I don't usually get excited about movies. In fact, I couldn't tell you the name of the last good movie I saw. Wait.....yes I can. Cinderella Man was phenomenal. I saw it reluctantly. For some reason all the hype, critical acclaim, and trailer didn't do it for me. Which explains why I saw it a few years after its release, on HBO. Great movie though. Russell Crowe never makes crap. At least if he does I haven't seen it.
I'm really pumped about The Departed. I stumbled upon some of the production information about a year ago that included a brief description of the plot, the cast, and the circumstances under which the movie was being filmed. Scorsese, Nicholson, DiCaprio, Damon, Wahlberg, and Baldwin in an Irish Mob story that takes place in Boston. Sick!
For those of you who may have been living under a rock, this movie's a remake/translation/cultural appropriation of a Japanese movie about the Yakuza infiltrating the Japanese FBI (yup, they call it FBI too) and a member of the FBI infiltrating the Yakuza. The framework for the plot follows this same premise, only Scorsese has moved the action to Boston with its characters preferring potatoes and Jameson over sushi and saki. About 70% of the movie was filmed in New York because of a tax break available in NYC that is not offered in Boston, but the entire movie is set in Boston though only 30% of it was filmed there.
Also, if my understanding is correct, the story and characters have been changed to loosely parrallel the circumstances detailed in Black Mass (great book) during the heyday and downfall of the Irish Mafia in Boston. Jack Nicholson, for example, plays the Whitey Bulger type character; a morally depraved, ruthless, hypocrite. Actually, Robert DiNero turned down this role, which I think is a good thing....as DiNero's played too many Italian mobsters to pull off a mick from South Boston.
In much the manner people used to expect of Scorsese (pre-Aviator), The Departed is supposed to be really raw with violence, profanity, death, destruction and mayhem.....like all good gangster movies. Can't wait.
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2 comments:
I guess you missed Talladega Nights, the story of Ricky Bobby.
Scorsese better turn out a good one, he stills owes me for Gangs of New York. Aviator was ill, though. The Cinderalla Man was sub-par for me, too predictable and cliche, but well done. I'm more excited for Lady of the Water to come to DVD, I missed it in the theater do to the films lack of promotion. I did see The Descent, which was the most horrifying movie I've ever seen. I shit my pants.
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