting for this guy?' His character was poorly concieved, poorly written, poorly characterised, and above all poorly (over) acted.… Expand

I don't see how this movie made anyone's "Best of 2006" list -- except that the critics love Scorsese. It's a far-from-groundbreaking "rat in the police dept" story with tons of bloody gun violence and almost no satisfaction plotwise. Acting is OK, but It's like "Goodfellas" and "Pulp Fiction" minus any style or humor ... and you'll hear the f-word enough to last you the rest of your life.… Expand

Steven is right about this movie getting high ratings due to Scorsese worshippers. This movie is poorly contrived in comparison to the original HK movie. The cast is either poorly used or miscast. In the HK one, the Matt Damon character is more interesting and has a dual personality. Martin Sheen is so dull as Leo's supervisor. This movie also lacks the emotion of the original . How this movie is getting high ratings seem to be pure propaganda to boost Scorsese's failing career. To simply put it, America lacks in the ideas department. If this film gets any oscar at all, there goes any integrity Americans have for foreign films.… Expand

For once ,I agree with the negative reviews here. I simply didn't like the film and Scorsese's way beyond fictional views. I don't see how anyone could give this film a 8 or above.

It was a good movie all the way until the end. The end ruined everything. I feel like i watched 2 hours of people getting closer and closer to figuring it out for nothing..everybody just dies. stupid!

The actors were great and very credible. But the plot was very blind of artfulness. I cant believe that any people can survive in this ambiance with this blindness. To far from any reality. A Movie just like a comic, nothing else.

The worst script of this year!!! The last 30 minutes of the movies are a completely nonsense!!

Thorough waste of time and money. Cannot for the life of me understand why it is getting all the accolades it is. Too long. People were looking at their watches way before this thing ended. Not a satisfying movie by any stretch.

I

When I saw the preview for the movie I instantly knew that it was a remake of Infernal Affairs. I was excited to see the movie translated, until of course I sat down and watched it. The film was poorly translated. Most of the character nuances were lost. Now this wasn't to say that the acting was bad. In fact Nicholson and DiCaprio did a great job, but Matt Damon was pitiful. In the original movie of the characters had a habit of tapping. It was an important part of the movie that was completely removed. Also, the music was very poorly selected and implemented. Nothing like having your ears suddenly blown off in the middle of the movie. Then they turn it down sharply and two seconds later turn it off completely. Makes you wonder how much time they spent on the movie.… Expand

*MILD SPOILERS* It's an entertaining movie until the "last act" of the movie which devolves pretty quickly into something that is rather silly and pointless. The ending of a movie can make or break a movie and consider this movie thoroughly broken. I left the movie theater feeling hollow and that the first 100 minutes of the movie were a waste. It's a shame that this is what Scorcese came up with in the end. It really felt like a cop-out . If you don't like senseless violence, and I do mean senseless, you might want to steer clear of this one. You'll probably enjoy it if you are thoroughly desensitized to violence and the value of human life. I like to enjoy my moviegoing experience, not leave with this nihislitc feeling of "What's the point???"… Expand

I don't see why this movie won such praise by the critics. The acting was good but that was about it, the story seemed so worn out and done before and the movie was overly long at 2hr and 40mins.

Unfortunately, Scorsese won best director. The original director did a much better job and some how Scorsese won best director for telling a weaker story. American cinema is dead at best.

I had to back up my TIVO when I saw Scorsese get up & start speaking at the podium! I guess I didn't get the word that The Departed was in the running for best director...likely, because it's ridiculous that it be considered & placed among the ranks of films actually worthy of the nomination for Best Director! Really...I like Scorses's films, for the most part. But let';s face it, even those considered to be among the best at their craft can bomb now & then. The Departed was entertaining at first, but ended up a monumental disappointment & certainly not "award-worthy!" It took too much work to stay involved in the movie. I witnessed so many blatant flaws, it was incredible. A completely convoluted movie - one that should have been a Movie of the Week or on HBO...but a Golden Globe contender? Actually, I think I was okay with the movie until about the last 40 minutes. But, whether I liked the movie or not, it wasn't worthy of a Golden Globe - or any award, for that matter! It did explain to me, however, why Nicolson sat at the front table & the cameras graced us with shots of the various 'smug' looks he had plastered across his face whenever somebody on stage looked down at him & brought him into their 'moment' on stage. He sat back in his chair like he was Omnipotent! It was sickening. I like Nicolson as an actor. I also believe he's a very shrewd business man. But let's get serious. If this movie was so great, why wasn't Nicolson up for best actor? That makes no sense! And, Scorsese seemed awkward on stage - I'm thinkin' he had to feel a tad out of place, suddenly, having to look into the faces of those directors he was up against who actually deserved to be in the best director category this year. The one other thing that made me lose complete respect for what the Golden Globes event represents, was Warren Beatty being honored. Let's see...he won 'best director' for REDS way back when...he's been in more forgettable films than memorable. He hasn't done anything in years, except get himself in the limelight hoping people actually believe he belongs in politics...for which he proved himself to be a big buffoon & that Tom Hanks found a way to make Beatty seem somehow amazing...well. that - alone -deserves some kind of awward! I'll say one thing for Nicolson...despite his 'better than thou' attitude, he has proved himself to be an excellent actor. That doesn't mean everything he's in is worthy of an award. It all makes sense to me now...Scorsese winning for "Best Director," Nicolson behaving as if only a select two or three were worthy of his attention, and Beatty being honored...quite a threesome there.… Expand

