My Dearly DEPARTED

I've been waiting for this film for almost 2 years.

Ever since I found out that Martin Scorsese,
he of Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Gangs of New York,
announced that he would remake
one of the best Hongkong movies ever,
INFERNAL AFFAIRS,
I've been infernally anticipating.

I was not disappointed.



Scorsese finally ought to get his long-delayed, much-deserved
Academy Award for Best Director with The Departed.

And while the original writers,
Felix Chong and Siu Fai Mak,
and
the original's director,
Wai Keung Lau,
will surely receive a lot of deserved kudos and adulation,

make no mistake.
Martin made this film his own,
imbuing it with his trademark "Passion of the Gangster":

his staging of operatic violence that is second to none,
his magnificent skill in ratcheting up the tension,
his perfect soundtrack counterpoints of music scoring and pop songs,
his ability to bring out any actor's most intense performance,
and
his cinematic themes of blurring the lines between good and evil.



Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin nearly steal the movie
with their bursts of profanity and humor.

Jack Nicholson,
in his most feral and ferocious performance in a decade,
is tremendous in his role as the nexus of evil in Boston.

However,
the leads give some of the best performances of their careers;

Matt Damon proves that he is the new iconic action star~~
sensitive & sympathetic, yet cold & ultraviolent.
(Ben Affleck is really eating his best friend's dust).

Leonardo di Caprio,
starring in his 3rd straight Scorsese film
after Gangs of New York and The Aviator,
has filled in the big shoes of the director's erstwhile go-to actor~~
Raging Bull and Goodfellas'Robert de Niro.

Speaking of which,
Martin Sheen's superb Captain Queenan role?
It was supposed to have been de Niro's!

Too bad scheduling conflicts prevented it.

It would have been most excellent to watch
Scorsese's two main men acting & reacting off each other.
It would've been like watching Lebron go up against Magic;
a battle of supremacy between two generations of greatness!



After getting blown away by The Departed,
I highly recommend that you find your way to Quiapo
and get a DVD of Infernal Affairs.

It's heartening to know that Chinese & Korean features
(and hopefully, more Pinoy films soon)
are now recognized in Hollywood,
and not just by Quentin Tarantino either.

Just goes to show that after the 20th Century's Pax Americana,
we're well on our way to the cinematic New Millenia Asia.


p.s.
if you want to order a copy of Infernal Affairs,
simply send an e-mail to jumbsdb@yahoo.com.

tell him Spanky Costigan sent you.