Film Public Enemies

[cletus]

Surprised there is no thread to be found!

In the action-thriller Public Enemies, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard in the incredible and true story of legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger (Depp), the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the downtrodden public.

Source: Universal Pictures

Anyway, I went to see this yesterday & it has been quite a while since I've had such a huge disappointment at the cinema. It starts off well & you think you are set for an epic 30's Ganster movie, but then it slows down a good bit & meanders along at an unhurried pace. The acting was fine, but there was no snappy dialogue, zero memorable quotes & a huge feeling of emptiness.

I am no director, but the person in charge of cinematography must have had a few days off here & there. The thing that struck me most was that the quality of filming changed from one scene to the other. One minute you are watching good quality film & then the next scene changes to a similar film quality that Nigerian TV use on a daytime soap. The scene involving machine guns at a wooden lodge made it look like the area had been lit by an orange flare more than the flash of the gun.

In parts it was very well filmed, but in others it was like someone used an old betamax camcorder. Hard to believe this is the same guy who brought us Heat & Collateral. Whoever edited this movie deserves a massive, full punch in the face. Twice.

Don't get me wrong, everyone on film turned up & did their bit well. I just thought it was extremely boring & sad that this had the potential to be one of the best gangster flicks in years. I almost cried.

I'm giving it one star.

Can we get a poll please nice mod people? Ta :D

 

[cravNbeets]

even from watching the previews i get the sense that this movie is gonna be a solid b minus. still prob gonna check it out... love depp and michael mann.

 

[tribal girl]

Hmmm, I was gonna see this over the weekend as I thought it looked promising. I then read a few reviews (which I don't usually do tbh) and they were fairly mixed. Some of them also mentioned it was rather boring and slow moving. T'is a shame. I was hoping for a Bonnie And Clyde roller coaster type ride.

I might go see Drag Me To Hell instead.

 

[AmorRoark]

It was alright. Nothing amazing but nothing that made me want to walk out of the theater. Sure some things annoyed me, like

NSFW:

Dillinger walking into the police station's department that was specifically looking for him, meandering around, asking the detectives who were on the case to find him what the score of the baseball game was because he's just that badass 8( lol

but there were some highlights... mostly for me it was the shootout scenes. I'll give Michael Mann that. He sure knows how to make an exciting shoot-out scene. Oh, and I liked Marion Cotillard in it as well.

 

[tribal girl]

^She's super nice looking. I thought it was Asia Argento when I first saw the trailer.

Grrr.

 

[TheSpade]

I just thought it was extremely boring & sad that this had the potential to be one of the best gangster flicks in years. I almost cried.

You need to watch Mesrine Cleets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCE_rCJVXHY

 

[cletus]

^ Cheers spade, looks good, I'll try & source :D

 

[mariacallas]

Can we get a poll please nice mod people? Ta :D

Yer wish is my command

 

[2oclockbeanfiend.2]

3/5

Depp was dope as well as the rest of the cast, but the shit was too long. And way too much romance. I went to see a movie about a notorious bank robber with massive tommy gun blasts (which there are plenty of - Michael Mann def knows his shit when it comes to gunfights), not a movie half about robbing banks and gunfights and half about boring (as fuck) romance. Also, there were several sequences where Mann's choice of camera was completely fucking stupid (a la Miami Vice which I turned off after 5 minutes.)

PRETTY good movie, but I'm very disappointed considering how ill the trailer looked.

btw, Amor, if that really happened (which I do not know), then i think it was a great scene

 

[AmorRoark]

^ That scene definitely did NOT happen. I'd put over $100 on it (and that's a lot of money for me). I highly doubt there was even a 'John Dillinger' division in the Chicago Police force. 8(

What the fuck are you talking about with the 'too much romance'? I don't even think she was on the scene that often. What? Were they together for maybe 20-30 minutes of the whole movie? It was mostly just Johnny with his gang (90% of the time) or her alone.

I also disagree with your critique of it being too long. I generally find people who complain about length as people who have way too short attention spans, don't understand movie development and expect every second to have bombs or whistles going off. You're probably not one of those people but yeah, I hate that type of critique. It's not like nothing was going on. We weren't watching paint dry. There was a reason for the length. It wasn't like a Victor Hugo novel but that's for another thread.

I really disagree with almost everything you have to say about this.

Also, I find a one star rating ridiculous, cletus.

<- HATER OF THE DAY!

 

[2oclockbeanfiend.2]

Amor,
I don't think its completely impossible. Unless all the movie theatre scenes were complete bullshit as well, Dillinger's face apparently wasn't as recognizable as say, Johnny Depp, lol. Actually a lot (well, way more than I would have guessed) of the scenes seemed to be in somewhat public places, so unless he really was the criminal hero the movie portrayed him to be, he must have disguised himself alot more than shaving (or not shaving) his mustache and wearing random hats.

As far as the length and the romance, maybe without that 20-30 minutes with them together I would have liked it alot more, lol. I will say this though, at that particular theatre I saw those 3 films at, they play like 30 mins of tv commercials/trailers before every movie. Transformers seemed ridiculously long to me too, but I think it was only like 2 hrs.