Not necessary. Martin, William, leonardo, Matt, Mark, and Jack put together a performance that goes way over the top and totally unexpected. But 90 minutes in the movie, you can expect the violent killings at the end due to a non-stop functional randomly made-up look into crazy lives that is impossibly accurate.

Martin Scorsese is obsessed with sinful everything. This movie is written, and every character never does follow the ten commandments, only the devils.

Honestly, Jack Nicholson took over the screen, and not in a good way, Matt Damon's character was too one-sided, and we never really understood what motive the shrink girlfriend had to sleep with Di-Caprio's character... AND it was too long. The last image was just too obvious and dissapointing... as was the whole flick.

This is an over-rated made for t.v dramedy. A perfect "Oscar" type film; both safe and inoffensive. The actors perform their best acting schticks (Jack Nicholson) and do it well - ho hum. It took me a while to realize that it was more comedy than drama. Watch out for the BAD photoshopped photo of the girl on the bike and the rat at the end. Also, more money should have been spent on the sets rather than actor's salaries (Jack Nicholson). At least they might have elevated it beyond the look of a daytime soap. Save your money and wait until it comes out on DVD.… Expand

Very bad movie. Full of dramatic errors, completely illogical, sometimes even ridiculous: Why should the shrink fall in love with Damon? Why should she fall in love with di Caprio? Has she a macho-problem? And: What a strange coincidence that the two guys sleep with the same woman. Why did Costigan risk to see the shrink who worked on floor under the police? Costello knew that Costigan was an ex-statie: Why did he suspect him sooooo late? The police had a second mole in the Costello gang - but Costigan didn't know it? The police could have arrested Costello much more earlier: They had enough proves and more than enough witnesses? Or the scene with die Chinese guys: The head of operations tells his team that they could locate Costello by cell phones - and 30 seconds later all the cell phone signals dissappear. Evidently one member of the team must have been the mole. And what happened to the brown envelope Costigan gave the shrink? Much too long, stupid script, sometimes even unintentionally funny. And a language that is shocking nobody anymore.… Expand

Enjoyable until the last 1/2 hour and then you suspend all belief feel cheated for investing time to have it taken away with random happenings. With the second mole you may as well have had John rambo come up in the left and kill the whole gang, in fact I would have prefered that, in fact im off to watch rambo and at least you know that he's gonna kill everything cause it's not meant to be REAL like this which is so UNREALISTIC, oh well bring on Rambo 4.… Expand

After viewing this movie, I only wish I hadn't Departed with my money to purchase the tickets! The violence portrayed is so gratuitous and constant that by the time the climax arrivies it degenerates into a bad joke. Another title for this film could have been, "People being shot in the Head". If Americans regard this ultra vulgar, ultru violent movie as the best of the year, then America has problems. Not worthy of Scorsese and his team.… Expand

Jeepers I'm so glad I didn't pay money to see this. What a load of cobblers. It was laugh out loud ridiculous. The way Americans are portrayed is simply insulting to you lot. Cops hitting each other in full view of staff -plain stupid.Everyone SHOUTING ALL THE TIME IS NOT HOW IT IS.The 'love interest' jeezus how weak can you get??? Best line was Di talking about how cops were portrayed on TV -oh the irony !! How on earth can this be best picture ? Avoid!! Cheers Richard… Expand

I have lost so much respect for all the people who raved about how good this movie was. It's a shame that THIS is the movie that scorcese wins an oscar for. Weak, convoluded plot that falls apart if you think about it too much. Absolutely no character development whatsoever.

