Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup

Directed by: Michael Mann

On this lovely afternoon of the “40th Anniversary Moon Landing Day”, I decided to go to the mall to catch a movie, and do a little shopping. Today, I caught the movie “Public Enemies”, here is my review:

Plot/synopsis: Based on the real life story and real events in the history books, this film is set in the 1930’s, during the Great Depression. John Dillinger (Depp) is an American mobster who robbed banks to make a living and to get rich off of. He was a very dangerous man, short tempered and violent. Dillinger falls in love with a woman named, Billie Frechette (Cotillard), which she doesn’t mind him being the gangster criminal that Dillinger is. FBI’s, J. Edgar Hoover (Crudup), sends out, Melvin Purvis (Bale), an FBI agent to hunt down Dillinger and kill him. Dillinger was a dangerous madman who got away with most bank robberies and escaped from prison twice, lived his long life committing crimes.

Read more information on the real John Dillinger story here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dillinger

As usual, Michael Mann’s movies never dissapoints. If you don’t know who Michael Mann is, he has made such movies like: “The Last of the Mohicans”, “Heat”, “The Insider”, “Ali”, and “Collateral”. They’re all great movies.

I thought, “Public Enemies” was a perfect film overall. Good writing, great acting by the cast, excellent camera work, good musical scoring, etc. Johnny Depp and Christian Bale were both great as usual…but the performance that grabbed me the most was Marion Cotillard’s. Marion was known to put on some intense performances in her films over the years and I think her performance in this was pretty powerful.

I think Marion will get an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for this movie. This movie “Public Enemies” is not worthy of other awards, but the only award worth giving to is Marion’s performance. Of course, you may think the movie will show her naked according to the trailers, but you don’t see her naked in this movie at all. So, don’t let the trailers fool you. She dresses up sexy and you see her legs sticking out of the bathtub, that’s about it.

The violence in the movie is what got me the most. The film had some pretty bonechilling tommy gun shooting toward the end of the film. In mobster movies like this in the 30’s, you never see violence that intense, but Michael Mann made the violence in this movie, it made you wanting more and more.

The movie runs about 2 and a half hours long, but I loved the movie a lot. Forget your usual summer popcorn flicks, and check out this one. “Public Enemies” didn’t do well in the box office even though it had Johnny Depp in it, the only time Johnny Depp is successful in a movie is when he does a sexy role that the girls would drool over or if he does a Disney or a Tim Burton flick…well this flick is none of those. This role is a different character for Johnny Depp.

Score for “Public Enemies” = **** (4 stars as in “Excellent”)

Kev