Below is my review of "PUBLIC ENEMIES", Michael Mann's 2009 movie about the last year of Depression era bank robber John Dillinger's life:


"PUBLIC ENEMIES" (2009) Review

I must admit that when I first heard about Michael Mann’s plans to film a movie about Depression-era bank robber, John Dillinger, I became excited. It was not the subject that roused my interest. But I found the idea of Mann shooting a movie set during the height of the Great Depression – 1933 to 1934 – rather interesting. It has become a period in U.S. history that has caught my interest in the past eight years. And the fact that Johnny Depp and Christian Bale had been cast in the leads as Dillinger and his nemesis, FBI Agent Melvin Purvis, merely increased my interest.

At first, I had assumed that I would love "PUBLIC ENEMIES". I assumed that Mann could do no wrong. Then to my surprise, I discovered that the film had received mixed reviews from film critics. From that moment on, I began to harbor doubts about the film’s quality. [i]I never learn. I had forgotten my most important rule about approaching a movie – the only opinion...

mmm... I'll give you a well considered opinion....surprisingly not
in the flavour of mass poison-apple consumption...."toughest and most violent gangsta movie ever made eh?" What an edifying reason to get a blockbuster erection! Glorifying violence? For
the cultivated middle age audiences who grew up on Mr Depp's supposedly well-chosen career-path dotted with such non-conformist roles as Edward, Ed Wood, Gilbert Grape and Dead Man? His royal cheekbone highness has really been letting the team down lately....starring in gratuitous violence and painting the town a dark clotted red...Am I the only sane person left on the viewing planet? I mean pardon me...but isn't it a little sick to fall for the hook of mr depp or his partner in movie crime mr pitt...twice in the same EMPIRE month? Knowing that marketing companies are playing the sentimental seduction card with the 80's-Generation, in order to sign seal and deliver their souls to satan? Or whoever's in charge of Kafka's Machine these days. Isn't it a little sick going to see a flick where we know we are placed in the position of being in love with the devil? The same dish was just served to a new generation of dumbo...