“The Departed,” March 15, 2007, on the plane to Bahrain. I enjoyed this death-fest set in Boston with Jack Nicholson in the Whitey Bulger role, Martin Sheen as the chief of police, Matt Damon as one of the undercovers, and Leonardo DiCaprio as the other. What can you say? Jack is Jack, Leo surprises with how well he did, he’s the emotional heart and soul of the film, Damon is less than expected, and Sheen overacts but works nonetheless. The real surprise is a brilliant bit of work by Mark Walberg as a cop. He’s fantastic. I really liked the film but there’s just too much killing in this pseudo-realistic film. Too much carnage to work except as a cartoon-like piece. Very Japanese. A bigger problem may be the weakness of the one serious female role. Scorsese doesn’t do women all that well, I’m afraid. See this one but be prepared for over the top violence.