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fraggerrock
Reviews
The Departed (2006)
great if you haven't seen Infernal Affairs
I was a skeptic. I saw Infernal Affairs for the first time a few months ago and thought it was an excellent movie. One of the best Asian flicks i've seen (and i've seen a lot of them). I thought "great....another American remake". There was a small glimmer of hope. It's Scorsese after all. I waited....great rotten tomatoes rating. Great IMDb rating. Was this the comeback of American cinema? I was excited. It was what a wanted. A great story, great actors (well...more on that later), and a great great director who understood the genre.
Well...apparently, my guess is everyone that raved about this movie hasn't seen Infernal Affairs. This film, in no way, lives up to the original. I think, if you haven't seen the original, you would probably think this is the greatest film ever. The story is that clever, and Scorsese is that good. Unfortunately, it ALMOST all ways (not all...almost all) the Chinese movie betters this one.
You would have thought Scorsese learned after Gangs of New York that Leo does not make a good tough guy. Guess not. I hope Leo plays to his strengths and take roles more similar to Catch Me if You Can or the Aviator.
Martin Sheen's character is no where near as prominent as the Chinese flick. and in the end, as great as Matt Damon and Leonardo Dicaprio are, they do not have the "coolness" factor that Andy Lau and Tony Leung brought.
There were some correction of plot holes that were re-written to make more sense, but in general the plot changes were no good. Some scenes were done different to the original, but some scenes were done shot by shot. Unfortunately, even these copies scenes didn't deliver as powerfully as Infernal Affairs.
Infernal Affairs had such a great "coolness" factor to it. And the chase/action scenes were executed in a way that built up WAY more suspense than The Departed.
All that said, still a decent movie. But seriously.....if you've seen Infernal Affairs, don't expect this to live up to the hype it's been getting. If you haven't seen Infernal Affairs, I'll leave you with two options.
1) You are OK with watching non-Hollywood films and don't mind reading subtitles. By all means grab the Infernal Affairs DVD and watch this!
2) You hate reading subtitles and dislike non-Hollywood films. Watch The Departed and enjoy it. It is good.....but i fear only because the original story was good.
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)
highly underrated, often over-looked
When you ask someone to name the best movies to come out of the early-mid 90's, not many people would mention this movie. That's too bad.
It isn't American Beauty deep, but the film presents real human emotions through the surreal notion of vampires. Cinematography, set design, and score are top notch. It doesn't look dated at all, particularly in this day in age of CG, blue screen galore.
The acting....i hate to admit, because i'm not by any means a brad pitt or tom cruise fan....is pretty darn good. This was the first film I saw tom cruise in and thought (gee...the pretty boy can act), the other coming to mind being Magnolia. Brad Pitt isn't as great, but holds his own and it's a quiet, somber Brad Pitt, which is a good change to the normally twitchy, over-the- top characters he portrays (fight club, 12 monkeys, ocean's 11....even se7en to a certain extent). and of course.....kirsten dunst....who's best role in her career is this film.
I haven't read the book, so i am writing purely on the film. Apparent by the other reviews here, there are people who really like this movie. It's a shame that more people haven't given this movie a chance.