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.

RockNRolla

Eh... nah.

RocknRolla is the next film in a string of forgettable Guy Ritchie movies. I saw Lock Stock... and I saw Snatch, I don't remember what they were about and I guarantee that when the next Guy Ritchie movie comes out (The Real RockNRolla?) I won't remember what RockNRolla was about.

It all starts out seemingly complicated. I probably just didn't understand what was going on because British witty banter is almost always unintelligible to an American listener. By the time I finished my British to American Rosetta Stone audio tapes, the movie had reduced down to a quirky action comedy with no real point. Something about a "lucky painting" and double jeopardy robberies and then there's the RockNRolla. I'm not really sure why he was in the movie.

The stories all tie together at the end and while I was watching it it all felt important, but the truth is, as entertaining as it was, I feel like it was a waste of time.