Scorsese at the top of his game. Yah sure. The acting was well done and the plot was pretty good but overall the movie was unexpecdedly boring. For example: when Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg were in that meeting room confronting the staff, they talked so quickly with them saying random things that just made me wonder.

Leo was great, Jack was asleep, Matt was as boring as ever, Markie Mark was a joke. All this film does is underscore the fact that Good Fellas was one of the greatest films ever made. None of these guys can touch Ray Liotta's genius; he's America's most under-rated and underappreciated actor by far.

I hated it. I couldn't follow the plot or get involved with the characters. I was just lost a lot of the time. The violence was gratuitous and the script was a mess. I just didn't buy the whole thing. I have seen Scorsese do some great films. This was not one of them.

Gratitous and indulgent, but well crafted of course.

Okay this is not 'Goodfellas'. Cartoony is the best adjective I can use to describe the film. Actually I was expecting Roger Rabbit to appear at the end and shoot Walhberg.

Violence, blood and gore does not a movie make. There are more holes in the story than Swiss cheese. The acting was superb but there wasn't much to work with as far as the story goes. I could rip it apart but it will be deleted as spoilers. If you like endless bloodshed in which almost everyone comically buys the farm then you will like this. Not my cup of tea as it was totally ridiculous as Jack should have whacked Leonardo as there wasn't any bond between the two.… Expand

I went to see this fim because I like the work of the leads and the Director, but in my opinion this was a complete waste of time. Lame, actors doing a job for their fees, no tension of any sort, and lots of distracting blood, guts, swearing and women with their heads in the laps of smelly old men - the main point of which seemed to be to distract from the emptiness of the whole event. I enjoyed the original. Hire it. Don't waste your money on this one.… Expand

Caught The Departed last night and I have to say, its one abject failure of a remake. I was expecting it to be good, and truth be told, I wanted it to be good because it is based on Hongkong

Caught The Departed last night and I have to say, its one abject failure of a remake. I was expecting it to be good, and truth be told, I wanted it to be good because it is based on Hongkong

Only thing good about the film is the music score and the acting. Directing and script are kind of "let's make a movie and put a known director to it". By far not the best movie of the year imo.

Is everyone else watching a different movie because if there was any common sense and justice, every publication who gave this movie such high marks should be responsible of refunding every ticket sold. Even without watching Infernal Affairs which this was remade from, The Departed is a prolonged bizarre and trite 1 hour and 50 minutes. With wiseguy dialogues that run three words too long of a sentence, it also boasts senseless need of violence on screen. Do American cinema take a few steps backward every few years? The only reason why anyone would give this movie such praise is by just reviewing the credits and not watching it. Where Infernal Affairs was a well-paced film, this was, as one cinema-goer so well put it, "all over the place." Thank you very much for wasting my weekend and also for proving once again, of all the fairness and realism placed in portraying every other race, the Chinese are still made to look like numbskulls who can't even speak their own language properly.… Expand

A thoroughly unpleasant moviegoing experience, easily the most overrated movie of the year.

Overrated. Unfortunately, overexcessive swearing and violence makes this film too unrealistic. Scorsese is starting to lack polish in his films.

Banal Dialogue, trite acting, terrible overall.

I saw the Hong Kong one and it was good but not great. After seeing this one it makes the Hong Kong one look like a masterpiece. Warner Bros did confirm that the movie is based on IA and IA 2, and if you watch some segments carefully, Scorsese does use a few things from IA 3. I guess I just found the plot to be a bit convoluted and maybe it could had done better if they deleted half and hour of nonsense and made the action more dramatic and exciting. The abundance of swearing didn't help either. I probably rent this movie again but not enough spark for me to buy it.… Expand

As I have seen Infernal Affairs (which was a damn good movie) first, I was highly disappointed by The Departed. In comparison the characters in this movie are boring and don't seem realistic. But the worst thing to ruin the story was the ending.

I just couldn't get into this movie. This movie is filled with plotholes and implausible themes. Best left only to be rented. Scorsese fails to deliever once again. Stick to his old time classics like Casino or Goodfellas.

Boring script-story telling. As if it was made by an apprentice. Many times had to press the forward button on dvd player just to get it over with. Every time the action was building up for one of the main cop characters the movie switch over to the other parallel character without reaching any apex.An on-off pattern without any climax. Only exception the sceen at the elevetor towards the end of the movie. Some characters like the female shrink doctor had no reason to exist. Even when she realised the role of one of the characters she was not given any active role in the action. Only thing that saved it was the excellent play by Nicholson.Some of the images of the mob characters had the potential to project their inner feelings to the viewer and support the overall atmosphere of the movie.The images were there but not the script to support them. So they remained just the 'guys'. No doubt Scorsese deserved an Oscar but NOT for this one.… Expand

Boring script, flat characters and an ungracefully superimposed message. what a disappointment.

