The Departed Comic & Review

[Arnzilla]

D'oh! I knew your avatar looked familiar.

Howz about a little more in way of a review of the remake?

The cool thing having seen both are the different endings. I honestly hope Marty doesn't punk out and release the HK original ending in theaters instead.

You think the ending of the remake was darker than the original? Are you sure you're talking about the HK ending and not the alternate mainland China version?

[afr0puff]

Are you sure you're talking about the HK ending and not the alternate mainland China version?

I've seen both of those endings. They got nothing on the Marty version we saw.

Plus the US version isn't really setup to allow for the regular HK ending. Unless they add more scenes to it.

[Arnzilla]

On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you put the original and where would you put the remake?

[afr0puff]

Infernal Affairs - 6
The Departed - 8. If they smooth things out and answer some questions, then it's got potential to be a 8.5 possibly a 9.

The sound mix was horrific on the cut that we saw. The levels were way too high. Nicholson made my ears bleed in the beginning. However, once you got used to it, I think the movie benefitted from it. It made all the violence that much more grittier, and all the silent parts that much more dramatic.

[LincM]

Usually in those shots, the foley/music/mix isn't finalised and it's just a matter of editing tweaks. This could mean re-inclusion of scenes, usage of different scenes, but this is less likely than just some mix and sound tweaks.

And I'd be very surprised if they re-shoot anything, except if anything was like in Armageddon where they did the test screenings in the deep south and originally Bruce Willis had a southern accent. Apparently the accent was so badly done that the audiences literally laughed through all of the screenings and so he had to redo ALL of the voice track for that.

[Pogues]

I saw Departed last weekend and was reading back through Joe's review and I started wondering if you had seen it again? I know Afro was there with you too so I was wondering if you guys saw it again and if there were any real differences? Did it change your rating for the movie or no?

The flick was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The soundtrack was brilliant. The consistant use of the Dropkick Murphys' song 'Shipping up to Boston' was amazing. Acting was as good as you expect and I was surprised to see Sheen and Baldwin in the flick as I hadn't heard they were going to be in it. The story was quite amazing and I was genuinely surprised by the final scene at the elevators. There were some awkward scenes that I felt could have been better explained, the scenes with Leo's cousin weren't that well explained. I didn't realize they were running drugs until they were told not too. The film was a little long, but I never lost interest. I will put this in spoiler quotes, but this was the one thing I was confused about and wanted them to explain.

What exactly was in the envelope that Leo gave the Doctor? I mean I assume it was to be given to Walhberg, but I didn't quite understand. Couldn't he have just given the evidence over to Baldwin and avoided the hassle he ended up in? Lastly I sort of wondered what happened after the final scene, if they ever exposed Damon as a criminal. Although that was the part of the story I liked, gave you something to think about.

[joerules]

MAn that envelope is what's fuckiung it up for everyone. Crazy thing.

I haven't seen it again, but from what people have been e-mailing me with, it sounds like the ending was the same.

Sheen was someone I regreted not talking about in the review. Everyone else gets the spotlight but his work helps to keep things grounded. He's so good but will go unoticed for the most part because everyone else is good and more important to the plot.

[afr0puff]

YO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joe, did you know they republished your Departed comic in the Rutgers newspaper!??! I just happened to be there and picked up their newspaper. One in a thousand chance of that happening. I picked up 5 copies of the newspaper. Let me know if you want more copies for your records before you sue them.

[Pogues]

MAn that envelope is what's fuckiung it up for everyone. Crazy thing.

I haven't seen it again, but from what people have been e-mailing me with, it sounds like the ending was the same.

Sheen was someone I regreted not talking about in the review. Everyone else gets the spotlight but his work helps to keep things grounded. He's so good but will go unoticed for the most part because everyone else is good and more important to the plot.

Was the envelope a problem you had with the ending? I read back through your review and it was really spot on. You are getting better with each review man, someone needs to pay you for these. I agree with Sheen, his acting is so perfect though because he doesn't dominate the scenes, he is really believable throughout the whole flick.

[joerules]

I was pretty happy with the review for the Deaprted, but I feel like I'm hit and miss these days in general. Sort of like with the comics.

Sheen is great but there's so many stand outs in that movie. I keep thinking about Baldwin's stuff. That scene at the golf range is awesome.

[Pogues]

Baldwin was definitely great in that flick. He seems to be getting better the older he gets. That driving range scene was pretty good. The acting in Departed was just all around amazing.

I think your reviews are consistenly getting better. Your early ones were more the sort of thing you read in someone's blog, but now you have really hit a stride. I mean your reviews come off as good as any film theory major's, without a sense of pretension. I prefer your reviews over pretty much elses, you give an honest opinion of the film and that is good. Also the comics are always amazing, the one for the Grudge 2 had me rolling, that last panel was so funny.

[joerules]

YO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joe, did you know they republished your Departed comic in the Rutgers newspaper!??! I just happened to be there and picked up their newspaper. One in a thousand chance of that happening. I picked up 5 copies of the newspaper. Let me know if you want more copies for your records before you sue them.

Crap, I totally missed this post.

Actually The Observer had my permission to reprint. You can read the strip and an excerpt from the review weekly there. I figured it was good exposure to a campus crowd that's unaware of me. They're supposed to be putting the URL address on there as well. Are they doing that?

[afr0puff]

They printed it in color too! LOL! They have the comic, but under it it says "by Lionel Wynter" and gives the URL of www.rutgersobserver.com. Article itself is by "Anton Carrera" but I don't see an exerpt of the review in there.

Just playing, they just slapped the .jpg on there, so it has your own copyright stuff with DP on th eleft and your name on the right.

[joerules]

Oh shit it was almost angry e-mail time.