Title: The Departed Director: Martin Scorsese Staring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Studio: Warner Bros. Genre(s): Action Rated:       (For strong brutal violence, pervasive language, some sexual content and drug material)   Buy From Amazon.com: DVD (Widescreen) / DVD (Full Screen) / DVD (Two-Disc) / HD-DVD / BluRay / Soundtrack / Soundtrack (Score) /

CONSUMER ADVICE

Parents, this movie earns it's strong R rating. There is over 200 uses of the f word alone, people are killed, stabbed, beaten, maimed. There is a sex scene. The storyline is intense and complicated. NOT a movie for children. Recommended for ages 17 and up.

Here we go again. In the history of film making, there are few directors that have been praised as much as Martin Scoresese. By that same token, it's kind of strange to see a man make so many classic movies like "Taxi Driver," "Goodfellas," and "Raging Bull" never win an Academy Award of any kind. I thought for sure "The Aviator" would be the movie where Scoresese would finally get awarded the Oscar he deserved, yet the A.M.P.S.A. felt differently, and awarded the Oscar to Clint Eastwood and his boxing movie "Million Dollar Baby." Now Scoresese has brought us "The Departed," to prove to us once again why he's one of the few directors to get his name above the title of the movies he directs. "The Departed" revolves around a crime lord by the name of Frank Costello. Costello is a smooth talking, chain smoking, terrifying villain. One of the worst I've ever seen in a movie.

He kills without hesitation, tortures without batting an eye, and actually finds humor in his methods of madness (after killina woman in cold blood he jokes "Huh?  She fell funny"). In seducing a young boy to join his gang, Costello says "When I was your age, they would say you could either become cops or criminals. What I'm saying is this: When you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?" The boy he gives this scary bit of advice is named Colin Sullivan, who grows up to become one of the more important cops in the police department, but is really a mole for Costello, who he shares confidential information with. On the other end of the spectrum is Billy Costigan, who was training to be a cop, but flunked out of the academy. However, the police department feels he can still be of use to them, so they convince him to fake a crime, get thrown in prison, and be released a year later to become a spy on Costello for them.

The plan works, and a year and a half later, Costigan is in Costello's gang, making deals and beating up store owners who are late on their payment. Soon though, Costello suspects that there is a "rat" in his gang, and calls Sullivan with an order to find the rat. Likewise, the police suspect that is an informant leaking Costello information about the police department as well, and Costigan is ordered to discover the identity of this person too. Both men share information with everyone in many different ways, but the most intriguing device they use is the cell phone. With calling, text messaging, and voice recordings, the cell phone becomes a story device quite unlike anything else in this movie. Cell phones are normally used as gimmicks in movies, normally being degraded to simple things like ringing while someone is trying to hide from the bad guy. In this movie, the cell phone becomes an essential part of the story telling.

It's used in so many unique and interesting ways, that if you took it out I don't think you would have a movie anymore. At the very least, you wouldn't have one that is half as interesting as this one. But the cell phone is not the only thing that makes this movie good. What also makes the movie work are the excellent performances from all the principle actors. Jack Nicholson proves once again why he's a living legend on the screen, Matt Damon shows that he is a very underrated actor, and Leonardo DiCaprio steps up to the plate to reenforce the notion that he is the next Robert DeNiro. In fact, looking at the past three to five films DeCaprio has made including this one, I think it's safe to say that DeCaprio has come a long way from being the icon of many a teenage girls dream several years ago. It's Jack Nicholson who takes up most of the screen time though, and is fascinating to watch from beginning to end.

Playing a character that is a perfect vision of what true evil is, I think Jack Nicholson will be up for another Oscar nomination come January (Editor's Note: I was wrong on this one). In fact, I think it's pretty safe to say that while this film won't win any major prize, I would confidentially expect this film to get a Best Picture nomination for sure. Sadly, it will not win for two reasons. The first reason is that this is a Martin Scoresese picture, and none of his movies have won Best Picture despite their quality. The second reason is that despite the quality of this film, "United 93" is still a better movie, and five months later people are still talking about it,and I do believe that "United 93" will win the top prize (Editor's Note: Wrong again). For it's subject matter if nothing else.

Still, at the end of the day "The Departed" is still a great movie with great writing, acting, and tension. It's smart, it keeps you at the edge of your feet, and there are several moments where you don't know where the movie is going, and you will be shocked at where it does go sometimes. I must admit that the amount of foul language in this movie is a bit bothersome, but seeing as how the movie is about a crime syndicate, it's (sadly) unsurprising. If movies with the use of a ton of F words bothers you, then you should just not watch this movie at all. Also the movie is extremely violent, so keep that into consideration also. But if you can stomach this, then by all means enjoy "The Departed," one of the best films of the year.