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The Departed

The Departed (2006)

tomatometer

93

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Reviews Counted: 229
Fresh: 212 | Rotten: 17

Featuring outstanding work from an excellent cast that includes Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon, The Departed is a thoroughly engrossing gangster drama with the gritty authenticity and soupy morality that has infused director Martin Scorcese's past triumphs.

93

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 45
Fresh: 42 | Rotten: 3

Featuring outstanding work from an excellent cast that includes Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon, The Departed is a thoroughly engrossing gangster drama with the gritty authenticity and soupy morality that has infused director Martin Scorcese's past triumphs.

audience

92

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 611,774

My Rating

Movie Info

Legendary director Martin Scorsese takes the helm for this tale of questionable loyalties and blurring identities set in the South Boston organized crime scene and inspired by the wildly popular 2002 Hong Kong crime film Infernal Affairs. As the police force attempts to reign in the increasingly powerful Irish mafia, authorities are faced with the prospect of sending in an undercover agent or seeing their already frail grip on the criminal underworld slip even further. Billy Costigan (Leonardo

Feb 13, 2007

$132.3M

Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast

All Critics (230) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (222) | Rotten (17) | DVD (34)

What makes this a Scorsese film, and not merely a retread, is the director's use of actors, locations and energy, and its buried theme. I am fond of saying that a movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.

July 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comments (5)
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Departed has enough tension to keep you engrossed, and enough color for ten crime pictures. Scorsese obviously adores his expensive, expansive ensemble.

January 6, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Is Scorsese desperate? This screenplay has the scent of it, as if he is scraping for material to feed his basic filmic interests.

October 26, 2006 Comments (24)
New Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[A] glorious mess of a movie.

October 14, 2006 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Departed is murderous fun, but it's too shallow to be the kind of movie that haunts your sleep.

October 9, 2006 Comment
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The storytelling here is a model of smooth precision.

October 7, 2006 Full Review Source: CNN.com | Comment
CNN.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Urban film making at its best, The Departed is a brutally violent, beautifully crafted, and incredibly well acted piece of film making that will leave you reeling.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Matt's Movie Reviews | Comment
Matt's Movie Reviews

The film is superbly shot, and the rapid-fire editing and shaky camera fit the constant flux that the main characters find themselves in time and again.

September 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Film and Felt | Comment (1)
Film and Felt

You must understand farce before you can understand tragedy, and Scorsese understands both

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion | Comment
CinePassion

Much splat, little art

July 23, 2009 Full Review Source: JWR | Comments (29)

Scorsese isn't about plots; he's about people, places, and times, and until he departs from that, this film is a return to genius.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix

One of the year's very best and most exciting films.

November 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | Comment
Hollywood.com

Violent, well-done thriller. Not for kids.

July 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Scorsese has made an incredible cover version of the original, imbued with every ounce of his artistic personality transforming it into something both familiar and new.

April 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Beyond Hollywood | Comment
Beyond Hollywood

The Departed heralds Martin Scorsese's return to the top of his game and simultaneously secures for the film a place in the pantheon of the very best of American crime cinema. Welcome back to Scorsese's mean streets.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com | Comment
BrandonFibbs.com

The story rattles along at such a lick there's little time to ponder the plot holes -- no mean feat in a film of this length and with so many fine actors competing for our attention.

February 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

... a fantastically entertaining crime thriller, crackling with energy from beginning to end. ... But Nicholson's outrageous over-acting becomes a distraction.

September 21, 2007 Comment (1)
Looking Closer

Scorsese revisits old territory in The Departed, and he doesn't do anything he hasn't done brilliantly several times before.

July 30, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comments (18)
eFilmCritic.com

It really speaks across the whole wiseguy genre.

July 28, 2007 Comment
Reel.com

Scorsese is clearly a master filmmaker but in my opinion, he's only phoning it in here. THE DEPARTED is a matter of been there, done that. Second tier Scorsese is still good, it just doesn't rank up there with his best work.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Murphy's Movie Reviews | Comment
Murphy's Movie Reviews

Probably the director's most taut piece of storytelling since Goodfellas.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comment
Big Picture Big Sound
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Departed

This was a great movie from beginning tp the final minutes and than i felt rushed. Very rushed, Im not sure why but the final 30 minutes or so just were overdone. But in the end still a great movie.

March 22, 2007
jmanard52

Super Reviewer

I respect Leo a lot as an actor but have never liked him in any of his movies. He was too annoyingly bright-eyed in Titanic, too annoyingly smug in Catch Me If You Can, too annoyingly jaded in Inception... but in this movie he is perfect. He is vulnerable, tragic, and I maintain that any girl who watches this movie

July 21, 2011
Letitia Lew

Super Reviewer

    1. Colin Sullivan: I can`t wait to wipe that smirk off your face.
    2. Frank Costello: Would you rather wipe my ass for me?
    – Submitted by Daniel S (50 days ago)
    1. Sergeant Dignam: The F.B.I. they are like mushrooms: you feed them shit and keep them in the dark.
    – Submitted by Feli Y (58 days ago)
    1. Frank Costello: No ticky, no laundry!
    – Submitted by Feli Y (58 days ago)
    1. Brown: Why did you use my cellphone?
    2. Sergeant Dignam: Because you weren't there.
    – Submitted by Edgardo A (2 months ago)
    1. Billy Costigan: What are you waiting for? You want it to chop me up and feed to poor is that what you guys want.
    – Submitted by Edgardo A (2 months ago)

Latest News for The Departed

April 16, 2010:
The 25 Best Movie Remakes
Just in time for Neil LaBute's remake of "Death at a Funeral," Moviefone has compiled a list of the...

December 29, 2008:
Scorsese Rounds Up Departed Gang for New Mafia Pic
According to the Boston Herald, Martin Scorsese is plotting a return to Mafia territory for his next...

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Foreign Titles

  • Departed - Unter Feinden (DE)
  • Les Infiltrés (FR)
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