Johnny Depp Movie:

		List Price: $36.98		Label: Universal Studios Salesrank: 140 Released: December 8, 2009
		Our Price: $19.99
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
From award-winning director Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral) comes the film inspired by one of the country’s most captivating and infamous outlaws — John Dillinger. Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean series) stars as the charismatic and elusive bank robber marked by the FBI as America’s first “Public Enemy Number One.” Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) plays Billie Frechette, the only woman capable of capturing his heart. Hunted relentlessly by top FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale, The Dark Knight), Dillinger engages in an escalating game of outrunning and outgunning the FBI, culminating in an explosive, legendary showdown. “It’s a landmark crime saga” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone).

Description of Public Enemies [Blu-ray]:
Since crime auteur Michael Mann, like his protagonists, plays by his own rules, Public Enemies eschews back story and motivation for a closely-observed, action-packed examination of men at work. FBI supremo J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) kick-starts a nationwide manhunt when he proclaims John Dillinger (Johnny Depp, in top form) Public Enemy #1. Hoover taps Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) to bring the Tommy Gun-toting bank robber in by any means necessary (the agency also targets Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson). If Dillinger had split the scene then and there, he might have enjoyed a happier fate, but he falls for beautiful coat-check girl Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard, whose open-hearted performance makes her the most sympathetic character in the film). In the end, though, Dillinger is the captain of his own destiny: his loyalty to his girl and his gang overpowers his desire to live free. Though the director also set his first film, Thief, and third series, Crime Story, in his native Chicago, Public Enemies plays more like Heat in Depression-era garb. In that L.A. policier, Al Pacino's cop develops a grudging respect for Robert De Niro's criminal, but letting a lawbreaker go free isn't an option. In this case, however, the tight-lipped Purvis never develops the same sort of esteem for Dillinger--or Hoover--making him the more tragic figure. If Public Enemies is less overtly commercial than The Untouchables or Bugsy, it's still the best mainstream gangster epic in ages and ranks among Mann's finest works. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Stills from Public Enemies (Click for larger image)

Public Enemies [Blu-ray] Reviews:
The B.A.R., the Thompson, and lots & lots of bullets....
2009-11-24 - This film is over two hours long and if you removed all the dialogue it would probably still be two hours long, and after a while it begins to seem quite long, because it's another retelling of the story of another real-life gangster who gets what he has coming, and frankly they didn't need an actor of the caliber of Johnny Depp to handle the scant material he is provided with in this film.

Personally, I thought Thief more interesting.

Untouchables
2009-11-23 - Remember the Untouchables TV show? Then you will enjoy the updated treatment of the subject as they pursue John Dillinger. Graphic violence, but only as a part of the storyline and not there just for shock value. Of course no movie is perfect, but I would recommend it to those who enjoy a fictional movie about a historical subject. They got a lot of the history right, and made up some to fill in the cracks.

R rating a disappointment......
2009-11-12 - I was very upset that this movie was rated R. I really think that it sunk the film. There was a total of three swear words (if that), the violence was almost cartoonish (Dick Tracy with Warren Beatty was much more violent)and there was certainly no sexual content. But the hand held camera action was kind of unusual even though I know that Michael Mann was going for a natural look and I think they achieved that. Being the huge Johnny Depp fan that I am, it made me sick that while the filming of this movie was going on 11 miles down the road from where I live, I couldn't go meet him but I think he made an awesome Dillinger. He was definitely much more interesting than the real guy. The real Dillinger looked like a scum-bag. Depp gave him some class. I didn't really believe the character of his girlfriend though. The way he treated her, she had no reason to fall for the guy or put her life on the line the way they did. Even their one love scene was so lame, it was difficult to believe in their romance. The character of Billie had was about as charming and believable as a rock-nuthin! Christina Slater, on the other hand, as Melvin Purvis, scared the daylights out of me. He was determined to get Dillinger and I'm sure that is what drove him to madness, Purvis I mean. I also did not like the the beginning of the movie, where he shot down Pretty Boy Floyd like he was a deer. Not cool. All in all, I was O.K. with the film but I'm not so sure that I want to own it. If I want to look at Depp I can always watch one of the three Pirates movies that I own, or Benny and Joon (young Depp) or Sleepy Hollow (again much scarier than this film). I just wish this film had been a little bit better and maybe Oscar worthy. Now, I don't think so. Too bad.

Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotilliard & Michael Mann Directing!!--'Nuff Said!!
2009-11-09 - I have this film (the 2-Disc version) on pre-order and can't wait to see the
special features and delete/extended scenes!---My boy Johnny Depp always brings it!
The depth, dimensions, quirks & ticks...he creates and inhabits whole characters
in everything he plays in! His rendition of the notorius and beloved John Dillinger
shows no chinks in his acting armour as of yet!
Christian Bale is no slouch in this department either!
He turns in a great performance in this as FBI agent, Melvin Purvis
as well as Marion Cotilliard, who to me "channeled" Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose"!!
In this she plays (Depp) Dillinger's love interest and melts with Johnny Depp brilliantly.
The other cast members: Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover, Channing Tatum and others
turned in believable supporting perfomances as well.
With the brilliant Michael Mann (Heat) at the directing helm, this film delivers big time!
I saw this at the theatres twice because the performances were so good,
meshing with the multi-layered storytelling and direction in such a way
that you will see something that you missed every time you see it!
This is definitely one for the DVD collection--Buy It!

Nowhere near as good as "Heat"
2009-11-01 - The 1995 movie "Heat" made Michael Mann's movie career, and ever since then he has made movies similar to "Heat" in that the two leading characters manage to be both doppelgangers of each other while being a study in contrasts. That could be said about "Heat" (1995), "The Insider" (1999), "Collateral" (2004), "Miami Vice" (2006), and now "Public Enemies" (the only exception to this rule is "Ali" (2001), which is also Michael Mann's best film since "Heat").

In "Public Enemies," Johnny Depp stars as John Dillinger and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the FBI man tasked with hunting down public enemy number one. There's a lot of moral ambiguity that makes "Heat" interesting, but "Public Enemies" is very heavy-handed. Michael Mann asserts that John Dillinger represented American freedom, the lone hero who fights for love, friends, and honor in dark despicable times. And in the end he's crushed by the social forces arrayed against him: the dangerously ambitious J. Edgar Hoover who wants to use Dillinger's death to catapult himself into national fame and power, and the darkly powerful Syndicate who, in having reached a compromise with law enforcement to engage in sinisterly quiet racketeering, need to eliminate Dillinger because he is anything but sinisterly quiet. With his friends all dead and his lover in jail, John Dillinger only hopes for a loud and fast death.

The story is of course Hollywood, and having Johnny Depp star in the lead role assures a sympathetic rendering of the John Dillinger legend. The real problems are the thinness of the script, the banality of the characters, and the entire pointlessness of the endeavor. "Heat" was its own internal world, and that world was vast, striking, and knowable; "Public Enemies" involves both an era and a nation and so promises to offer a much larger world, but instead it comes across as small-minded and confined. Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro made an interesting study in contrasts, and their dueling personalities made the movie dynamic and alive. In "Public Enemies," neither the characters of Johnny Depp and Christian Bale is developed so as to offer the audience an understanding of their personalities and worldview, and thus their duel really doesn't seem to have any purpose except to drive the plot along.

"Public Enemies" is a pointless waste of time.