The Departed
Finally saw it. Not much to say except the whole experience was awesome. It was a fantastic movie. The soundtrack, the cinematography, the rendering of the screenplay, the ACTING. This had so many of my favorite actors in it, and I feel guilty for being swayed into doubting that it would turn out badly because of it (see: Alexander). So, so amazing. So yeah, it was an all star cast, but I didn't feel like they were just capitolizing on the fact that they got this great cast. Everyone was utilized perfectly. Mark Wahlberg, DAMN he was funny and so badass, just the perfect asshole. LEO! I want to rewatch the film just for him. When he was popping pills, I felt the inner pain and conflict more than I did with Tony Leung. The humor - spoken and just reactions - the violence just blunt and in your face.
I think Andy Lau did a better job than Matt Damon though. Cuz Matt was good. But...he didn't create that dual love-hate feeling for his character that I had with Andy Lau. And I figure they weren't aiming for that, but because the original did, Infernal Affairs made the rat vs rat situation so much sharper.
Annnd...I'm going to say that I prefer The Departed to the original. Close call and all that, and sure, this may be because I don't understand Cantonese and so the dialogue would have been lost in translation, but the dialogue in The Departed was so layered and crass and awesome. And of course, taking someone else's work and reworking it over is an advantage. Oh yeah - I LOVE SO MUCH that they stayed true to the original. I mean, it was pretty faithful all the way through. Only one thing I was disappointed with - that they left out the Morse code thing and moved it to text messaging. Cuz oh my god, in the original, the Morse code detail was the best.
"I'm Shipping Up To Boston" - Dropkick Murphys, that Irish rock song in that movie and trailer.
In other news, I know it's not so popular to like Tom Cruise right now or whatever, winds blowing in the wrong direction (just like how everyone loved and then hated Leo after Titanic and now they love him again), but fuck that. Tom Cruise consistently makes the most movies that I enjoy, ergo, I remain consistently a fan. And it bums me out so much that he has nothing lined up right now :(
Also, Jeff has been here since Friday night/Saturday morning. It's been GREAT. He wakes us up in the morning, makes breakfast, helps with taking out the trash. And he talks to the roommate about her favorite singer/person in the world. Cam = much impressed. And tonight, Stephu was over and Jeff made chicken pesto pasta and Italian bread, buttered + garlic, and supplied olive oil. Everyone = much impressed. Cam and I took a bunch of pictures of him cooking. Yay J!