The Departed Movie Review

First classic movie review of 2013! Woo! Granted, this only came out like five years ago so I'm not sure you can really call it a classic, but in my mind it is. So yeah.

No spoilers, don't worry.

Okay, so I need to review more older movies, and why not start with one of my favorite movies. So, The Departed stars Leonardo Dicaprio, Matt Damon, Marky-Mark, Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, and Kristen Wig. Whether or not any of them other than Damon and Whalberg can actually do a Boston accent is up to you.

Basically, Jack Nicholson plays a mob boss in Boston fending off the State Police, Matt Damon plays Jack Nicholson's mole inside the Massachusetts State Police, and Marky-Mark and Sygon play State Police officials who get state cop Leonardo Dicaprio- who's family has ties to the mob- to their mole in Jack Nicholson's organization. Long story short, Damon and Dicaprio spend the movie trying to figure out who the rats are in their respective organizations that they're rats for. And thus begins one of the most epic cat and mouse games ever.

I'll start with the obvious thing to talk about: the acting. Everyone is so good in this movie. Matt Damon's great, obviously; Jack Nicholson's great and, in all seriousness, probably didn't know he was being filmed (him, Liam Neeson, and Bryan Cranston are the actors who I'm convinced never know they're being filmed. It's more like "Guys, Jack Nicholson's doing stuff, quick, get a camera, we'll put it in something); Marky-Mark... played himself, and that's always fun to watch; Dicaprio's really good in this, and I think part of that is he's not playing his usual character, you like the whole tortured soul schtick he's famous for. In this he's this really angry jerkass. And it was awesome. Martin Sheen, 'nough said.

Kristen Wig and Alec Baldwin weren't in it much, they were good when they were it in, and Baldwin had a couple of absolutely hysterical lines, the only problem was that out of everyone, they had the worst Boston accents. Especially Kristen Wig, because half the time it's like she didn't know she was supposed to be doing an accent and just spoke sans, and the other half she had one. They weren't awful, and if you've never been to Boston you might actually be fooled by them, but I live in Boston (well, suburb of Boston). I'm weathering one of Boston's many snowstorms as I write this. I know what a good accent sounds like. Again, it wasn't awful, just took me out of the movie a few times.'

This is basically the epitome of a dialogue driven mob movie. There are a few action scenes, one shout out in last act, and they're really good, but that's not the point. The point is the awesome dialogue. It is a lot like Pulp Fiction that way, because the dialogue carries the movie, and there are times when it's wicked funny but other times when it's wicked dramatic. The entire time it's entertaining though. If you like good dialogue/if you like Pulp Fiction, you will love this, is what I'm saying. It does, however, out do Pulp Fiction in terms of the sheer number of f-bombs dropped per minute. Didn't think that was possible either.

It was directed by Martin Scorsese, and I shouldn't need to explain that, but I will: he REALLY out did himself with this movie. It's that awesome. Almost everything about the direction is perfect, especially the way the scenes flow into each other. This may not make sense, or may be you didn't notice it when you saw it, but when I watched it, the scenes and the shots flowed together so well it was like the movie was moving at a million miles per hour. Which is good, because it's two and a half hours long. Part of it is the script is that good, part of it is the shots are so long, and part of is I don't know. But it really enhances the movie.

The bottom line is that The Departed is an awesome movie that you should all see if you haven't already.

In the end, I saw The Departed and there was much rejoicing.