The Departed (Infernal Affairs remake)

[MacGuffin]

Lau Gives `Departed' an 8 Out of 10

Andy Lau gives "The Departed" an Americanized version of one of his movies an eight out of 10.

The new Martin Scorsese film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson was inspired by the 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller "Infernal Affairs," which features Lau and Tony Leung.

"It's correct that he gave it eight on a scale of 10," Lau spokeswoman Alice Tam said, confirming remarks published Friday. She added that Lau dislikes the amount of foul language in the film and the fact that it has only one main female character.
 
"Infernal Affairs" is about a gangster who infiltrates the police (Lau) and a police officer who goes undercover in a gang (Leung). In the original, the two have separate love interests.

In "The Departed," the undercover gangster in the police (Damon) and the undercover policeman in the gang (DiCaprio) both get romantically involved with the police psychiatrist played by Vera Farmiga.

Lau thinks "the effect of combining the two female characters in the original into one isn't as good as in the original," according to Tam.

She also said the veteran Hong Kong actor contrasted his approach to his role with Damon's.

"He said he focused on his character's psychology, and that the character didn't look like a bad guy on the surface," Tam said, whereas Damon's portrayal showed his character as an obvious bad guy.

[Astrostic]

Andy Lau translates into an idiot.  Does he not understand the concept of a reinterpretation?

I saw this today and I loved it.  The half-full theatre that i was in (I saw it in Boston in a theatre that may or may not have made an appearance in the film) didn't seem to like it so much.  There were a couple of walkouts that happened about 15 minutes before the end (?) and there were yawnings and no cheers and hardly any audible laughter (other than my own) like another poster described at his screening.  I'll be seeing this again at least one more time, though.  Scorcese has a way of making me so giddy after watching a film of his.  And the most surprising thing for me was how original this film felt.  Granted I haven't seen Internal Affairs, but this feels like something that Scorsese came up with.

[SiliasRuby]

God, this fucking blew me away. I found myself Laughing out loud more than a couple of times. Loved every minute of it. Period. And just great writing.

[Derek]

Yep, haven't been to a movie this great for a loooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggg time.

[modage]

LOVED it. 

despite having seen Infernal Affairs a year or two ago (and liking it) i remembered almost none of it so when i went into this i had no idea what was coming next.  it was smart, it was funny, and it didnt move like the typical A to B to C plot mechanics.  it felt like the story was really moved along by the characters through a great deal of this.  loved the way the title came up about 20 minutes into the film and the accompanying crazy music.  loved that damon was a complete bastard but you still felt sorry for him because like most of the characters in the film he was just trapped.  and any film that makes me think 'man i wish there were more mark wahlberg', THAT is an incredible achievement.  a lot of talk has been about scorsese's return to the gangster movie, but i really didnt see it as a gangster movie.  i think it was a cop film, and the first that scorsese has done.  on the grand scheme of things if goodfellas is an A+ this film is probably a B+ but really for films this year its an A. 

its my favorite movie so far this year.  its everything i want when i go to the movies.

[JG]

mod, i anticipate a departed avatar. 

and goddamn if that wasn't the best closing line.   

i'm gonna see it again cos i don't think i'm as ga ga over it as you guys are, but yep, it was great alright.   the standout for me was sheen, but damon was ace. 

astro, what theater? 

[MacGuffin]

I thought it was awesome. I was into it all the way throughout. It had the most colorful dialogue outside a Mamet script. Top notch acting all around, and well defined characters, even the secondary ones. But the breakout I thought was Wahlberg.

It seemed like Scorsese laid back a bit from the usual camera shots/trickery and let the characters and dialogue play out. Brilliant move.    Because you could feel the tension between Nicholson and Dicaprio in the 'rat' scene at the bar, and the long silence between Dicaprio and Damon on the phone was superb.

[edison]

was my post deleted? what the fuck?

never mind found the thread about what happened, that sucks

[Derek237]

I saw it last night. The only show I could catch was the later one, which ran till about 1AM. I'm not really a night owl, so it was a very inconvenient time.  But honestly, it was 2 and half hours that flew by, never found my self looking at my watch, never took my eyes off the screen, it was just great. Oh, Mr. Scorsese, I love you. And, Jack Nicholson, oh man, so so great. Everyone in this movie, actually. Just superb. 

[w/o horse]

Made me feel silly for having low expectations.  It blew away my genre expectations.  Blew them, away.  Like the good should do.

