The Departed (2006)

Anumra Accolade - Attempt
Director - Martin Scorsese

Synopsis :
Two men at two different ends of justice fight through deceiving plots, breaking high levels of infiltration to seek the identities of their enemies, unaware that their discoveries would lead them to an unwarned truth.


Cast :

Leonardo DiCaprio - William 'Billy' Costigan Jr.
Matt Damon - Colin Sullivan
Jack Nicholson - Francis 'Frank' Costello
Mark Wahlberg - Sean Dignam

Review:

I haven't watched Infernal Affairs. I watched The Departed and The Departed alone. And I watched it twice to see whats there in this movie. It has all the hardcore elements of any gangster movie which could have only come from the master of gangster movies - Martin Scorsese, and no one else. What I don't understand is, why even the idea of a gangster extends to the Police Department. I don't expect to see a clean police but they don't seem much different from the gangsters portrayed in this film. Extremely shameful dialogues. The wits were cool and enjoyable though, throughout the movie.

Jack Nicholson has done one of the most irritating roles I have ever seen. He didn't act. He has lived his role. Thats the mark of a great actor like him. He has done it excellent. Even though, the role given to him is too irritating for a movie-goer. It made me wanna look elsewhere when he came on-screen.

Matt Damon has done really well. I have high respects for him since Ripley and Bourne. His expressions are natural but sometimes he seems to be quite confused of his role, which I believe any actor would feel if they are given such a script and such a character.

DiCaprio is wonderful. His role absolutely suits him. I think he is the only one in the movie who must have felt comfortable with what was given to him and enjoyed doing it. He shines throughout the movie from an after-school trooper to a beaten-up statie on the roof top.

Mark Wahlberg should have turned down this offer. Swearing and too much swearing. Any guy could have done his role. He is a great actor but he is wasted in this movie.

As far as the movie is concerned, its well made. Top notch direction and cinematography. The script and screenplay are too shaky. Some of the dialogues are tried to sound like Pulp Fiction or Goodfellas. But none of them carry any interesting message. Most of them are, in two words, boring and pointless. Its really difficult to believe that someone who made a masterpiece like Casino could make The Departed and that too after so many years of experience.

I consider Casino and Goodfellas as two of the greatest and purest gangster movies of all time. Scorsese has excelled in both of them. I really wonder why should he have done this movie after all. I am glad to see that it has gone to IMDb #37. I am also glad to see a lot of people liking this movie. I only wish I could share their affection for it.

Watch it once. You may like it for the multi-mega-starrer aspect, Scorsese's masterful direction and for the suspense in the end. But you may not like it for the movie on the whole. The only question which I had at the end of the second screening was why this movie got the Best Picture Oscar. Some of you might feel the same, some of you might not. I'll leave it up to you.

The Departed should have never been started.

Interesting Links:
Trailer
Infernal Affairs
Other Gangster Movies
IMDb Link

Batman Begins (2005)

Anumra Accolade - Masterpiece
Director - Christopher Nolan

Synopsis :
A forcefully orphaned son of a deranged city's good-hearted billionaire is trained by a shadowy anarchist society during his life on exile. He returns back to his city to fight crime in a form which they are not familiar with.


Cast :

Christian Bale - Bruce Wayne/Batman
Michael Caine - Alfred Pennyworth
Liam Neeson - Henri Ducard
Katie Holmes - Rachel Dawes
Gary Oldman - James Gordon

Review:

What will you want to see when you go for a Batman movie which tells you of how Bruce Wayne becomes the Dark Knight of Gotham? An introduction to his childhood, his deepest fears which become the stimulus for what grows within him, his aimless wanderings around the world, his methodical training, his realization to where he should put himself in this world despite what his training demands him of, his preparations for his new life, the slow and very slow ways of introducing his secret self, teasing glimpses of his style and action, and a prodigious ending where all of what he is, is displayed full, as the colossal BATMAN.

This movie has it all.

Christian Bale is one of my favorite actors since Equilibrium (2002). He has given a very responsible and matured performance. I liked Michael Keaton. I liked Val Kilmer. And Bale? From his post-adolescent age, through the wanderer period and till the end as a superhero, he has shown significant differences in every stage of his acting. He is born for this role.

Bale has given a performance through which the subtleties of his character of a Batman growing from scratches are very carefully depicted. For an instance, even after wearing the hood, his manners and ways of delivering speech are full of emotions. He shouts, swears, worries. But as his personality builds on and on, he becomes more silent, more methodic, more dark and more a Batman.

Liam Neeson is as usual the screen stunner. He is as cool as he was as Qui Gon Jinn (Star Wars - Episode I) and as Godfrey (Kingdom of Heaven). I loved watching him train Bale exhibiting his arrogant confidence. Morgan Freeman comes only in a few scenes but makes his mark. His witty talks and the proud-but-humble way he displays his inventions to Bale are some on the lighter side of the movie. Hats off to Sir Michael Caine as Alfred. No one else would suite better, particularly when he has to say - "Never".

Every character and every scene has been chosen properly. The deliberate minor imperfections in clothing, weaponry and action scenes vividly reminds us that this is a prequel portraying a beginner and not an advanced superhero. The gripping score from Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard constitutes the power drive for those amazing 141 on-screen minutes. Ultimately, the movie has justified its title.

I have never seen Batman so dark and so powerful. This movie is a dream come true for a die-hard fan like me. Extending his black wings the Dark Knight vanishes in flight before we could even realize it. Nolan has teased us to the core but has made sure to leave those awing flashes behind our eyes which tells us of... what Batman means!

Interesting Links:
Trailer
The Aisle Seat Review
IMDb Link