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October 09, 2006
ANDY LAU GIVES DEPARTED 8 OUT OF 10
Andy Lau had some choice words for THE DEPARTED at its Hong Kong premiere over the weekend. He thought the movie was too long, had too much swearing and that the makers of THE DEPARTED owe more money to the producers of INFERNAL AFFAIRS since they only bought the rights to IA 1 but used parts of IA 2 and 3. That was him making a joke. I think.
Overall, Andy?
"It was all right to watch and the actors were pretty good."
His spokeswoman, Alice Tam, confirmed his remarks on Monday.
"It's correct that he gave it eight on a scale of 10...the effect of combining the two female characters in the original into one isn't as good as in the original...He said he focused on his character's psychology, and that the character didn't look like a bad guy on the surface," she said.
(Thanks to Al)
October 9, 2006 at 11:00 AM in News | Permalink
Comments
Spoilers ahead:
In total shock.
Martin Scorsese's name was on this movie. And the cast was one the best ensemble put together this year. It was a remake of a pretty good, but way over rated, HK movie that could easily have been improved. With those ingredients on the director and cast side...what could go wrong?
I made a predication before. I said that this movie was going to be superior to the first Infernal Affairs but inferior to Infernal Affairs 2 (the best movie in the IA trilogy).
Well....I was half right. The Departed isn't even in the league of IA2.
But...it is surprisingly INFERIOR to Infernal Affairs in almost every way. About the only thing this movie has going for it is it's colorful cursing.
Cinematography alone IA wipes this one off the floor. And while people might cry out that this is going for a more realistic approach, I would remind them that Boston is a totally different city than HK. The slick look of IA goes with it's location and it's simply far better on the eye than Departed.
I don't mind movies that run more than 2 hours....but this movie was way too long. Not only that, but there is NO tension whatsoever in this movie. Best example: In IA, when Ming erases Yan's file...you as an audience are feeling something deep because at that point, you know that was the only proof left of who he was. In The Departed, Matt Damon erases Leo's file on the computer. But how is one supposed to care or even be worried when you know for a fact that Whalberg is still alive??
The movie towards the end was like a parody of IA. The scene at the rooftop was like a joke with the two leads screaming each other like homophobic little teens. And the deaths? Yeah, I can confirm that people were laughing in my screening too. Funny how no one ever laughed at the deaths in IA.
I will eat my words about what I said before because I am in total shock.
It's funny to me how the best thing in the movie was Marky Mark.....
Posted by: the running man | Oct 9, 2006 8:09:40 PM
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