[pete]

(spoilers)

I saw it yesterday amongst a lot of townies.  the first hour was just filled with gasps and people whispering loudly to each other where each scene was shot.  then also a lot of irish pride whenever an irish reference was made.  I thought the film had a lot of similarities to the original, except they drew everything out whereas the originals was a bunch of old dudes playing cool.  it was good, and also the most plot-driven of a scorsese's picture that I've seen.  marky mark was like transported from huckabees, he was pretty cool.  didn't get the very end though.  the blood was good.  I really wasn't very moved by much of it, I enjoyed a lot of it because the craftsmanship and the performances were great, but as opposed to most of scorsese's movies, even the bad ones, I really didn't get the point of this.

[Ghostboy]

It was a lot of fun. I didn't love it as much as everyone else, but I think if I saw it again I'd like it more (I was really exhausted when I watched it). This one didn't have the emotional heft that Scorsese is usually so good at delivering - I've always admired how, in his best films, he's able to be completely entertaining even when he's dealing with heavy subject matter. This one was just entertaining, and the attempts at dramatic depth didn't quite come through as well as I think they could have. It came close (Damon's emotional collapse in the elevator was great) but the script too frequently mistakes shock value for narrative value. Not that it wasn't shocking at times (you know the scenes), but those moments didn't leave me shaken for more than a few seconds.

SPOILERS

I didn't really like the ending. It was pointless - it would have been far more satisfying to have Whalberg show up with that yellow envelope.

[AntiDumbFrogQuestion]

AWESOME MOVIE.

so anyways

did anyone else get a sort of Wes Anderson vibe watching a little of the beginning of this movie?
Not saying that Scorsese is ripping anyone off, and it all could have been coincidence

but there were some Static shots with GREAT color and detail, and with a Nylon String guitar playing beneath it, I kind of got some "Rushmore" chills up my spine
(I dont know if that's actually what a Doctor would call them)

and considering Marty says Wes is "the next Marty", I wouldn't be surprised if this was perhaps a subconscious or subtely conscious homage to another cool filmmaker.

and then after I press "post" I'm gonna think everything I just said was a load of bullshit.

[JG]

yeah, especially for leo's character, there just was no real emotional investment.  he wanted his "indentity back" but all the events leading up to that didn't really lead to me believing or caring about his desperation.  damon's character arc really works, everything about his character is brilliantly concieved.  also i liked how the biggest asshole in the movie seems to be the sole honorable one left at the end. 

now it becomes one of "those" reviews.  it was tough for me to really enjoy this like i enjoy most scorsese movies, cause of the setting.  everytime there was a reference to something i knew, it took me out of the movie.  dicaprio's character grew up on the north shore: crap i'm from there!  dicaprio's uncle jackie was a bookie from somerville:  holy crap, i grew up there.  they dumped his body on 128:  i drive that road all the time!  sheen meets dicaprio on the red line:  i always ride the red line!   and so on and so on.  i dunno, but it almost seemed like these forced attempts to seem authentic, maybe its just cause i'm from the region and every reference stuck out to me.   

plus i hated that theme that scorsese uses, the one that comes up during the title and the one that is used in all the commercials.  what is that the dropkick murphys?  a rare example where scorsese just uses the completely wrong music. 

SPOILERS

on to those last moments... i thought that ending was amazing, mostly cause of damon's "okay."  not only does it capture a region's lexicon and general mindset so perfectly in one word, but it just struck me as incredibly sad and fulfilling.  a moment of great understanding where damon's character has just reached this moment of quiet resignation and all he can say is "okay."  moments like these, including when they have that long silence on the phone, this is what makes scorsese the master.  as a whole, i felt these moments were missing from the movie. 

[Weak2ndAct]

I really enjoyed the flick, and having seen IA (and the sequels) a handful of times, I was still engaged all the way through.  The film-nerd in me really wanted more Scorsese show-off moments, but when he lets the camera roll at the service of the actors, he does get some magic.  It seems that Marty is rolling into Mike Nichols territory now (perfs/editing over style).  I felt some chunks lagged from time to time, and I wonder how much of a committed shot-list/design would have helped things.  Monahan's script kept things going though (I guess I'll have to watch the long Kingdom of Heaven now), and I appreciated the 'new' ending.  It's not the greatest thing ever, not the best of the year, but I had a good time.  

Loved the 'Third Man' wink at the end-- nice touch.