Public Enemies

No.

Public Enemies was long and boring.

Johnny Depp was fine, it was a little weird seeing him act like a real person and not a boarder line cartoon character, i.e. Jack Sparrow, Ichabod Crane, Willy Wonka, Sweeny Todd, Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands. I wouldn't have even noticed that Christian Bale was in the movie if he wasn't so terrible. He couldn't even pull off an American accent. When it really came down to it, it kind felt like the three main actors didn't care about the material... and so neither did I.

I don't think it was all the actors' fault, the dialogue wasn't great and the camera work was awkward. Most of Depp's dialogue could have been used as catch phrases and the last few lines of the movie, including the two sentences that are written on the screen, are so emotionless that i honestly couldn't believe I sat there and stared a Marion Cotillard for what felt like an hour to read it. Director Michael Mann's decision to film the entire movie with digital handheld cameras, kind of took me out of the whole experience. It gave the movie, which took place in the 1930's, a more modern feel which contradicted the elaborate, accurate, beautiful sets. If I was the set designer, I would have been pissed that I spent so much time making it look like 1933 only to have the director film the movie like it takes place in 2009.

Even with the star power and talent of Depp, Bale, Cotillard, Giovanni Ribisi, Channing Tatum, Billy Cruddup, Stephen Dorff and David Wenham being directed by the same man who brought us Heat and Collateral, Public Enemies was too bland a film to recommend.