The Departed (Widescreen Edition) Martin Scorsese makes a welcome return to the mean streets (of Boston, in this case) with The Departed, hailed by many as Scorsese’s best film since Casino. Since this crackling crime thriller is essentially a Scorsese-stamped remake of the acclaimed 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, the film was intensely scrutinized by devoted critics and cinephiles, and while Scorsese’s intense filmmaking and all-star cast deserve ample acclaim, The Departed is also worthy of serious re-assessment, especially with regard to what some attentive viewers described as sloppy craftsmanship (!), notably in terms of mismatched shots and jagged continuity. But no matter where you fall on the Scorsese appreciation scale, there’s no denying that The Departed is a signature piece of work from one of America’s finest directors, designed for maximum impact with a breathtaking series of twists, turns, and violent surprises. It’s an intricate cat-and-mouse game, but this time the cat and mouse are both moles: Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is an ambitious cop on the rise, planted in the Boston police force by criminal kingpin Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a hot-tempered police cadet who’s been artificially disgraced and then planted into Costello’s crime operation as a seemingly trustworthy soldier. As the multilayered plot unfolds (courtesy of a scorching adaptation by Kingdom of Heaven screenwriter William Monahan), Costigan and Sullivan conduct a volatile search for each other (they’re essentially looking for “themselves”) while simultaneously wooing the psychiatrist (Vera Farmiga) assigned to treat their crime-driven anxieties.

Such convenient coincidences might sink a lesser film, but The Departed is so electrifying that you barely notice the plot-holes. And while Nicholson’s profane swagger is too much “Jack” and not enough “Costello,” he’s still a joy to watch, especially in a film that’s additionally energized by memorable (and frequently hilarious) supporting roles for Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, and a host of other big-name performers. The Departed also makes clever and plot-dependent use of cell-phones, to the extent that it couldn’t exist without them. Powered by Scorsese’s trademark use of well-chosen soundtrack songs (from vintage rock to Puccini’s operas), The Departed may not be perfect, but it’s one helluva ride for moviegoers, proving popular enough to become the biggest box-office hit of Scorsese’s commercially rocky career. –Jeff Shannon
Customer Review: Thank You Mr Scorsese
This is just an amazing movie. For absolute Scorsese fans, it’s an unforgettable experience beyond all superlatives: superbly written, brilliantly directed, wonderfully acted, cleverly edited. Beautiful music, powerful dialogs, sex, drug and blood, we’re so close to perfection. What craftmanship!

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Flickr user entros has posted a bunch of 3d photos from the 2007 Bay Area Maker Faire. Find yourself a pair of red/cyan glasses and check ‘em out - Link [entros’ anaglyph sets] [Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Amazon.com to Launch DRM-Free MP3 Music Download Store with Songs and Albums from EMI Music and More Than 12,000 Other Labels

Lee Kraznow at Maker Faire
Last year I made a lot of videos at Maker Faire. In this one, I hung out with puzzle maker Lee Kraznow. My favorite part of this video is Lee’s story about getting into puzzle making. His shop teacher said it was impossible, but that didn’t stop him! - Link Lee will be back again this year, make sure to go visit his booth and see his new puzzles! Lee’s site - Link Video - MP4 [Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Hack Your Brain - Make Video Podcast
Click To Play ipod|mp4|mov|hd-appletv|3gp|3g2|pdf|itunes This weekend, learn how to hack your brain by making Mitch Altman’s Brain Machine! It flashes LEDs into your eyes and beeps sounds into your ears to make your brain waves sync up into beta, alpha, theta, and delta brainwaves! Mitch invents cool things that make the world a better place. He’s well known for the TV-B-GONE and this brain machine is his latest project. One of the cool things about this project, is that it builds on an open source project. Mitch used Lady Ada’s open source MiniPOV and switched out LEDs and added new capacitors and resistors and then rewrote the firmware to make it into the brain machine. It’s super cool when people make hardware open source so that others can work with it! Make sure to take pictures of your build and of you in your brain machine and upload them to the Make: flickr pool. Weekend Projects is sponsored by microchip.com. Check out their seminars and 16 bit contest. Get the podcast and pdf downloaded automatically in itunes. - Link [Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Sun Jar - $29.95
It looks like a traditional kitchen storage jar and sounds like a Korean movie star, but this ingenious container collects and stores sunshine so you can use it at night. Containing a solar cell, battery and LED light, the Sun Jar will add ambience to any scenario.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 28th, 2007 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Toy Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.