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Top Critics (45)
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Fresh (222)
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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.
The Departed has enough tension to keep you engrossed, and enough color for ten crime pictures. Scorsese obviously adores his expensive, expansive ensemble.
Is Scorsese desperate? This screenplay has the scent of it, as if he is scraping for material to feed his basic filmic interests.
[A] glorious mess of a movie.
The Departed is murderous fun, but it's too shallow to be the kind of movie that haunts your sleep.
The storytelling here is a model of smooth precision.
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.
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.
You must understand farce before you can understand tragedy, and Scorsese understands both
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.
One of the year's very best and most exciting films.
Violent, well-done thriller. Not for kids.
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.
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.
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.
... a fantastically entertaining crime thriller, crackling with energy from beginning to end. ... But Nicholson's outrageous over-acting becomes a distraction.
Scorsese revisits old territory in The Departed, and he doesn't do anything he hasn't done brilliantly several times before.
It really speaks across the whole wiseguy genre.
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.
Probably the director's most taut piece of storytelling since Goodfellas.
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