Rating of
3/4
Back to old school "Gangsters"
thebakerboyhimself - wrote on 08/04/09
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 close-ups. There is a lot of violence of course...it is a Gangster movie—not a mafia movie, The GodFather, Mobsters, Goodfellas...not that kind of gangster movie—more like Gangs of New York meets Bandits. If you liked either one of those flicks...you might get into this. There is some blood, and even worse—a sex scene—fortunately, I guess...no nudity.
It certainly gives you a glimpse of the other side of this so-called glam lifestyle of bank robbing, the side that moms and dads don’t share with the kiddies during storytime
Depp did a slam dunk job, as usual...regardless of a very simple plot...of course how glamorous can you make a true story about bank robbers. This lady-loving, whisky-drinking always-on-the-run bank robber possesses such acting skills that shout—it’s time to root for the bad guy. He might as well be cast as the IN version of James Bond—suave, debonair, with a touch of southern accented hospitality for the women
The year is 1933, Fedoras and trench coats, and the 4th year of the great depression and we find Johnny Dillinger, a no-nonsense, down home, country boy, friend-honoring, character who knows his guns and his gals, plays spin the dial with Bank presidents, and just broke out of the State Pen in the era of great bank robbers with the CHI-town feds who just declared a war on crime are hot on his tale and his gang, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd
Some very suspenseful moments in the film kept you on the edge of your seat wondering if this time...they catch Dillinger. If nothing else, you’ll enjoy a very special moment shared by Dillinger and the Chicago Police Dept..but that’s just my humble opinion.
