I just loved how in this film we actually get to see lots of bank robberies carried out as normal

The thing I also like about this film was the amount of action. I’m not an action-junkie, but at the end of the day these men’s lives centred around violence and it was being represented. Yes, I agree that sometimes it was very short and there was little in the way of ‘genius escape plots or epic shootouts’, but it all felt very genuine and right, since robberies did last mere minutes.

I was disappointed in the characterisation, it must be said. I felt the performances were generally very compelling, but you did feel that characters were under-developed. While I would have liked to see more screen-time given to Dillinger’s associates (it was very difficult to put names to faces) I felt that Depp and even Bale carried the film very well anyway. In fact, I wasn’t quite ready for the level of subtlety and complexity in the characters of Purvis and Dillinger; some might say that’s just an overused excuse used by filmmakers who haven’t coaxed good performances out of their characters, but my peers and I marvelled at the staggering depth of these actors.

Each to his own opinion I suppose. However, I do feel that some comments have been overly harsh. I for one thought this deserved more than 1 star, and can’t help but feel that some people have either missed the point or were expecting a different film. I wasn’t expecting this, but I was pleasantly surprised.

On a side note, my local paper said that this was “a poor relation to the Cagney classic, ‘The Public Enemy'”. Now, while I loved The Public Enemy, any reviewer that’s tried to link these two films is idiotic, I hope we can all agree on this at least. Honestly, these two films deal with none of the same subjects and have no relation to each other at all except in title.

0 stars out of 4. Giant waste of time. Go read a book, walk the dog, take a shit – anything is better than this fucking movie

The digital handheld photography was just plain ugly. It was like watching the worst ever episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The sound mix was really bad, too. I thought it was maybe just my theatre but I see others have also noticed it. The fact that they remixed Blind Willie Johnson’s song “Dark Was The Night” near the end of the film felt like a personal slap in my face.

But even if this film, err video, were a technical masterpiece it would still be a big stinking piece of crap because of the poor, poor writing. The character of Dillinger remains static throughout and none of his chums are developed either, so you don’t care at all when they got shot and killed, if you can even tell who’s getting shot and killed. I feel so cheated by this movie…

The 1945 film “Dillinger” is infinitely better than “Public Enemies” and it’s not especially good. Or how about James Cagney in “The Public Enemy” or any of those 1930’s Warner Bros. gangster movies, or “Bonnie And Clyde” or staring out the window watching the grass grow.

Booooo.

You need to get your heads tested. PE is a snoozefest if I ever saw/slept through one. Michael Mann thought he was making some edgy, true-to-life gangster flick but halfway through he probably got high and decided to make it a love story. And we end up with a Laaaaaame-ass film where you see johnny depp for about 2 hours with 50 other characters sharing about 20 minutes of screentime. Pointless pointless pointless movie.

And having just done a mental recap of the last half hour (during which there about a million loose ends left untied coupled with some stupid, needless scenes) I have come to the conclusion that Public Enemies is a shit movie.

I felt cheated after watching this film. The best part of my evening was when I played time crisis 4 for an hour afterwards. Seriously that game is awesome.

http://thefilmnest.com/2009/07/michael-mann-career-retrospective/

The Rake

as far as everything else goes it gets an F. this movie was boring, long, and just horrible. It was predictable and you just wanted to get up and walk out half way in. Besides a few action scenes and a couple of funny jokes this movie sucked.

how can you take a story like with john dillinger, a bank robber, and turn it into a 3 hour snooze fest. Sorry Johnny but not even you could save this movie.

The worst movie i’ve seen all summer.

Someone please answer me this; WHY DID ZODIAC LOOK SO AMAZING AND PUBLIC ENEMIES LOOK LIKE CRAP!? I literally left the theater thinking one of three things, 1., Mann and his DP really don’t know what they are doing. 2., They don’t care, or 3., Mann has a lot of stock in digital companies.

This film needed to be dripping with light, shadow, deep reds and rich set decoration – like Aviator. Instead, it is a blown out mess with many scenes like at the nightclub neither taking advantage of the camera’s ability to shoot dark spaces or create an epic set piece with rich set decoration! Mann may say he wanted to focus on the actors but the lines they deliver are poor and scream for some help from the surrondings.

And the way this film makes everyone look pale and pot-marked is so misguided. If Mann’s intent is to make Dillinger seem rough and raw the rendition of Depp’s sikn is o.k., but everything about this film is a romantic version of a yesterday hero – the film technique goes counter to the intent.

Wow, what a messed opportunity to do a really cool movie.

THIS IS A MOVIE FOR ADULTS. A THOUGHTFUL FILM WITH A DIFFERENT TAKE ON A GANGSTER STORY.

EASILY 3.5 STARS OUT OF 4.