Im still gay for Johnny Depp

I was once in a heated debate as to whether Johnny Depp has ever been in a bad movie. I have now been proven wrong...

This movie really disappointed me for a few different reasons.


First and most glaring was the camera work. It looks like the entire movie was filmed for a History Channel re-enactment. Extreme close ups that follow the actors for way too long, grainy film work that I'm guessing is for dramatic effect, and the old fade to b/w to transition into a film reel.

Scene transitions were almost non existent, you jumped from scene to scene without any clear idea as to what happened in the between time. It also suffers from Cloverfield syndrome, where it appears they couldn't afford to hire cameramen who could keep a camera steady, instead they got a guy with a handicam who was going through heroin withdrawals..

Second was the action. I loves me some action, a little heart pounding and suspense makes for a good movie, it engages the audience and makes them want more. Public Enemies does not deliver on that. The gunfights start and they just keep going and going and going and going, to the point where I went to the bathroom, came back and the same damn gunfight was still going. I am aware that some of the showdowns between the Dillinger gang and the FBI were quite lengthy but when I get bored of a damn gunfight, you are making the movie wrong.

Length isn't even the real issue here, the gunfights just aren't captivating. You watch Saving Private Ryan and you don't want to get up when they are storming the beach, you don't want to miss anything when orcs are besieging Helm's Deep, and you aren't going to blink during Tombstone at the OK Corral. I went to the damn bathroom in the middle of a gunfight.


Third is the characters. Johnny Depp is amazing and charismatic, Christian Bale isn't doing the Batman voice and you really feel for his character of Melvin Purvis. I really hope these two do more work together in the future, in a better film. Neither of these characters are developed well though. You see that John Dillinger likes robbing banks and is good at it, but why? Melvin Purvis has a strong dedication to the law and wants to see Dillinger brought to justice, buy why?

All of the other characters are borderline nameless, there have no development, no intriguing qualities, and are wholly uninteresting. The Lady in Red was always a central and enigmatic figure in the Dillinger tale, she is introduced as a madame in the beginning of the movie and the BAM informant. I really would have liked to see her character shown more, even if they took some artistic license to fill in the blanks.

Other well know gangsters are shown in this movie, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, etc. The movie is called Public Enemies...not John Dillinger (it would have failed on this as well.)

The random G-Men that are shown I'm sure have some history behind them, why does the fat boy relish in beating the shit out of a woman? I WANT TO KNOW!


Last is the soundtrack. I didn't see it in some fancy IMAX with ZOMG sound, I like my small hometown theater, it wont be crowded and I wont have idiots ruining the movie for me, I'm not complaining about the sound quality anyway. I will have to watch this movie again and actually time it but I swear that at least 1/3 of the sound in this movie is gun fire. Non-stop gunfire, I touched on this in the action sequence but damn...it just lasted way to long.

The other 2/3 of the movie are some dialogue, some random song from the 1920's or 30's or just silence. Silence can be used to great dramatic effect, when used properly its amazing and has more feeling than Oh Fortuna. But when its silence for no apparent reason, it is just boring.


I did not enjoy this movie, it had so much promise but failed to deliver.

It could have been a classic, gritty, Chicago crime drama. Instead its a too long gun fight movie that barely touches on the story of John Dillinger and Melvin Purvis, the formation of the FBI, and the later consequences of the federal criminal legislation. I wanted Blow, I got Bad Boys 2.