L,A Confidential (1997) or The Departed (2006)

L.A. Confidential 

LA Confidential

LA Confidential

The Departed

No contest for me...

-The Departed (2006) - 7.5-8/10 (within my Top 78 movies)
-L.A. Confidential (1997) - 6/10 (a mild Thumbs Up)

LA Confidential lost most of it's appeal with time (it used to be solid for me) where as The Departed, while fluctuated for me a bit over the years (i.e. between a 7-10/10), in the end, it still remains among my favorite movies unlike L.A. Confidential.

p.s. I am probably going to get around to re-watching L.A. Confidential semi-soon though as I have not seen it since Oct 2014 (I have been logging every movie I see since Dec 27th 2011 to date). The Departed on the other hand I haves seen Dec 2012/Aug 2014/Oct 2016 (10/10 to a 7/10)/Apr 2019(7/10 to a 7.5-8/10). although when I first viewed The Departed, which was probably around early 2007, I was a bit disappointed in it initially as I think I went in with too much expectations etc but it grew stronger on re-watches. I am not sure how many times I have seen L.A. Confidential or The Departed but to guesstimate how many times I have seen The Departed I would say around 8 times (I would be surprised if it's not at least 6+ for a conservative figure) as I figure assuming I first viewed it in early 2007, it's probably not a stretch to say I viewed it roughly 4 times between early 2007 but before Dec 27th 2011 and then I just add the four times I seen it since I have logged this stuff. as for L.A. Confidential... given the fact I have only seen it once from Dec 27th 2011 to date, that's going to noticeably lower it's total viewings. but given I would say the general volume of movies I watched started to noticeably increase around 2003 it's possible I re-watched it here and there back in the day on TV but I am not sure how many of those were legitimate viewings (as in from beginning to end) though. taking a guess... I might lean towards I have seen The Departed in it's entirety more than L.A. Confidential but I can't say this for certainty as I would say it's probably not too far either way.


Spike Del Rey



I never understood that mindset. because if you 'really liked it' (would it be fair to say that means a lot? ; or at least clearly above average?) it seems natural one would want to re-watch it here and there as the years pass as that's the true test of a movies worth is whether one re-watches it here and there as the years pass or not. because I don't care how much a person tells me they like a movie, if they never or rarely re-watch it, it's not really that great for them. because it makes no sense to me for someone to score a movie rather high only to never (or rarely) re-watch it.

because movies are like a great song, you want to experience them at least here and there as the years pass.

p.s. because for me any movies I consider good enough to be a favorite (or just shy of that standard) is typically going to see at least one re-watch every few years or so. because while ill still re-watch movies I mildly like (i.e. 6/10's (like L.A. Confidential)), many of them might be 5-ish years (possibly more) in between re-watches. but that's what ill do from time-to-time is go through the movies I scored a 6/10 as if I have no desire to re-watch them within a reasonable time frame ill shift them back to a 5/10 because I ultimately break movies into two categories... 6/10 and higher (will re-watch) and 5/10 and lower (won't re-watch(with rare exception)) as that determines my basic Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down for a movie as that helps separate the good movies from 'just another movie' sort of thing. so while I am not saying a person has to adhere to re-watching there favorite movies every few years or so, I do think if a movie is on the higher enjoyable side of things I would imagine one would want to re-watch it AT LEAST a couple of times a decade(every 10 years) etc.

L.A. Confidential

The Departed by far.

LA Confidential by a lot.