10 Underrated Movies Everyone Loved At First (But Now Dislikes)

10. The Departed

The Awesome Movie: Mean Streets was released in 1973. That's 43 years ago. Someone born that year is now 43, just to put that in oblique perspective. It is nothing short of jaw-dropping that he's still working at the same rate today, turning out films that are just as relevant as his early work.

Take The Departed, one of many gangster pictures in his oeuvre that can sit alongside the likes of Mean Streets and not feel like a lesser film. Released in 2006, it showed the master still had the same awareness, insight and violence, to the point where he could rival anyone else working today (to the tune of four Oscars).

What Happened? The Departed is not Goodfellas. That sounds like an obvious, somewhat-perfunctory statement, but that is exactly why The Departed gets the short shrift. Scorsese won his Oscar for a sprawling gangster epic, but one that wasn't Goodfellas. That injustice (and, make no mistake, him not trouncing Kevin Costner and Dances With Wolves is a travesty) has meant the otherwise brilliant film is glossed over; it's a legacy win, nothing more.

But come on. Yes, part of The Departed's win was a legacy offering, but it's not like it's a cack film handed an award in an honorary capacity (that's what Honorary Academy Awards are for). It's still a multi-faceted epic from one of the greatest filmmakers ever. If you want every movie to be quite as great as Goodfellas you're in for a rubbish time.

The Simpsons haven't helped, with Ralph's "the rat symbolises obviousness" the ultimate put-down of the film. Although if we're being honest, Goodfellas makes a similar point about rats at the end too.