On Demand picks

June 28, 2011

THE DEPARTED ***½ (Comcast Movies: All Movies) A relentlessly violent, breathtakingly assured piece of mean-streets filmmaking, and damned close to the Great Boston Movie. Martin Scorsese returns to form with this complicated cops-and-Irish mafia saga (based on a 2002 Hong Kong action flick); Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Mark Wahlberg all do quality work, but Jack Nicholson steals the film as, essentially, Whitey Bulger’s evil twin. Local boy William Monahan scripted. (R; runs through Aug. 31) TY BURR

I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER ** (HBO on Comcast) Writer Larry Doyle (“The Simpsons’’) adapts his novel about a high school geek (Paul Rust) enduring one long night with his cheerleader dream girl (Hayden Panettiere of “Heroes’’). Chris Columbus directs, and what could have been a nice John Hughes revamp ends up just another teen stu-com. (PG-13; runs through July 18) TY BURR

REPO MEN ** (HBO on Comcast) In some near-future city, Jude Law and Forest Whitaker take back bodily organs from people who bought on credit and can’t afford the payments. The parts cost an arm and a leg, but life here is cheap. This is the sort of science fiction that opts for scissors to the groin or a bullet to the head rather than a complete thought. Miguel Sapochnik directed from a script by Eric Garcia and Garrett Lerner. With Liev Schreiber and Alice Braga, here to vouch for the heroes’ heterosexuality. (R; runs through July 18) WESLEY MORRIS