At The Movies: The Departed

Went to see the last Scorsese The Departed yesterday. I was quite looking forward to the movie, having seen some pretty exciting trailers. It turned out to be a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, a movie as it happens, I watched on tv tuesday night ( wednesday morning 12am till 2 actually).
In an interview, Andrew Lau, the co-director of Infernal Affairs, said very diplomatically that Scorsese had made the Hollywood version more attuned to American culture.
What he meant is that his psychological thriller had been dumbed down into action movie.
The Departed is also longer (friends I went with and hadn't seen Infernal Affairs pointed out the fact that it dragged a bit), more violent, and sex scenes were thrown into the mix ( I will not even get started with the treatment of the female characters in The Departed, let's just say women seem to be treated better in Hong Kong) . The Departed is a less subtle, less atmospheric, not as visually stunning as Infernal Affairs (great photography and I usually dont even notice stuff like that).
Once I realised I was watching a remake, I really tried to enjoy The Departed. I thought Scorsese would have made the movie his. Great performances by Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson his usual self, interesting soundtrack. But I just could not get over the fact he made a nearly scene by scene and word for word copy of Infernal Affairs.
But then again it might be my fault, what was I doing at early hours of the morning watching a brilliant and original Chinese cop movie in Cantonese with subtitles? I should have known a remake was on the way. After all Hollywood doesn't create anymore, it just snatches ideas from the world over, "americanize" them and distribute them at a watchable hour.
I should have just gone to bed.