Film: The Departed

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Year: 2006

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Vera Farmiga

Written by: Felix Chong, Siu Fai Mak, William Monahan

Budget: $90 million

Reviewed by: J.J.

A movie is a sum of all parts. You could have the best director in the world with shitty actors and you got an average movie. Or the best actors in the world with a shitty director. Or an average movie with a superb soundtrack. You get the idea.

The Departed had an all-star cast, and one of the better American directors. Jack Nicholson plays Frank Castello, the Irish mob boss. Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan, a mole for Castello. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Billy Costigan, a cop who goes undercover infiltrating Castello's crew.

The idea of a mole for the mob versus a rat for the cops was brilliant. The writers pulled it off perfectly too, and it would have made an excellent movie. However, the movie just had too many things to nitpick to give it a higher rating.

For one, the cover of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb was atrocious. In fact, it was so bad, I'll have to dock a J for it. Who the fuck was that? Bob Dylan's retarded older brother?

The editor has the worst ADD I've ever seen. Couldn't keep a scene for two seconds. Two J's docked. She gave me a headache. She apparently liked to switch angles every two seconds, and it distracted greatly from my enjoyment of the movie. Maybe it works if you have no attention span because you're doped up on Chocolate Coated Sugar Bombs and you've been watching cartoons you're whole life, but for those of us with any intelligence...

We all knew DiCaprio's character would fuck the shrink. Surprise us for once. One more J docked.

Bonus J for Jack Nicholson. He had the best lines, and he pulled them off in a most spectacular fashion. Nobody does it quite like Jack, and Scorsese knows it. So does JJ.

Bonus J for Scorsese's directing. The old man still has it.

Like I said, a movie is a sum of all parts. All together, let's do a little math and what do we have? 7 J's out of 10. Not bad. Could have been better though.

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