He's pretty close to a guy you can't hit

Going through eight movies in about two and a half days may sound like an awesome idea, but I don't think I can fully endorse it as a regular behavior. Stagger your marathons or at least conduct them with care.

Don't worry, when I did it over the weekend I did manage to find a little time in there to eat, sleep, shower, and even play a little Xbox Texas Hold'em. Of course by “sleep” I do mean that I passed out in the middle of a hand during the Texas Hold'em and woke up an hour and a half later with a stiff neck and a pair of threes.

By the way, this will be the first time that I will be simulposting my thoughts here as well as over at the so far Untitled Review Repository. Basically I put the new place together to keep my reviews and thoughts on things (mostly movies) accessible without having to subject yourself to my random personal postings. Now on with the show we go.

I was tempted to not say a word on this one until after I had a chance to watch Infernal Affairs but I find myself unable or at least unwilling to keep quiet. The first thing you will probably notice here is the cast, Scorsese really managed to bring them out for this one. Jack Nicholson really seemed to be having fun with this role, he found a way to be both likable (possibly even lovable) and vile almost at times in the same breath. Mark Wahlberg also found a way to impress me with his performance. He didn't get a ton of screen time here but what he did get he made count. Seriously, the man basically turned swearing into an art form. Those are just a couple of small examples, the rest of the cast (Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprion, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Vera Farmiga) also performed to excellence. They all even managed to pull off two and a half straight hours of Boston accents without it becoming some sort of scary farce of itself (trust me, there was a compliment hidden in there somewhere).

So an overly simplified plot explanation could go something like... The Irish Mafia (or at a branch of it led by Jack Nicholson) sneaks a mole (Matt Damon) into the Massachusetts state police while at the same time the cops recruit their own mole (Leonardo DiCaprio) to infiltrate the Irish Mafia. Eventually both sides start wising up to the fact that they are compromised and the race is on to see who can discover who first.

Along the way there is no shortage of violence, bloodshed, romance, friendship, betrayal, confusion, oh yes and some (more) violence. This movie really reminded me to never underestimate the power of a surprise death.

Scorsese definitely hit this one out of the park. Scorsese doing a great film isn't really all that newsworthy at this point I don't think (hasn't he earned enough credit at this point that we just assume he knows what he is doing?) but what is newsworthy is the fact that he was able to do so unbelievably well with a re-make of a foreign flick.... Eat your heart out Dark Water

Also worth noting briefly is that this movie I believe solidifies for me that DiCaprio has finally shaken off most of the stink brought forth by Titanic. Congrats Leo, I look forward to not openly mocking you in all of your future endeavors!