Scorcese's 'The Departed' -first reactions

Part 1

That Martin Scorcese really knows how to make a gangster flick! I'm not long home from a mid-evening screening of his new give-the-man-his-Oscar gangster hit set in Boston: 'The Departed'. It is one intense story!

Double-crossing, family debts, rats int the ranks, bent senior detectives, wives and friends caught in the crossfire - it's all in this movie and more. It often isn't an easy story to watch or listen to, but at the same time it's much more articulate and clever in its continuity twists than many crime flicks that are simply about hit-and-run action or last-man-standing plots. Leonardo has finally stopped looking fifteen years old all the time. Jack Nicholson always looks like he's revelling in the chance to be the guy you hope will get it in the guts -but only after he's made the whole rivalry-riddled detective team sweat and bleed hard to track him down.

Pt 2 in next post, I promise.