Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
2.5/4
"Public Enemies" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/03/2012
Public Enemies is the story of infamous depression era bank robber John Dillinger who became a kind of mythic Robin Hood style figure in the eyes of the poverty stricken American public of the time. Johnny Depp and Christian Bale starring in a legendary true-life gangster story directed by the man who brought us Heat? Nothing could possibly go wrong, could it?? Errrrm...evidently, yes it could. Once again, as always seems to be the case with over-hyped Hollywood blockbusters, the script is the usual suspect when assigning blame for missed opportunities. We all know what Depp and Bale are capable of, but here they have so little to work with its difficult for me to find fault with them. The film is basically just a series of beautifully shot shoot outs and jail breaks loosely strung …
Rating of
2.5/4
Public Enemies review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 01/25/2012
A popular bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) as he is pursued by Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), and his relationship with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard). John and fellow criminals Homer Van Meter (Stephen Dorff) and Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) rob banks without hurting anybody. Score, acting and costumes were wonderful. Only reservations this critic had were the length, pace and lack of a better editing. Most parts could do without since it was not related to the plot and slows the whole picture. One of the better lines from Dillinger: “We're having too good a time today. We ain't thinking about tomorrow.” “The only thing that's important is where somebody's going.” “When you're desperate, that's when you got no …
Rating of
3/4
Depp As Dillinger
MovieMike - wrote on 12/22/2011
If nothing else, ‘Public Enemies’ is beautiful to behold. While not as moody as ‘The Road To Perdition’ (2002), this film evokes the era about as well. Directed by Michael Mann (credits include ‘Hancock’ and ‘Last Of The Mohicans’); this film looks back into the height of America’s gangster past (circa 1933) and provides rich visual details such as period aero planes (a Ford Tri-Motor for you gear-heads out there), steam trains, many vintage cars, and period set pieces such as Chicago street scenes. Fortunately for us moviegoers, ‘Public Enemies’ offers so much more.
To start with, we get a one-two acting punch from Johnny Depp (as them main character, John Dillinger) and Christian Bale (as Melvin Purvis). While both actors approach their respective roles with …
Rating of
3/4
Effective, Though Sometimes Shallow Gangster Epic
mitchellyoung - wrote on 06/13/2011
Gangland Chicago is lovingly created in this epic from Michael Mann that speeds along with a tense energy that reflects the two opposing sides of FBI and gangsters. I wish the character of John Dillinger had more depth; Johnny Depp plays him as an imposing force with a melancholy side, but, I never felt like I was seeing that deeply into his psyche. The robbery and gunfight scenes are impressive and the cat-and-mouse lifestyle that Dillinger finds himself falling into is made very plain. The film adopts some of the same paranoid atmosphere of Goodfellas, right near the end, when you know Dillinger is about to be caught, but I don't think it fully achieves the exposition of mental breakdown that that fantastic film gets. That said, with a cast and crew this fine, you can't but expect …
Rating of
1/4
Public Enemies, a Mr. E Movie Review
Mr. E Movie Review - wrote on 09/24/2009
Public Enemies, a Mr. E Movie Review
(Run time: 140 min. - Directed by: Michael Mann - Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale)
I had huge expectations going in to see the new Johnny Depp gangster flick Public Enemies. I am a big gangster movie buff and love almost everything I’ve seen from the black and white classics all the way to The Soprano’s. Public Enemies is nowhere on this list for me. I mean, come on, he did an awesome Donnie Brasco, an iconic Captain Jack, and really just seems to nail every wacky role he morphs into. So, why not a killer John Dillinger?
Anyway here’s the story. Tons of bullets are spent, a couple jail breaks happen, and John meets a girl. Period. Sorry, I thought they could of rapped that up in an hour and a half easily! Instead they drawl out …
Rating of
3/4
Back to old school "Gangsters"
thebakerboyhimself - wrote on 08/04/2009
copy the link and paste in your browser for the audio version of the review:
http://www.box.net/shared/static/0pk1pq764t.mp3
“Public Enemies” rated R for gangster violence and some language (along with a sex scene, but no nudity) starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Givonni Ribisi
Directed by Michael Mann
This is a fast paced flick staged in Chicago about an infamous gangster, John Dillinger who lives for the moment, robs banks for business and it’s nothing personal and never works with people who are desperate.
From the moment you first hear the guns...you know you are in a gangster movie. I didn’t particularly care for the shaky and unstable camera action which supposedly added to the drama but rather distracted from the moment. A lot of almost not necessary …
Rating of
2.5/4
Tries hard but left with an average Film
hawkeye6287 - wrote on 07/19/2009
This film suffers from trying to be all things to all people, and as a result fails to be anything at all. That is not to say it is a terrible film, but it reeks of mediocrity.
One of the main problems is with Christian Bale's character. Bale's FBI agent is given too much screen time for the negligible charcter development he receieves. For all the screen time we know next to nothing about him nor do we really care if he catches Depp or not.
The same can be said of Depps Character - notorious bank robber John Dillinger. At no point do you ever really care if he lives dies, succeeds or fails. Now in some films this doesn;t matter, but the film seems to make alot of effort in trying to develop Dillinger as a romantic at heart, smooth, yet ruthless when he has to be, cold hearted …
