The Departed (2006) - Scorsese's Boston-set wildcat of a capital letter Movie

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+ Best Boston Movie of the Year + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Best Comeback Actor of the Year: Matt Damon + Best Remake of the Year + Best Ensemble of the Year: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, Alex Baldwin, Kevin Corrigan, James Badge Dale

Jack Nicholson lurks in the background behind the young leading men on this poster for Martin Scorsese's The Departed

QUICK REVIEW:

In Boston, Massachusetts, it isn't Italian Americans who control the city's criminal underbelly. Frank Costello does; an Irish crime king who has a guy on the inside of the city's police department, but who also has an 'infestation problem' of his own. In Boston you just have to deal with your problems...

Master filmmaker Martin Scorsese (Casino (1995)) does it again with The Departed; creates a unique crime blast of a movie. The Departed is a remake of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Infernal Affairs (2002), a very successful Hong Kong movie which got 2 sequels, written by William Monahan (Kingdom of Heaven (2005)), who won an Oscar for his adapted screenplay.
The movie offers juicy parts for an exciting ensemble cast that all bring their very best to the film. - And for once, at this stage in his career, Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting (1997)) also has a fully fledged part. - His star was back on the rise, after about 5 years of more or less dubious movies, with his performance in Departed.
The film features a cool music side; both lots of great source music and a great score by Howard Shore (Doubt (2008)). The Oscar-winning editing, by Scorsese regular Thelma Schoonmaker (Goodfellas (1990)), and Michael Ballhaus' (Air Force One (1997)) cinematography are unmatched. SPOILER Martin Sheen's (Apocalypse Now (1979)) death scene is very exciting, and the film's ending, in which nearly everyone 'departs', is great.
I only withhold the 6th ♥ from Departed because the characters, and especially Jack Nicholson's (The Shining (1980)) Frank Costello, seem at times exaggerated in an almost circus-like way. It is truly a great movie nevertheless.

Related posts:

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess  
Martin Scorsese: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - One helluva movie!  
Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject)
Hugo (2011) - Scorsese's critically acclaimed, magical 3D family adventure/financial disaster 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Boardwalk Empire - 1st season (2010) - Luxurious 1920's ensemble gangster treats  
The Aviator (2004) - The grand American biopic 
Casino (1995) - Scorsese's sumptuous Vegas gangster tale has the wingspan of a Greek tragedy   
The Age of Innocence (1993) or, Stayin' IN the Pants
Cape Fear (1991) - Scorsese adds lots of stuff to remake but loses the balance   

Martin Scorsese directing The Departed

Watch the totally kick-ass trailer for the movie here

Cost: 90 mil. $
Box office: 289.8 mil. $
= Big hit
[The Departed was shot on locations in Boston with interior scenes shot in New York. The film was highly anticipated and became one of Scorsese's biggest hits to date, both commercially and critically: Departed broke Scorsese's decades-long Oscar jinx and earned both Best Picture, Director as well as Adapted Screenplay and Editing Oscars. Mark Wahlberg (Ted 2 (2015)) was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Many have commented that Scorsese won for a lesser film than he has previously been nominated for. He has himself said that he won for Departed because it is his first movie "with a plot." It opened #1 in North America with 26.8 mil. $ and grossed 132.3 mil. $ there (46 % of the total gross).]

What do you think of The Departed?
Any thoughts on Scorsese and Co.'s Oscar wins for the film?

Dead Ringers (1988) or, Brothers and Their Instruments

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One almost psychedelic poster for David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers

QUICK REVIEW:

Dead Ringers focuses on two identical twins and their lives as gynecologists.

This is a self-assured and wonderful adaptation of the novel Twins by Bari Wood (The Killing Gift (1975)) and Jack Geasland with the masterful Jeremy Irons (Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)) in a remarkable double role. He gives a performance, (two, in a sense), that makes the film. Irons is both unusually fragile and sexual in this visually taut film, held mostly in greys and strong reds, with photography by great Polish cinematographer Peter Suschitzky (Mars Attacks! (1996)).
At times the clichés in the script, by Canadian master filmmaker David Cronenberg (Scanners (1981)) and Norman Snider (Casino Jack (2010)), get a bit thick: The two pill-popping, high society brothers, their women and their gloomy, gloomy existential issues ... But then again the entire film is so morbid and bizarre that they kind of fit the bill: An example of this could be SPOILER when Irons as one of the twins performs deadly gynecological experiments in a blood-red robe! - Dead Ringers nears the absurd at times and is perhaps a bit artsy-fartsy, but it is also very entertaining.
The ending, SPOILER in which one brother murders the other in a bout of pill-induced madness in an attempt to rejoin the two into one body, is, as the film as a whole, bleak while inviting many interpretations.
- Dead Ringers is a fine film.

Related reviews:
 

Another film about twins: Adaptation (2002) or, Charlie Kaufman's Fictional Life  
David Cronenberg: Cosmopolis (2012) - Cronenberg/DeLillo/Pattinson's speculative limo lullaby
A History of Violence (2005) or, Who Is Tom Stall? 
Spider (2002) - Cronenberg takes us to the tormented (and slightly dull) mind of a schizophrenic 
The Brood (1979) or, Marital Fury and Craze!

Jeremy Irons gets ready for some experimental gynecological maneuvering in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers

Watch the original trailer for the film here

Cost: 13 mil. $
Box office: Between 8-9.1 mil. $ ((different reports), US only)
= Uncertainty
[Dead Ringers entered the US box office at #1 ahead of Die Hard and A Fish Called Wanda according to this news item from the period. Without foreign gross numbers, it is impossible to say whether the film became a hit, although it should surprise me if it did. It has been critically recognized, though, and also won the Genie Award for Best Canadian Film of 1988.]

What do you think of Dead Ringers?
Do you know any other interesting films about twins?

The Brood (1979) or, Marital Fury and Craze!

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Dark, strange poster for David Cronenberg's The Brood

QUICK REVIEW:

A worried husband suspects that his wife, who is admitted in a psychiatric institution, is abusing their daughter. However, it turns out SPOILER that it is really the work of the wife's fury, which manifests itself as little homicidal freaks that she gives birth to out of her stomach.
This bizarre, scary story is told with unnerving music by Howard Shore (Se7en (1995)), varying qualities of acting and a lack of effects, particularly regarding 'the brood'. The birth scene towards the end is repulsive, though, and remembered by everyone who has seen the film:

Woman, thy name is repulsive birth-giver, - in David Cronenberg's The Brood

The end, in which SPOILER the daughter has gotten two warts, is anticlimactic and failed.
The Brood is an odd, almost psychedelic serving psycho-terror.
It is one of the first films of Canadian 'body horror' master director David Cronenberg (Scanners (1981)), and he made it while going through his first divorce and acrimonious child custody battle. His embitterment carries on greatly into this unusual horror; the crazy mother in the film is inspired by Cronenberg's then wife/ex-wife Margaret Hindson. The anger behind it is clearly felt, but it doesn't elevate the film as such.
The Brood also holds the distinction of being loathed by both Leonard Maltin (BOMB rating) and the late Roger Ebert (who called it 'reprehensible trash'), America's two most canonical, horror-slighting film critics.

Related review:

David Cronenberg: A History of Violence (2010) or, Who Is Tom Stall?

The daughter attacked by 'the brood' in Cronenberg's The Brood

Watch the trailer for The Brood here

Budget: 1.5 mil. CAD $
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of The Brood?