Non-bitchy Hollywood Remake Review
WARNING: the following is a review of a Hollywood remake of a film from beyond the borders of the US. I don't whine about it much. I know, I was surprised too.
And no, it isn't Bangkok Dangerous. Some people seem to find the title of that movie funny. I guess it is, but it can't hold a candle to the legendary Fire Down Below, where Steven Seagal fights chlamydia.
The Departed
Once again Uncle Marty takes some pulpy material and tries to turn it in to Goodfellas.
Okay that’s unfair, Gangs of New York had an inherent sweep to its story and Casino... no that one just sucks. Bitching aside, though, it’s a great idea for a remake, to take the bare bones of a story and work them in to a very specific new time and place; you could argue it’s one of the few valid reasons to remake a film at all.
Scorsese certainly excels at the details in this new underworld milieu and makes the usual good use of music, and everyone has fun with the accents. In fact the actors are really the key to the movie’s success, for the direction, whilst never incompetent and frequently at what would be a career best for another director, never hits the heights that bookended Gangs…, for example.
The two leads are by contrast excellent throughout and the only wayward element of the extended cast is, sad to say, Ray Winstone’s accent. Nicholson makes for a solid villain, creepy and commanding at the same time, he perhaps lacks the showy nature of a Pesci creation but has the same kind of brute menace on tap. The real surprise is Wahlberg, stealing whole scenes with an invective-filled reminder of his genuine talent, and to a lesser extent also another instalment of the Alec Baldwin Career Revival Show.
The love story feels like a means to an end but even with the thinnest part in the film the female point of the triangle holds up well, and they don’t resort to U2, thank fuck. It does at least give DiCaprio room to show his range and Damon a chance to show off some astonishingly greasy charisma.
All this is in the context of Scorsese’s work, of course, and by objective standards the movie is a superb, if overlong, thriller. The trademark flat brutality of the shoot-outs seems to suggest a higher intent, as if they were aiming for Donnie Brasco and ended up with a slightly dour counterpart to State of Grace: a little action, a little Irish, a lot of angst.
And no, it isn't Bangkok Dangerous. Some people seem to find the title of that movie funny. I guess it is, but it can't hold a candle to the legendary Fire Down Below, where Steven Seagal fights chlamydia.
The Departed
Once again Uncle Marty takes some pulpy material and tries to turn it in to Goodfellas.
Okay that’s unfair, Gangs of New York had an inherent sweep to its story and Casino... no that one just sucks. Bitching aside, though, it’s a great idea for a remake, to take the bare bones of a story and work them in to a very specific new time and place; you could argue it’s one of the few valid reasons to remake a film at all.
Scorsese certainly excels at the details in this new underworld milieu and makes the usual good use of music, and everyone has fun with the accents. In fact the actors are really the key to the movie’s success, for the direction, whilst never incompetent and frequently at what would be a career best for another director, never hits the heights that bookended Gangs…, for example.
The two leads are by contrast excellent throughout and the only wayward element of the extended cast is, sad to say, Ray Winstone’s accent. Nicholson makes for a solid villain, creepy and commanding at the same time, he perhaps lacks the showy nature of a Pesci creation but has the same kind of brute menace on tap. The real surprise is Wahlberg, stealing whole scenes with an invective-filled reminder of his genuine talent, and to a lesser extent also another instalment of the Alec Baldwin Career Revival Show.
The love story feels like a means to an end but even with the thinnest part in the film the female point of the triangle holds up well, and they don’t resort to U2, thank fuck. It does at least give DiCaprio room to show his range and Damon a chance to show off some astonishingly greasy charisma.
All this is in the context of Scorsese’s work, of course, and by objective standards the movie is a superb, if overlong, thriller. The trademark flat brutality of the shoot-outs seems to suggest a higher intent, as if they were aiming for Donnie Brasco and ended up with a slightly dour counterpart to State of Grace: a little action, a little Irish, a lot of angst.