Thursday, January 20, 2011

Movie #157 - The Departed

The Departed
2006 - Rated R - 2 hr 31 min
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Vera Farmiga, Alec Baldwin

As expected, this movie's kind of a big deal around Boston.  And with all that swearing and gunfire and all those accents, I can see why.  It's about Boston, crime, double-crosses.  It's all the stuff we love and it's in our hometown.

Watching this movie's like playing a game of "guess who practiced their Boston accent today."  Some of these actors are really good, like Alec Baldwin.  Some of them were born here, so they'd better be good, like Mark Walhberg and Matt Damon.  And some of them get by okay, like Jack Nicholson.  It's jarring at first, how strong all of them lay it on, but after the first half hour you forget about it.

Then, of course, in the last half hour, it's now a race against death.  This movie has all the blood and murders of a Shakespearean tragedy.  But the way half the cast gets mowed down gives new meaning to "sudden death."  Yikes!  Someone's talking and everything fine one minute and then BAM! Bullet to the forehead. 

From beginning to end, a whole 2 1/2 hours later, it holds your attention and keeps you scratching your head.  Who's working for who? Who's gonna die next?

It makes Boston look pretty bad ass, I must say.

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