Review of The Departed (2006) by Mikea — 19 Jun 2007

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.