Review of The Departed

[zdashamber]

I saw "The Departed" last night... Not bad. Actually, pretty good. Not great, but pretty good, worth seeing.

Lessee... It was a world that I enjoyed being a part of, well-realized and well-shown. The middle part of the movie was a lot of fun, just inhabiting the world with not a lot happening, and the end was pretty good, too. The beginning was a little eh. The movie wasn't terribly realistic, but you didn't much mind during or after. The characters were realistic enough, and well-acted. Like Brust's Khaavren books, it was enough fun to be involved with that you get stuck in the way of talking after... Or at least, I found myself much more likely afterwards to talk like I was simultaneously chewing on a mouthful of Fuck.

I wouldn't call it Oscar-worthy, though it'd be fine to see DiCaprio pick up a "Best Actor," and I wasn't particularly a DiCaprio fan. Mark Wahlberg was fun to watch, too. The movie was more of the type of popcorn flick where everyone gets damaged, though... The plot wasn't anything new, but it was done pretty well: just about everything happened that should happen.

One downside was the soundtrack. There were what, 4 or 5 songs that they just kept repeating? Was I driving through Battle Mountain, Nevada and I didn't notice? And they were tired songs, too. "Gimme Shelter"--come on. I was amused by the blaring celtic rock, though.

And it was really, really nice to see Matt Damon get his head blown off with bloodspray and everything. Yay!

Heheh. The movie did a good job setting him up to be scum, and then paying that off. Nice to see him cuckolded, and then murdered by a guy who won't get caught. I was pretty happy with every death, really; it's too bad the solitary black sidekick guy got shot, and it'd've been nice if one of the gang lived to stand trial, but everything else did well in showing that world to be a surrealistically bleak place. I'm glad the nice fatherly cop who looked like Roy Romer bit the dust; his death had good meaning for the plot, and he was a bit annoying, not enough of a dick. The Hamlet-like pile of bodies at the end was just a lot of fun.

Good use of cellphones. Unrealistic was the riddling of the gang with law enforcement, but it was interesting; the father/son themes were pretty inane, too. But I liked the demonstration of character in the male leads and the lady shrink; in general, worthwhile flick.

Comments

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

It seemed very much like an aging boomer's idea of a good soundtrack... "The Stones and Floyd, man, sweet!" Too bad no one young pointed out some new hotness... Wouldn't have added such staleness, and would have been cheaper.

[rvdammit.livejournal.com]

Yep they'd be expensive. The Stones, in particular, have been known to say "Pay us this outrageous amount and you can use the music", i.e. we don't want you to use the music but we're not too stupid to turn down silly money.