From Rick Groen: “Rumour had it that the source material - a rejigging of the tense Hong Kong hit Infernal Affairs - was ideal for [Scorcese], a return to the mean streets and mobsters of his glory days. Rumour had it that the cast, including Jack Nicholson in his first teaming with the director, was exceptional. Rumour had it that God was in His heaven and Martin Scorsese was back on track. Rumour was wrong … Scorsese has been doing some channelling too - of Tarantino on a really off-day … As so often before, the body count is high in a Martin Scorsese movie. But where once the bodies pulsated with life in all its vainglorious furor, here they drop like wooden ducks in an artificial pond.”
From Stanley Kauffmann: “William Monahan’s screenplay is so full of cryptic pronouncements and swift portentous scenes that neatness is blown away … But [Sorcese’s] film is so frantic with plot jabs and counter jabs that the gravity of the theme is blurred in cop-and-criminal sorties. Even Scorsese’s usually gleaming direction is dulled to the Law & Order level, except for a few of his famous traveling shots … Jack Nicholson… virtually repeats his Joker in Batman … Is Scorsese desperate? This screenplay has the scent of it, as if he is scraping for material to feed his basic filmic interests. But the risk in this case—not evaded—was that his need led him close to painful strain. I can’t remember another Scorsese moment as shockingly banal as the finishing touch here. We look out the window of the stooge’s luxe apartment, past his terrace. Then a rat comes out and plays on the terrace railing.” [Yeah, I laughed out loud then.]
From Christopher Orr: “A remake of the sleek, superb 2002 Hong Kong police thriller Infernal Affairs, the movie has been Nicholsonized across the board, becoming fatter, coarser, and more self-indulgent than the original.”
From The Standard: “Being a Scorsese fan these days is like sitting at the bedside of someone on a life support machine. As each new offering appears we look, desperately, for signs of animation. Sad news, my friends. On the evidence of The Departed, it's time to pull the plug … scriptwriter Bill Monahan (fresh from the yawn-fest that was Kingdom of Heaven) fails to do anything interesting with the characters in the second half … As in his remake of Cape Fear, Scorsese has mucked up a B-movie he professes to love: producing something full of twists but devoid of that lovely, fluttery, rare thing: surprise.”