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Public Enemies Movie Review

Well all this is a big deal for our little side of the web. We have just received a very cool review from an Atomic Popcorn reader by the name of Agent Smith who has seen Public Enemies. For those of you who aren’t in the know, this is the latest Christian Bale, Johnny Depp movie. Public Enemies is a 2009 film adaptation of Bryan Burrough’s book Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34 directed by Michael Mann.

I am definitely excited to see this film. Even prior to reading this review. Some are calling this the next big movie of 2009. A sure hit. Well what do you think?

Beware of SPOILERS Beware of SPOILERS Beware of SPOILERS

Ladies and gentleman I give you the “Heat” of the 1930’s

Film maker Michael Mann has decided to make up for his box office flop “Miami Vice” and went back to his earlier roots of “Heat” to manifest his next great film “Public Enemies”.

The film stars Johnny Depp as the public enemy John Dillinger, also known as “Jack Rabbit” who was regarded as a modern day Robin Hood. Dillinger was known for his bank robberies and the timely manner in which he executed them, which apparently was in one minute and forty seconds. The film details his criminal exploits while also focusing on his pursuer, FBI Agent Melvin Purvis, played by Christian Bale. The film also delves into the early beginnings of the FBI with a cameo of J Edgar Hoover played by Dr. Manhattan, I mean Billy Crudup ,who did a very good representation of the first Director of the FBI. Even down to the looks, I wasn’t sure if Crudup was wearing makeup or if he actually gained weight for the role.

Michael Mann uses his signature digital cinematography which he adopted for “Collateral” and “Miami Vice” which gives the film a gritty realistic look that makes the viewer think that they are really there.

The highlights of the movie are obviously the bank robbery sequences. Each one is fast paced with a flare of intensity. However, the real centerpiece of the film falls in the middle where Dillinger and his crew are ambushed by the FBI in a cabin in the woods. The buildup to this scene was incredible. The use of a third-person viewpoint on each side of the battle was great, when they had the camera follow the agents who got closer and closer; it was like watching a fire get closer to a barrel of gunpowder because you knew some serious business was about to – BOOM! Tommy Guns and glass shattering everywhere, what really caught my attention was the fact that the sounds coming from the guns were actual live sounds and not Foley effects. So you felt that you were thrown into the scene, with the mix of digital film and real gun sounds you almost felt like ducking down so you wouldn’t get shot. You really felt like you were a part of the moment, that’s what Michael Mann does best.

Johnny Depp becomes the cunning, smart man that Dillinger was known to be. One moment in the film that really showed me that Depp got into character was when he met his love for the first time. He plays off confident and cool as if he owns the area that surrounds him.

Christian Bale takes on the role of Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent in charge of hunting down Dillinger. Bale played Purvis well and showed an awesome intensity in his manhunt for Dillinger. One problem I found, though, was that there wasn’t really enough back story on Purvis, so you couldn’t really feel close to the character. The other problem was that I thought the film would have equal Dillinger and Purvis screen time much like “Heat” did but more time was spent on Dillinger, so Purvis felt more like a background character. Another performance high light was Stephen Graham who played Baby Face Nelson, another public enemy. An early bank robbery scene with Dillinger and his crew was more organized while in the later bank robbery scene with Nelson you saw a different style play out. Nelson was a maniac and shot up the place while Dillinger played it cool, so you saw that Dillinger wasn’t so completely evil a bad guy as the FBI described him to be.

The pacing the film moved both fast and slow but not enough time was spent on characters like Purvis and I wish that the film had run longer then its two and a half hour length. If they had dug deeper into Bale I think that would have improved the film a lot. The film was great, I am just hoping that they don’t cut down any of the shoot outs – those were definitely the highlights. I will  be seeing this when it comes out July 1st, and will be curious to see what the final cut will be.