Jack Nicholson Movie:

		List Price: $34.99		Label: Warner Home Video Salesrank: 2425 Released: February 13, 2007
		Our Price: $13.99
		Used Price: $11.50
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Warner Brothers The Departed (Blu-ray)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg star in Martin Scorsese's new crime drama "The Departed." "The Departed" is set in South Boston where the state police force is waging an all-out war to take down the city's top organized crime ring. The key isto end the reign of powerful mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) from the inside. A young rookie, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assignedto infiltrate Costello's mob. While Billy is working to gain Costello's trust, another young cop, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is among a handful of elite officers whose mission is to bring Costello down. But what his superiors don't know is that Colin is working for Costello, keeping the crime bossone step ahead of the police. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operation he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the gangsters and the police that they have a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin find themselves in constant danger of being caught-and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself.

Description of The Departed [Blu-ray]:
Martin Scorsese makes a welcome return to the mean streets (of Boston, in this case) with The Departed, hailed by many as Scorsese's best film since Casino. Since this crackling crime thriller is essentially a Scorsese-stamped remake of the acclaimed 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, the film was intensely scrutinized by devoted critics and cinephiles, and while Scorsese's intense filmmaking and all-star cast deserve ample acclaim, The Departed is also worthy of serious re-assessment, especially with regard to what some attentive viewers described as sloppy craftsmanship (!), notably in terms of mismatched shots and jagged continuity. But no matter where you fall on the Scorsese appreciation scale, there's no denying that The Departed is a signature piece of work from one of America's finest directors, designed for maximum impact with a breathtaking series of twists, turns, and violent surprises. It's an intricate cat-and-mouse game, but this time the cat and mouse are both moles: Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is an ambitious cop on the rise, planted in the Boston police force by criminal kingpin Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a hot-tempered police cadet who's been artificially disgraced and then planted into Costello's crime operation as a seemingly trustworthy soldier. As the multilayered plot unfolds (courtesy of a scorching adaptation by Kingdom of Heaven screenwriter William Monahan), Costigan and Sullivan conduct a volatile search for each other (they're essentially looking for "themselves") while simultaneously wooing the psychiatrist (Vera Farmiga) assigned to treat their crime-driven anxieties.

Such convenient coincidences might sink a lesser film, but The Departed is so electrifying that you barely notice the plot-holes. And while Nicholson's profane swagger is too much "Jack" and not enough "Costello," he's still a joy to watch, especially in a film that's additionally energized by memorable (and frequently hilarious) supporting roles for Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, and a host of other big-name performers. The Departed also makes clever and plot-dependent use of cell-phones, to the extent that it couldn't exist without them. Powered by Scorsese's trademark use of well-chosen soundtrack songs (from vintage rock to Puccini's operas), The Departed may not be perfect, but it's one helluva ride for moviegoers, proving popular enough to become the biggest box-office hit of Scorsese's commercially rocky career. --Jeff Shannon

The Departed [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Kickazz
2008-09-01 - I like this movie so much I bought it, and I am cheap. Jack Nicholson is one bad mfer, and Marky Mark is the best actor in the movie. I even admired that retarded baldwin dude's acting skills. Too bad dicrapio dies at the end.

Incredibile realism
2008-08-29 - I could not stop watching this movie and was stunned that it seemed to end so soon. The realism of the gory "shoot-em-up" scenes was astounding! Great story line and the ending was somewhat different than I'd expected. Overall excellent film.

A long awaited return to form
2008-08-20 - The Departed is a consistently engaging crime thriller from director Martin Scorsese. It's also the Scorsese film that I've been waiting for since Goodfellas, and I'm sure others feel the same way too. This film is a remake of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, however this review will make no comparisons to that movie. Leonardo Dicaprio and Matt Damon play two moles. Dicaprio plays Billy Costigan, a rookie cop who goes deep undercover to take down mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan, the man working for the state police as Costello's mole. The film also features Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin. Wahlberg gives the best performance of his career and nobody can play the sinister bad guy like Jack Nicholson.

Martin Scorsese is the master of the crime drama, as he as proved time and time again. His previous two films (not counting the Bob Dylan documentary Nor Direction Home) The Aviator and Gangs of New York had their merits, but they were missing something that the classic Scorsese films contained. Aviator was an interesting bio pic. while Gangs was defined by an Oscar worthy performance from Daniel Day Lewis. The Departed however is a return to form. Its main strength lies in the story telling, Throughout the film and especially in relation to the Damon and Dicaprio characters. You don't exactly know who's good or who's bad. It constantly keeps you guessing as any great Drama should.

The Departed
2008-08-16 - This is a good movie and it keeps you guessing the entire time. Nothing is as it seems.
I loved it.

A big-name total bomb
2008-08-11 - What were the reviewers thinking when they hyped this film? Do they automatically go for anything with Jack Nicholson? The film was contrived, hokey, packed with inexplicable behavior and major plot elements left unanswered. How did DiCaprio find the police shrink? Do all undercover officers use police shrinks to score tranquilizers? Do police shrinks really go on dates with men who spent the prior five minutes angrily yelling at them? Do attractive, young, female psychiatrists really sleep with pill-popping patients who have nearly zero time for a relationship? What happened to the envelope DiCaprio gave her? Regarding Damon's first encounter with the shrink in an elevator, does repeatedly using the F-word in public really work to impress female strangers?

Shouldn't the cops have, like, duh, wondered why a car packed with thugs just happened to show up to kill the cop captain that Damon ordered tailed? At the very least, wouldn't that have been a REALLY good time to take Damon off of his assignment? Would the cops tailing their boss really stay in their vehicle when they knew a gang of thugs had just entered the deserted building he was in? Is the murder of a state police captain so routine in Boston that no action was taken to find the killers? Why did DiCaprio feel that he had to be the one to arrest Damon, with zero backup? Oh, wait, I forgot, he did that so there would be another dramatic confrontation between two big stars.

I was riveted to the TV while watching Goodfellas and Casino; but then, those were dramatizations based on actual events. The Departed, on the other hand, has no bearing on reality at all.