I think this will be the last gangster movie Martin Scorcese ever directs. In his earlier efforts like Goodfellas or Casino there is this feeling of awe in the grandeur of the life. He brought you into this underworld with a certain amount of excitement. That excitement is gone in this movie and what remains is a certain level of detachment and acceptance. Even ith all the violence and gore it definitely sounds like an old man is telling the story. A man that has seen it all and is never surprised. The best line in the movie is also the last. I won't give it away but it says it all. Acceptance, no remorse, no real regret, no huge emotion. This whole thing, this whole crap game, this gangster life, it never stops and its gotten pretty damn old.
Don't get me wrong this is still a great movie. and funny too. I was not expecting something, anything half as funny. There were three screenwriters on this movie: William Monahan, Felix Chong, Siu Fai Mak. I don't know who did what, but there were a hell of a lot of great one-liners that I have to go back and memorize.
This movie also had a stellar cast with everyone doing an awesome job. Nicholson, DiCaprio, Wahlberg, Baldwin, Sheen. They all did a great job. My huge praise goes to Matt Damon though, who really completes the most twisted and distorted character of them all. NIcholson and DiCaprio might get Oscar nominations. I wouldn't be surprised either way. But Damon definitely deserves one, I will be dissapointed if he doesn't garner some attention.
The one weak point in this story is the one woman character again. She had a great part as the shrink to both undercover agents. She could have been great, but oppurtunities were missed and her part became quite useless. In this story she didn't even need to be there. You could have cut her and made the movie twenty minutes shorter: which also would have been a good idea.
Added commentary: Because I felt like it, I saw this movie once more in a theater on March 6th. It is a better movie the second time around. Everything that I didn't think made sense or didn't understand the first time around, this time I got. For instance, seen again, I don't think the woman charachter was a weak part and I don't see any reason to cut anything at all in this movie. The second time around it went much faster and smoother. I also got the moral. The movie's about lying and what goes with that territory. Pay attention first time watcher. There's no good or bad guys. This isn't cops and robbers. It's a game of cat and mouse. Catch that stinking rat.
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