Public Enemies
I went and saw this film last night. Things were all going well – it was a rainy evening, I had a sufficient supply of snacks and I was in good company.
The thing about this film is that – well with a cast like Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard I think the hype for this film was a little over the top. Especially since every tram, street and cinema pushed the life-size cut out of DEPP in your face. THIS FILM HAS JOHNNY DEPP IN IT, YOU MUST WATCH.
The film was good, not bad, not great. It was entertainment – a popcorn flick. The dialogue was pretty lame in most parts – however for me this was the best bit of the movie. I couldn’t stop laughing everytime Christian Bale pulled out some huge piece of dialogue in his tangy American accent.
The action scenes where meh. All the bank robberies were the same, and there was quite a large scene in the middle of the film; which after 5 mins of crazy angles and guns firing everywhere I found myself thinking about what I was going to get done on the weekend and then realised I was watching a Johnny Depp film. One of my friends asked me ‘Was this movie filmed in digital with a handycam?’.
In general, I’m sick of action films having this kinda rapid camera changing stuff during action. You can’t see shit, have no idea whats going on and end up drinking half your large coke just to handle the nausea. I wonder what the difference of cuts was between say this film and No Country for Old men.
If you’ve got a bowl of popcorn, good company and wanna have a few laughs then go check it out, if you’ve got expectations that this film is going to be film of the year then don’t waste your money.
Have fun
2 Responses
The biggest problem that I had with the movie was that I was expecting it to be more of a heist style thing.
Turns out that it’s just a poorly written action/drama movie with a director that’s lost the plot. I’m really not sure what they were thinking with the steady-cam style shots. None of the action scenes made any sense due to the disorienting editing and the random shooting that seemed to take place through the entire movie.
It should have climaxed with one last heist, instead of some stupid scene with a chick that the audience didn’t really give a crap about because of the lack of character development.
Anyway, go see some MIFF films – the caliber is much higher and yet you expect so much less.
I think u guys were being a lil generous with your reviews… I saw this last night and wouldn’t recommend it to my grandpa who’s pretty much blind and can only hear in one ear.
You’ve definitely got one thing right about card board cut outs… they may as well of just replaced Depp and Bale with a couple of them and made their mouths move Monty Python style.
Coming from an acclaimed director such as Michael Mann, you’re guranteed some entertaining and even suspenseful g-man gun battles, but for some reason the magic from his previous hits such as Heat, just isn’t there.
Normally i’m a massive fan of Depp from movies such as Donnie Brasco and even his freaky MJ inspired Willy Wonka, but this performance was so wooden they could have just used Kevin Costner and spent a bit more money on better camera work.
For something positive about the movie, the gun fight scenes were pretty meaty and the explosive rapidfire of the tommy guns keeps you from nodding off.
I’d give it a 6 out of 10.