Shockiingly bad for a Scorcese film. Even if you excuse the hammy behavior (it certainly ain't acting), THE PLOT MAKES NO SENSE. I understand the concept of suspending belief to enjoy a film, but this requires parking your frontal lobes at the door. Hey, Marty did it--why can't we. And this won the Oscar!?? At least it was better than "Crash" and "Braveheart".

I simply just didn't like this film. Nothing Oscar worthy. There were other better films I tell ya that. Not worth my time to complain much though. Not a true Martin Scorsese film.

This film is terrible. The character development is boring and the characters don't feel like they have anything to hide. This movie lacks any soul or emotion and the dialouge is mediocre at best. The actors at times seems to be reading off cue cards. Not the best of 2006, one of the most overrated.

This movie is bad. I can't see how people rate it anything above a 4. An all star cast can't save this. Nicholas doesn't convince as a gang leader. He doesn't scare anyone. Actually none of these actors play the tough guy well. Diacapro is just to soft to play his role. There's holes all through this film. Actually, it's so bad it's funny. The scene where Dicaprio gets his injured arm smashed on the table 3 times to prove he's not a rat is hilarious! That's all it took to convince a seasoned mob boss that he wasn't a rat!? Come on! Please! I didn't actually realize that this was a remake until reading this column. To me it was a rip-off of a 90's film STATE OF GRACE, a great Irish mob film set in New York staring Sean Penn, Ed Harris and Gary Oldman. Now this is a great gangster film! There were scenes in the Departed that to me, were taken straight out of, or very similar, to SOG. The story line is very similar aswell. If you want to see what a great "Rat" film looks like, get this out.… Expand

Was the movie plot good? yes Was the acting good? yes...the problem I had with the movie is that it was distasteful. Extremely unrealistic. It takes extreme effort for someone to use that much profanaity in one sentance in the "real world".

Awful. The original was well-balanced and this one did nothing to so-call improve on the original. A lot the characters were boring and unsympathetic to watch. There was no good psychological build-up between the characters. There is no sense of paranoia like how Infernal Affairs gave us. This movie lacked real themes and emotion. This film had far too many plot-holes and implausible scenes. Overrated film of 2006, indeed.… Expand

Do we really need Martin Scorsese? Heresy though it may appear, the question interrogates not so much the man

Had this been more original, this film would had been more astonishing. This movie just purely a carbon copy of a better movie. Scorsese should stick to being original. Adding pointless swearing and violence doesn't make a movie any better nor original. Good luck next time.

I really wish someone would explain to me how this is a good movie. Is the acting great? You bet. Direction? Sure. But, how about this... There is absolutely no way in my mind that the events portrayed in the movie could ever be considered believable. Leonardo DiCaprios character wouldn't have survived any longer than the amount of time it took Jack Nicholson to find him after hearing that there was a rat in the group. Secondly, if there is a leak in a department, they would bring in from outside the group to investigate, not just tell the guy in charge to do it. I dislike this movie only for the reason that I find it amazingly unbelievable and ludicrous.… Expand

Why is Mark Wahlberg affecting a Bostonian accent in this movie: he's FROM Boston! And, as usual, Scorcese can't direct a believable female character at all. Ever. This-- ALL this said-- it is certainly a better movie than his post-2000 attempts: the tedious GANGS OF NY and the unwatchable THE AVIATOR...faint praise, indeed.

Very disappointing film. It was very contrived and seemed totally unreal to me. No conparison to Goodfellas or Godfather. I like a movie I can sink my teeth into and this one was not it.

To long. The story was all over the place. I can't believe people are comparing this to Goodfellas and Casino which were excellent movies not even in the same category. I decided after seeing this movie I was never going to waste my money on going to the theater again.

