So there's that...

I will say that despite his recent track record, he has made FOUR great movies plus two or three pretty good ones (Outsiders and Rumble Fish are two of my childhood favs).

Hell, as much as I hated his version of Dracula, if anyone else had done it they would been proud to have it in their resume.

How the fuck does this look like it was shot in the early 60s?

Yes. I believe it is a comedy.

Scorsese -- please stick to 12 hour documentaries about banjos.

The hammy performance by Anthony Hopkins; the complete miscasting of Keanu Reeves; and the fucking bad love story for a movie labelled BRAM STROKER'S Dracula. Dracula isn't a love story - it is much closer to a rape than anything else (in fact it was rape).

And the worse part of the love story for me was this idea that Mina was his reincarnated wife. This is one of the worst tropes in vampire movies, and has been used so many times before in other movies and vampire stories: Love Bites, Fright Night, Dark Shadows, and even in a damn D&D module, Ravenloft. It was a cliche even before this movie used it.

I know Coppola didn't write the script, but God damn it Francis, you are one of the greatest screenwriters ever, couldn't you have done a rewrite and got rid of that cheesy angle?

Anyway, I still think Judd Apatow secretly directed. All those dialogue scenes where it looks like the characters aren't having the same conversation, like everybody was ad-libbing and they threw it all together in post.

Brilliant!

And I have hit a new low in my life.

I agree that the Departed has some flaws, but to me editing is the least of them. In fact it is one of its strengths. It is a movie where all the cuts are motivated by emotion and a kind of primal power. Same with the music - it just fucking hits me in the stomach every time I watch that movie and hear the sound track. It is like cave man filmmaking (and i mean that as a compliment).

The only other Scorsese movies I've really enjoyed so far are BRINGING OUT THE DEAD and AFTER HOURS. I'm still not sure what's so great about him. Guess I should watch RAGING BULL or some shit.

Plus his two documentaries on American and Italian film are just God damn mesmerizing.

When FFC gets it right, he gets it righter than anyone else ever will. I just wish he did it more often.

It's painful watching De Niro try to pick up Cybill Shepherd.

Gary. Fucking. Oldman.

Granted, he's amazing in everything he does but his portrayal of the token bloodsucker is the only one I ever really cared for. Corrupt, wounded, otherwordly, yet noble.

Word was that Oldman was so bombed during filming that he doesn't really remember much from the set. Badass.

(Anthony Hopkins' delirious portrayal of Van Helsing is fun to watch, too.)

One of my favorites.

Vera Farmiga

That chick is so ethereally hot; she should definitely be in more films.

Naked.

Are you spending my considerable donation from the Toadkiller internets fortune wisely to become Moderator?

Nah, the running mod-campaign gag between Gus Van Rant and myself fizzled out sometime ago. Although, it may not be a bad idea to visit the coffers again. This place has truly gone to shite.

For me, I just haven't been find anything of much interest here as of late. The tone of Talkback has been lacking as well.

Mavra Chang (?!) wants your balls?! Yikes! Sounds horrific...

Mavra found out that a case of arrogant bastard ale, a well applied baseball bat, a plasma cutter and a squeegee would allow her to acquire a pristine set of high explosive Toadkiller balls. But she failed to reckon with my Iron Giant like homing abilities that brought my balls back home and swinging low were they belong.

Of course, I can't get upset over people who prefer other movies. It is what you can relate too. I once told this friend of mine from NY I prefer Chinatown over Godfather. He asked me how the hell I could do that. I told him, "Because Godfather is about a man who must come to terms with his father and try and fill in the shoes of a great man; Chinatown is about a detective who tries to help someone but fucks up and gets her killed. My dad is a construction worker so I am not to worried about filling his shoes and coming to realize how hard it is for him to wear the crown; I do, however, understand what it is like to try and do the right thing and just fuck everything up."

I loved the Sopranos - when it was in top form, nothing on TV matched it, but it was still a family drama.

