Academy Awards and The Departed.

So, my Netflix movie this week was The Departed and I have to say that I wasn't impressed. It was another movie that was less than the sum of its parts. I liked Lea, I liked Matt, I liked Jack and Vera and Mark Wahlberg and yet the movie left me wondering what the fuss was all about. I didn't think it was particularly well directed, except for a handful of scenes, mainly at the end. That being said, i was less than thrilled when it won best picture last night and Scorsese won for best director. I really don't approve of make-up awards and the Academy has been doing that a lot lately (Russell-here' your award the Gladiator. We're sorry we didn't give it to you last year for The Insider. Marty, here's your award for The Departed-we're sorry we didn't give it to you for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas or Casino). What happened to judging on its own merits, as opposed to making it a consolation prize?
I don't want to be a grinch here, I was very happy that he finally got the Best Director award, I just wish it had been for a movie that deserved it-and I wasn't happy about The Departed winning best picture. I still think Children of Men was robbed.
And my Netflix movie last week was The General, with Brenden Gleeson playing irish gangster Martin Cahill. THIS was a great movie. Gleeson plays the ever more daring Martin (who can sneak into a bedroom while people are still sleeping and steal their jewelry or leave a note on the bed for the policeman who is tracking him. It's witty and clever and very well acted (see also Hope and Glory by John Boorman), his story of a family In England during WWII-it's very funny, which is a word not usually associated with WWII...but I recommend it. yes, this is the same man the directed Deliverance and the two movies are about as different as they could possibly be.