It looks as though Dame Judy Dench is lined up for some award this year along side Kate Windswept.
Photography and Filmmaking
Creative, conceptual and technical; contemporary and historical"The Departed" was considered one of the best Hollywood mainstream productions last year-shows how little creativity and originality Hollywood has right now-if anybody saw "Inferno Affairs", the original to "THe Departed", and haven't seen "The Departed", skip that, haven't missed a thing. If seen "The Departed" but not the original, must rent it, it's much more cruel, clever and sleek without all the obvious blood and violent.
Oooh, strong words there. The Departed was a GREAT movie, are you kidding?! I haven't seen the original but I know it wouldn't ruin The Departed for me. So many people dissed 'The Aviator' as well, which I was dumbfounded by, another incredible movie.
You kids with your postmodern hooey, no respect for Scorsese at all, no respect...
In reply to Landon:
Yeah, and I stand by my words-The Departed wasn't great, compare to the original. Infernal Affairs was an instant classic, and the characters and their relationships are more well crafted and thought out, the whole look, the blood shed and swear words were much less than The Departed. The Departed took some of the the same scenes but played out differently to lesser effect, in the original the cruelness and tragedy was deeper, the story is such a tragedy, and it's really a pyschological thriller-the theme of the original was that one can never get out of his circumstances, and has to continue to suffer, even death can't end it.
Just a thought-nowadays with all the awards-SAG, Directors Guild award, Golden Globe, and all the other awards, has Oscars lost its lustre? Is it as important as before?
In reply to KaWai:
The Oscars are the only awards Joe Lunchpail pays attention to. Everybody knows how insincere, phony, commercial and self-congratulating they are but everyone still watches.
I don't think there's been any film to win Best Picture that I actually liked.
And I still say 'The Departed' is excellent, so you're just going to have to let it go ;)
In reply to Landon:
No, I can't because I saw 'Infernal Affairs' before 'THe Departed' and it's clearly not in the same league with it's original it's just the truth-it didn't surpassed the originial, it's not as powerful, it's less pervocative, and less inspiring than the original.
I don't watch most of the Oscar award show anymore-just watch the most important awards so I keep up with the popular culture.
In reply to KaWai:
OK, I'll have to watch Infernal Affairs. I'm sure it's an excellent movie, I'm not denying that. I'll let you know what I think and we'll SETTLE THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!
Just saw this thread and had to chip in.
I'm a big fan of Infernal Affairs (and The Aviator!), the first one is extremely good and the following sequels and prequels certainly have their moments. I enjoyed The Departed and whilst it does contain some identical set pieces and the same story it's a different kind of movie. The Departed is a lot more tongue in cheek and over the top whereas Infernal Affairs takes itself quite seriously and comes out the better for it in my opnion. I don't think they shot Boston quite as well as they did Hong Kong in the original and although the cast is good (particularly wahlberg as dignam), I started to feel like I was watching that spike jonze beastie's video "sabotage".
I would highly recomend checking out Infernal affairs if you enjoyed The Departed, it makes for some interesting comparisons about how 2 different film makers treat the same story. Much like the two recent capote films...
They are doing Departed 2 as well I hear.
oh and KaWai, have you seen any of the Johnny To election movies?, I recommend them, and spl by Wilson Yip is a lot of fun to.
In reply to Ross Phillips:
I had read that John Woo is making a period film now, the backdrop is a famous Chinese battle taken place a thousand years ago. Ang Lee is also making a period film in China with Tony Leung Chui Wai(2046). THis year's Ocar has some heavy weights British actresses-Kate Waislet, Helen Mirren. I think Helen would win, but Kate has got several nominations under her belt so who knows. They were writing about Nicole Kidman that almost all her films hadn't made much money is she worth that much salery.