Movies:
Magnificently reviewed by all the usual suspects, The Departed is another effort by the now artsy craftsy and nothing else, Martin Scorsese, to give us some kind of a grand crime story complete with liberal democrat "the entire system is corrupt" social message. Like Gangs of New York and The Aviator, Scorsese has left his roots, roots that produced Raging Bull, Good Fellas, Taxi Driver and other movies of this genre whose popularity made the young Scorsese one of the few directors whose name could go over the title. He has abandoned his home turf once again in order to make another technicolor mish mash. And, like the glossy Gangs of NY and The Aviator, this effort is just a flashy phony movie without a shred of reality. Starting with the casting of Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio (outstanding performances), two actors who look so much like one another that in this saga of double spying, we often confuse one with the other sometimes thinking that DiCaprio is Damon with a fake beard. The casting of the less than ordinary looking Vera Farmiga as the "love interest" is puzzling to say the least. Farmiga is so nothing looking, a woman you would never hit on at a party, that it is hard to believe two guys could ever fall for her, much less one (I was thinking that this movie would actually be about a face lift). Lastly there is the casting of Jack Nicholson who reprises his role as The Joker in Batman.

Now we get to story. I can hardly recall a more confusing meandering tale made by a front line director, if Scorssee is still a front line director. Violent? Sure, enough for five movies. Tension? Sort of, if only you could believe in the characters and story. We have an aging Jack Nicholson (70 years old and looking it) as the leader of a murderous criminal gang, a part in which he is so hopelessly unbelieveable he'd be just as well off playing Desdemona; ocasionally "over the top" and totally at sea as an old fart running a gang, this excercise in tedium could be his swan song as a big time actor. Never do we believe he could possibly run a gang, especially after we are informed that he pays his murderous band next to nothing. The continual intercutting, (the new fad among arty directors) designed more to cover the lack of story continuity than to advance the plot, acts to tire and confuse the audience. I'll leave out the ending, a moronic one that is just tossed in because a weak story has no ending; forgetting the antiseptic "love scenes;" ignoring the frequently fraudulent violence, particularly a scene where old fart Nicholson beats up on a wounded DiCaprio; we cannot forget trying to remember who is who; and we cannot ignore the fact that we don't give a shit how it ends. After almost two hours of confusion we just hope it ends soon.

I saw it on opening day before a nearly full theatre. In LA a movie that the audience really likes gets at least twenty or thirty seconds of applause when it is over, a literal standing ovation when it is Star Wars or something the audience really likes. This movie got a tiny smattering of applause from an audience that is sure to spread the bad word. Virdict: Big opening weekend followed by nothing.

BTW: the trailers for upcoming movies makes me hope for a great basketball season and exciting football playoffs. However, one observation about the decidedly under thirty audience: apparently they never have seen the Rocky movies because they applauded the trailer for Rocky 72. Who knows?