I disagree with Snake P. You either have it or you don't. People say it is unfair that Departed is fighting against the IA trilogy but where did Scorsese get his source material? Not only from the first but the 2nd and 3rd as well. When Scorsese made his first draft of the Departed which was soley based on IA, it flopped. Scorsese decided to borrow ideas from the prequels and sequels, thus which gave him a mediocre remake. What I also disagree is that Tony and Andy's characters had more of a personality, especially Andy's character. Andy was troubled person playing both bad and good cop. Although I love Matt Damon, his character was just a baddie period. No character development of interest here. The only saving grace in this film was Jack Nicolson. At least Scorsese decided to add some light to his character. That's show business and for your info, IA 2 was already written before IA 1 was ever made. The creators decided to release a more exciting cat-n-mouse chase than the prequel. IA 3 was the one that was written after the conclusion of IA. Honestly, Departed is light years away from being better than IA. Once again, you either have it or don't, and Departed simply doesn't.… Expand

When I have to pause the movie 4 times because I''m bored says something. Sloooooow. Wahlberg too over the top. Damon = stiff. DeCaprio still looks like a kid. Nicholson just wasn't believable. A critics movie.

This was a very good movie, until about 40 minutes from the end. It makes no sense at all. If DiCaprio had that evidence that he sent to Damons house, why would he just submit it to the police? Dont you think a police department like that would be cracking down more if they knew they had a mole? How did Wahlberg sneak into Damons apartment and kill him with the door wide open and nobody notice...and walk out looking like that? Im sure alot of police officers, especially the higher ranked ones would agree this movie does not make sense. I'm sure Damon cant delete DiCaprios biopsy on the computers and not have it on file anywhere that he deleted it.

This movie was very suspensful and kept me on the edge of my seat, until after Damon killed Nicolsons character.… Expand

Too much violence -- it's ridiculous, repetitive, boring, and cheap. Are we really so bloodthirsty that this kind of garbage takes "Best Picture"? Our expectations are too low. We can do better. We should expect far more from the artists we've deemed "great."

While the original Hong Kong version was plausible due to their cultural standards, Scorsese's version was way below imaginable standards. While the HK verison had some plot devices, there was a lot implausible gaps and forced concepts that didn't work out in the American version. Like a boss sitting in the front of a car so the mole can communicate in the back. A gang boss will never sit in the front of a car! Using cell-phones to bring down a gang is just lame and un-inspiring! Colin Sullivan, who claimed to not be able to use the password on his computer all of a sudden uses it to delete Costigans profile on his very own computer seconds later. The list goes on and gets very tiresome to mention. Didn't anyone review these forced issues and plotholes before making the film? That's right, they just tried to copy IA, forgetting about the lost in translation consequences. Its a shame that America never bothered to release the IA trilogy instead in theaters. The original stories encompassed balanced story-telling, better suspense and emotional content, slick cat-and mouse chase, psychological dept, and well-developed and intriguing characters. We also get to see how being in the police and triads truly bring grief in their lives. The Departed was done sloppy in comparison only saved by typical Scorsese violence and swearing. The characters in Departed were lame and boring. Billy Costigan (Leo Dicpario) is the only character probably that got his role right. Matt Damon, a good actor, had a very dull and typical bad guy character in comparison to Andy Lau's tormented role in IA. Martin Sheen was a poor father figure and a watse of time. and of course, there are other lame, pointless filler characters that aren't worth mentioning. Sadly, Scorsese will get praises from the audience no matter how he makes his films. Had Scorsese's name not been on the director's list, this film would had got a worser rating. All in all, it was IA that was more realistic. People say Departed is, but tell yourself this, not one person swears that much, nor do you see bloodshed like that in reality. 4 guys getting bullets in their heads one after another? There was a reason why IA had the bullet in the head scenerio but Scorsese and Monahan just really never knew what it meant, did they?… Expand

Well Martin ScorSese, director of "The Godfellas", hasn't made the best film of his career or the best film of the year but it was nice to see Dicaprio die and Nicholson acting again.

Completely overrated. Watch the original instead. Once again Hollywood messes up a foreign film.

This movie is pretty much an overrated remake of Infernal Affairs. When I first saw this movie I thought it would be AMAZING since it had won the oscar fo best picture and all. I was very disappointed and all I remember was mostly people saying the F word over and over again. Some parts of the movie tries to have crude humor but it fails miserably. Now I saw this movie before I saw the original infernal affairs I saw infernal affairs about a year after an thought the original was much much MUCH better. This movie lacks proper character development and we feel no emotion for the characters. The only thing better about this remake is the mob boss played by Jack Nicholson. This movie is WAY overrated and I really don't recomend watching it. I however can recomend watching the original movie. The orginal movie "Inferna Affairs" has what this movies missing(a heart).… Expand

Apart from some great acting,there was almost nothing in the movie worth praise.The story was unnecessarily confusing and Scorsese didnt do well to omit that confusion.I was and am still surprsied why this movie won the oscar...???