EntertainmentStreamingThis film is blowing up in the Netflix top 10 and just for once it is actually goodOscar-winning movie joins forgettable rom-coms, true crime voyeurism and obscure action flicks in streaming chartsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
EntertainmentStreamingThis film is blowing up in the Netflix top 10 and just for once it is actually goodOscar-winning movie joins forgettable rom-coms, true crime voyeurism and obscure action flicks in streaming chartsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Oscar-winning movie joins forgettable rom-coms, true crime voyeurism and obscure action flicks in streaming charts
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: SOPA Images / Getty Images)
(Image credit: SOPA Images / Getty Images)
TheNetflixTop 10 is an absolute hotbed of so-so films. A lot of them, we’ve never even heard of, before the Netflix algorithm brought them to the attention of the world’s entertainment-hungry masses. It’s now almost a cliché to say that the top-rated movies on the streaming channel are ‘not popular with critics’, which is often a more diplomatic way of saying, ‘It’s crap and you won’t remember anything about it, 10 minutes after it ends.’
Imagine my surprise, then, to find that the current UK Netflix top 10 includes a film that I think isactually good, and which even has Academy Awards to its name. Pretty shocking, right?
(Image credit: Getty)
The Departed: officially arrived on Netflix
The film in question is Martin Scorsese’sThe Departed, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and ‘Marky’ Mark Wahlberg, sadly without his ‘funky bunch’ on this occasion.
The Departedsits a little oddly in Scorsese’s CV. It is a highly entertaining potboiler of a film, heavily based on the Hong Kong actionerInfernal Affairs. It’s a movie which most Scorcese fans like a lot but wouldn’t consider to be quite out of his very top drawer. That being said, it is also the film that hefinallywon the best director Oscar for, having been cruelly snubbed for several rather better films, most notablyGoodfellasandRaging Bull. The 2006 film also won best picture at the same Academy Awards, and two more Oscar’s for best editing and ‘best adapted screenplay’, whatever that is.
While it may not quite be an all-time classic,The Departedis a tense and thrilling undercover cop movie, pitting DiCaprio against mob kingpin Jack Nicholson and corrupt policemen who are meant to be on his side. Nicholson’s acting in this couldn’t be described as his most subtle work ever, but overall it’s a great ensemble piece, and Scorcese directs the film with his customary aplomb. All of his trademarks are in place, from morally compromised characters to lashings of extreme violence and swearing.
The Departedis about as far removed fromSenior Yearas it’s possible to get – it is very watchable throughout, but laughs and pratfalls are thin on the ground. Okay, I haven’t actually watchedSenior Yearbut I am assuming these films are just not all that similar, unless in her movie, Rebel Wilson is repeatedly betrayed and a sweary bloodbath ensues, with semi-hilarious consequences.
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I have no idea why this movie has suddenly leapt up the rankings to sit at #5 in the UK Netflix top 10, but it’s a pleasant and unusual surprise to actually be able to say ‘That film that’s mysteriously suddenly in the Netflix top 10? I can wholeheartedly recommend that one.’
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