Because, lets be honest, I & II have no faults. They are as flawless as they come (although I can't stand part 3. What do you see in it? Maybe I am missing something).

And Sofia isn't quite as terrible as everyone says.

Or we can change up the formula and go with LA FEMME NACUNT.

Plus, if you are going to judge it by comparing it to other filmmaker’s work, compare it to the other Academy Award Winners of the 21st century. I don’t give much credence to the Oscars, but I will say that The Departed is just as good if not better than Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Million Dollar Baby, Crash, Slumdog Millionaire. Only one film on that list, No Country for Old Men, can I look at and say is obviously better than The Departed (if There Will Be Blood could have also won it, I would put that above it as well).

Plus look at the other films nominated for Best Picture that year: Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen. Are any of those films better than The Departed? I don’t think so.

Hell, look at the other films released that year: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest; The Da Vinci Code, Casino Royale, Cars, X-Men: Last Stand, Mission Impossible 3, Superman Returns, Happy Feet, Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes, Thank You For Smoking, V for Vendetta, Inside Man, United 93, Friends With Money, Lucky Number Slevin, American Dreamz, A Prairie Home Companion, The Devil Wears Prada, Clerks II, Lady in the Water, Talledega Nights, World Trade Center, The Illusionist, Snakes on a Plane, Invincible, Crank, Hollywoodland, Fearless, and The Black Dahlia. In my opinion, Thank You for Smoking, United 93 and Casino Royale were the only American films arguably better than The Departed.

And the funny thing is I don’t really think he was shooting for an Oscar with that one, unlike GONY and The Aviator. It isn’t like crime dramas and policer flicks have a track record of winning the Academy Award (French Connection and the Godfather II are the last two to my knowledge to win Best Director, and that was over 25 years ago). No, I think he just looked at it as a studio job and decided to try and make an old fashion Warner Brothers Gangster film, something that could have starred James Cagney, Bogart, Robinson and Raft back in the day. But even if it was just a studio job, he still tackled it like his heroes Hawks, Huston, Fuller, Wellman, Walsh and the rest and tried to put out the best thing he could. It might not have been a personal story that Scorsese told, but it obviously had his touch and sensibilities, and was much bolder or ambitions that many other directors would have dared with a big studio picture. I can’t force people to like Scorsese or the Departed, and some people might have legitimate criticisms, but I do think for the most part it is being unfairly judged. When Kill Bill is viewed as a masterpiece by some on this site; The Transporter and Crank are constantly referred to as awesome; and everyone is getting pumped up to see the Expendables by an actor and filmmaker who has screwed over his fans and phoned it more times than any one can count, I do think that people might be a little hard on a film that actually had themes, ideas and subtext, and dared to imagine that an audience might be willing to follow characters who weren’t completely good or evil. I mean, the fucking thing could have been Face/Off.

The biggest headscratcher DEPARTED-wise for me would be how nobody figured out Leo was the informant. Like there's the scene with the Chinese dudes and Baldwin is naming all of Costello's guys and when Leo shows up and it's like, "And there's Billy Costigan, the new guy, you know the guy who was kicked out of the academy and has ties to Costello via his uncle who was well-liked which would be a big help if Martin Sheen over here wanted to get an informant into the organization. And there's Fitzy."

Come on, dude.

But I just don't get people ripping into it or treating it like it is an embarrassing movie. From the list above of other movies released that year, can you honestly name 10 movies you think were better? The movie might not be a masterpiece, but it is a smart and damn good studio genre flick.

I am just wondering if a little "hipsterism" is going on here. That now Scorsese has become popular and accepted people feel they can't admire him anymore.

And while some might not like gangsters movies, especially Italian Mafia movies, if they are well done they are like crack to me. I am just a big crime movie junkie, and admit it freely. Just like I admit freely that I am an huge Scorsese fan.

I agree it is NOT one of his best works, i just don't see it as such a hack piece that you do.