Reviews now on YouTube! | Watch here

Larsen On Film

  • Review Library
  • Subscribe
  • Why I’m Wrong
  • About
  • Books

The Departed

If you’re going to redo something, redo it right. Martin Scorsese takes the 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller Infernal Affairs and injects it with his inimitable, goodfella gusto. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a police mole trying to get close to Boston mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), while Matt Damon plays a Costello man who has infiltrated the police. The cast is terrific – Nicholson does your standard, psycho Scorsese hothead, but as only Nicholson can – while the schizophrenic editing by longtime Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker is demanding yet thematically brilliant.

Recent Reviews

The Butcher (1970)

Thriller Rated NR

“A thriller wafting on the fumes of the French New Wave…”

Song Sung Blue (2026)

Drama Rated PG-13

“One more errant car* away from being a camp classic…”

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

Horror Rated R

“An atheist and a satanist walk into a bone temple…”


Search Review Library

Sponsored by the following | become a sponsor



SUBSCRIBE


Sign up to receive emails

Sign up to get new reviews and updates delivered to your inbox!

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!




FOLLOW ONLINE



All rights reserved. All Content ©2024 J. Larsen
maintained by Big Ocean Studios

TOP