He hasn't really made many C/D/F grade movies to be honest... I mean, he has the prerequisite crappy startup flicks, but who doesn't.

Critters 3, Poison Ivy, This Boy's Life, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Foot Shooting Party,The Quick and the Dead, The Basketball Diaries, A Hundred and One Nights, Romeo + Juliet, Marvin's Room, Titanic, Man in the Iron Mask, Celebrity, The Beach, Don's Plum, Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator, The Departed, Blood Diamond

They may not all be gems, but he's certainly had a more consistent filmography than most actors. I think Titanic did more damage than he could have imagined. Not to totally defend the guy, but I think he's done pretty good for himself in terms of acting jobs.

I didn't want to mention Titanic, but yes indeed it harmed his career. His next four movies after it were mediocre at best, terrible at worst.

I loved him in GONY. CMIYC, meh. Aviator was great.

But man, I always have this feeling he's just gonna go out and make another The Beach...

I really really liked the movie. I didn't like the fact that things seemed way too convienient and coincidental (i.e. love triangle). The very end actually confused me. Not that I didn't understand it, I just wasn't sure if I was seeing another rat or revenge. I'm leaning toward the latter.

Other that what I saw as some flaws, the movie was very entertaining. I'd say it's probably my 2nd favorite Scorcesee film after Goodfellas.

A quick note. I saw a bad user review on IMDB because of the film's language. Ok.. wait.. You just went to see a gangster flick that takes place in Boston and filmed by Marty and you didn't expect excessive cursing? IMO, it taking place in Boston alone warrants all the cursing. Cheers is so fake!

Departed has been the best blind buy that I have ever bought. I have watched it four times in the past week. Twice in one night - been awhile since I stayed up until 3 a.m.

I took that there is always rats around. You just need to look hard enough to find them. I did not see the rat on balcony rail until third viewing. Sometimes rats are right in front of you. Depending on your perspective you just do not want to see them.

The Departed Wins Best Picture!!!!

And Marty wins best director!

I posted this in the other thread, but I figured I'd come here and ask too. I noticed Brad Pitt was a producer on this film, but was not included in the Academy Award. Ditto for Brad Grey. What's the deal on that?

It's about fuckin' time!!!

Amen. After Gangs of New York was screwed so royally, I never thought this day would come. You know how good a director Scorsese is when his last three films are considered his lesser work. Talk about setting the bar too high. I personally think Leo and Marty make a great team, Gangs, Aviator, and the Departed are all excellent.

I finally got to see this over the weekend. I have to say I much preferred Infernal Affairs; I assume the Chinese gangsters were a nod to the original.

Scorsese should have won an oscar on numerous occasions; this was not one of them.

The majority of the 6,000 academy members disagree.

The best film award does not always go to the best film or director; Braveheart for example.

I'm not even saying the Departed didn't deserve its best film award (it is certainly not a bad film), as I haven't seen any of the other films nominated with it.

But I did feel that this is not Scorsese's best film by a long shot.

If you've followed the Oscars for any amount of time, you should know that they will reward a person for a body of work. While not his best, this was a strong enough film to do just that.

It is sure better than having won for a body of work for a really crappy movie. Thank heavens The Departed was anything but crappy.

It would have been a sad state of affairs should Marty have won his Oscar for a really bad film. His fans would have been disappointed, and Marty himself would have been pissed.

I wonder...if a director gets a nomination he doesn't want, can he withdraw from the race and nominate somebody else? Does the Academy - before announcing nominations - ask the consent of the person they're nominating?

Congrats to all involved with the film. Marty finally got it!

Remember, awards are all relative to the year in which they were nominated. You don't have to be the best ever, just the best of that year. To use a sports analogy, sometimes the NBA draft has Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan in it to choose from. And sometimes Michael Olawakandi gets picked #1. Different years have different depth and quality.

Boy did you just hit the mark with that one. I agree 100%.

Exactly - Departed didn't need to be better than Goodfellas, Taxi Driver or Raging Bull, as it wasn't up against those movies - it just needed to be better than the movies it was up against this year - and it was.

On another note though, I do have a bit of a problem with the film's script, and the fact that it won. While it had a very fun script with great dialog, it was loaded with far too many convenient contrivances to win an Oscar (though it is far better than a lot of other scripts that have won).

Here's just one example of many:
Near the end when Leo comes back to HQ to get his ID back, Damon can't get to the info on the computer in his own office, so he goes to another office to do it and leaves Leo in his office find that envelope. And I'm not even bothered by the fact that Leo doesn't leave the envelope the way he found it, but after Damon realizes what's happened, he proceeds to delete Leo's info on his own computer - you know, the one that wasn't working just a few seconds ago... I mean, C'MON! It's just one convenience after another dictated by plot instead of character. That's like something out of 24, not a script that wins an Oscar.

I was under the impression that Damon's character, finally having learned who the mole was, wanted to see how much information there was on him in the database (as in did he ever mention to anyone who he thought the rat was). Damon's character hadn't been able to access his file because he didnt' know who the mole was. At this point, he pretended his computer wasn't working in order to access the file privately.

I believe you mean Hakeem Olajuwon, SAM BOWIE, and Michael Jordan.

Damon was pretending his computer wasn't working so he could look over Leo's files without Leo right there in front of him.

I agree. I saw Infernal Affairs years ago and after seeing The Departed, I wasn't wowed by it; considering that it's so faithful to the original.

I feel strange that the film won an Oscar for the screenwriting. Aside from the dialogue and a few subtle changes, it's the same script as the Hong Kong version.

Although Scorsese finally won his Oscar, I'm sure deep inside he wishes it wasn't for a movie that was based on a previous movie.

P.S. Scorsese claims that he never saw Infernal Affairs. I find that hard to believe judging how similar the films are shot.

Infernal Affairs is obviously a foreign language flick (I've never seen it). Its one thing to sit through a good foreign language movie, but its another thing to sit through an American movie without having to read subtitles.

I like some foreign movies, but if Scorsese had remade Maria Full of Grace, I couldn't possibly view it as a remake. Its American English, not spanish (or Hong Kong in the case of IA), with white Americans instead of foreigners.

And on that note, i was under the impression that even though Damon knew Leo was the rat. Leo didnt know that Damon was. So if Leo never saw the envelope would Damon let Leo go free? There would be nothing to gain by killing him at that point, now that he is promoted and all loose ends were dead except for Leo, but he still at that point had no clue it was Damon. (until of course Leo found out who Damon was).

one question

Was Damon a closet homosexual in the movie?