Official Movie Poster
Public Enemies
R
2 hours, 20 minutes
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and Billy Crudup
Michael Mann has done it again! Or has he?
Public Enemies follows the life and times of notorious bank robber John Dillinger and the crime spree that swept the nation.
Such an idea for a film seems like a winning film from the beginning. You have a highly known figure as your main focus, Michael Mann directing and some of the biggest names in hollywood as your principle actors.
I am a complete sucker for Johnny Depp. I would pay money to watch him read the phone book. Sadly, this mediocre venture left me wanting to walk out of the theater. It’s hard to watch this movie and develop any sort of emotional attachment to the characters or their situation. There is no first act, you are throw into the middle of everything without any sort of knowledge about who these characters are or how they relate to each other. Regardless of that, as the movie progresses, I was still left knowing nothing about the characters, who they are, how they tick, or why I should even care. People backstab each other, but it means nothing because the relationships are not established or built on.
I will say that going to the movies is a spectators sport, but a great film will make your forget that you are watching a movie. The world that you are being introduced to should be so engrossing that any audience member will feel like they are apart of the action. There was not a single moment in Public Enemies where I felt that. Seeing this movie felt like watching people you know nothing about on a security camera for two hours.
1 out of 5
They should have made it a nude-silent film.
Is it just me… or has Johnny Depp been lookin kinda… i dunno… Mickey Rourke-ish lately
Mickey Rourke-ish? What do you mean by that exactly?
i hate to disagree with you Magatha but i thought PE was great. especially the action sequences. The performances that were good included johnny but i really thought billy crudup was fantastic, though it felt like there was a charater waiting to come oput of bale but he never fleshed him out, ottherwise the art direction the sound all top notch!
I totally agree Ms. Maggie. I had no idea what story they were trying to tell. I didn’t see a story arc at all, it was like they lumped together a bunch of little tidbits and then strung them together in the hopes that people would be too distracted by Johnny to care. I wish they’d really villain-ed up Hoover (Billy Crudup was indeed fantastic Mr. Brown) and made Bale more sympathetic.
When I was watching it I was thinking that I wish it had more of a Catch Me If You Can type dynamic where the story was more about the two men, but I didn’t feel any kind of connection between Depp/Bale. Sad.
And plus they killed Channing Tatum off in the first 2 minutes! Bleh.