Movie #121........................."Public Enemies"

Movie #121 "Public Enemies" ---- beautifully photographed, but lacks heart. I know, it's a gangster film, what do you want? Well, I have seen most of the Cagney/Bogart/George Raft/ etc. films of the 40's and 50's and I expected more than color here. I guess I expected another "Bonnie and Clyde" and this is so far from it! Although there's a death scene that could maybe come close to rivaling it ------yep, we are able to make the violence that much more, but what about the story? Okay, I did like being at the Paramount in one scene --- that was cool. I did like (again) Cotillard (in fact, now I've liked her in everything but her first film "La Vie en Rose" (or whatever), Depp was okay --- although I wanted more to his character (maybe there wasn't anything, but I always expect more from Depp because he's one of the best that's around, in my opinion. There is ONE scene I liked ------- the guy is so cocky and so much underestimates the police that he walks right into a police station and looks at his picture on the wall and asks what the baseball score is ---- baiting them to catch him? It was a great moment --- and I wanted to see more, but then this wasn't a Scorsese film. So it was okay. It should be nominated for some tech awards, but won't win because it's Avatar's year. Oh, one last thing I liked: that he became a dinosaur when robbing banks --- that the crime world got that much more sophisticated and he was a liability to know him toward the end of his time --- and I thought that was a twist that I didn't know about! Thanks, Michael Mann, for that and the straightening out of that legend of the woman in red!




Average rating: 3.461
I gave it 3 stars
Public Enemies
(2009) R
In the shadow of the Great Depression, criminal minds are thriving -- notorious men like John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), "Baby Face" Nelson (Stephen Graham) and "Pretty Boy" Floyd (Channing Tatum) -- and it's up to J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) and the FBI to bring them down. Michael Mann directs this gritty crime drama based on the book by Bryan Burrough. Christian Bale, Giovanni Ribisi and Leelee Sobieski co-star.