Another thing, to me, all the bank scenes looked EXACTLY the same. I was a little disappointed with that. Just a little.

Oh, and I bet there was a CPD task force dedicated to Dillinger and his gang.

 

[AmorRoark]

I'm sure there was a task force dedicated to him but I'm sure they didn't have their own official wing with "John Dillinger" on the fucking door. 8(

I cannot believe you honestly think Dillinger went into the police station, specifically this magical division with his name on it, asked the score of the Cubs game, had people (who are on this alleged force separate from the rest of the police department) talk/look at him and NOT get caught. I've talked to 4 people who have seen this movie apart from you who all, independently, were super annoyed at the ridiculousness of the scene. Perhaps it's possible that if he went in there he wouldn't get caught but why the fuck would he do that? For shits and giggles? He was a smart man, he wouldn't do that.

Plus, there are sooo many things that are WRONG in the movie that I KNOW about so it's so unlikely that this one particular scene (which was sort of cheeky for the film) that seems rather unlikely would be true.

Some of the the things wrong include the color of the outfit his snitch was going to wear to the movie (why even change this? so dumb); also having Babyface Nelson die before Dillinger (he died several months after they had killed Dillinger). So yeah, this seeming ridiculous scene is not going to be believed by this girl until I see some real facts lol.

 

[cletus]

Also, I find a one star rating ridiculous, cletus.

Oi you, I'll decide what to give it. The only reason it got 1 star is because 0 is not an option. I'm finding it ridiculous you are defending it :D

I see Tomer gave it one star also, care to elaborate why?

 

[AmorRoark]

I'm critiquing it, not blindly hating it. BLINDNESS I tell you.

I was also annoyed by Depp's eye makeup. It looked silly.

Man, with all the things I find wrong with this film maybe I should have voted 2 stars... but definitely not 1, that spot is specially saved for JLo movies.

 

[cletus]

Jlo movies aren't worth commenting on & don't even deserve one illustrious star. Even that is aiming too high for her.

I was stunned, by exactly how much I disliked this movie. I didn't go into too much deatil in fear of spoiling, but yes the police station scene irritated me & was the final nail in the coffin. I personally thought it dragged on too far & urged it to end quicker. My mate said that after 1 hour he was close to leaving & only stayed because he thought it would go somewhere. You have to agree, it didn't, did it? If he walked, I probably would have followed.

Since it was early in the day, we were gonna catch another film, but seeing this first almost destroyed our will to live & we couldn't face any longer in a cinema, so went home instead. All because of Public Enemies & I don't know if mentioned this already - it's shite. 1 Star. :D

 

[AmorRoark]

Though I did admit some scenes were inaccurate (and dumb) the film was generally Dillinger's life story. You should take it being dull and sad up with him, not Michael Mann.

Nah, I agree that it wasn't like the film masterpiece of the year (I wasn't expecting that, it's fucking Michael Mann after all) but I certainly didn't feel like walking out.

 

[juniortha3rd]

Haven't seen the movie.... yet. Not sure if I want to now

One thing I don't understand is why Dillinger's crimes have become legend. What sets him apart from any other clown who sticks a gun in a bank teller's face?

He seems like just another shit-kicker who kicked some shit.

 

[2oclockbeanfiend.2]

Some of the the things wrong include the color of the outfit his snitch was going to wear to the movie (why even change this? so dumb)

On the evening of July 22, tipped off by a female companion later made famous in the newspapers as the Lady in Red (actually she wore an orange skirt and white blouse), agents from the Justice Department's Division of Investigation, soon to be renamed the FBI, ambushed Dillinger as he left the Biograph theater.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns...inger-really-die-outside-the-biograph-theater

IDK what credibility they have, but that description is what she wore in the movie.

The "Lady in Red" story subsequently became legend, and stemmed in part from a poem allegedly chalked on the alley wall where Dillinger was shot:

"Stranger stop and wish me well,
Just say a prayer for my soul in hell.
I was a good fellow, most people said,
Betrayed by a woman dressed all in red"

 

[2oclockbeanfiend.2]

Perhaps it's possible that if he went in there he wouldn't get caught but why the fuck would he do that? For shits and giggles? He was a smart man, he wouldn't do that.

Is it possible that he just believed he could pull it off? Ever heard of arrogance?

After his death, it was reported that Dillinger had deliberately taunted J. Edgar Hoover by making collect phone calls to the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, as well as sending him Christmas cards.

 

[AmorRoark]

^ The letters rumor has never been confirmed (I sincerely doubt it) and is not nearly as risky as WALKING into a police station, specifically the task force office looking for you. Wikipedia seems to have a lot of the legends, myths, whatever surrounding Dillinger and walking into the station that was looking for him has never made the list. Even if it is a legend (which I've never heard before the movie), it stays that a legend. There is no way anybody will ever know if it's true. I'm still pretty sure the writer made it up.

Thanks for clearing up the lady in red issue. That makes sense.