The Departed
Game of cat and mouse

// The skinny: An undercover cop in the mob and a mole in the police maneuver to flush each other out.

// Review: This was actually a movie I thought would be worth buying a ticket for in the theater. But I could never make it out of bed for the 11:45am matinee showing. I mean this one had it all: hugely popular Hong Kong movie as source material, Scorsese, Nicholson, Damon, DiCaprio, Alec Balwin, Martin Sheen, Markie Mark, heck even Jack Bauer's partner from season 3 of 24.

/ Jack Nicholson is the crime boss for a Boston syndicate and has Damon as his inside police mole. Martin Sheen counters by putting DiCaprio undercover. The rest of the plot basically involves the respective traitors trying to figure out who the other is. Oh and they are after the same chick.

/ The plot wasn't complicated but the acting made it compelling. Nicholson was channeling his restrained insanity and Baldwin is a comic genius. Damon was okay, maybe only okay because by comparison DiCaprio was fantastic. Both men were in highly stressful circumstances but DiCaprio really seemed desperate while I was only reading frustrated and mildly annoyed from Matt Damon's character.

/ I was surprised that I didn't find the love triangle thing that cheesy. Maybe because they casted just an attractive girl instead of a hot one, I dunno. And I like how the violence wasn't dramatized; like with no zoom ins, slo-mo shots, or gun shots sounding like battleship cannons.

// Wrap up: I guess "gritty" is as apt word as any to describe it. I hear that of course the original is better but I have no idea because someone borrowed my copy before I watched it and then lost it. Goodbye 75 cents.

Entertainment rating: 4