Movie Review: Public Enemies

So I saw the new Michael Mann flick Public Enemies last night.

I won't write this out as a formal review because it was a work print and is not a completed product. So I'll keep it brief.

The movie is terrible. It's confusing and takes no time introducing any characters. Half the time I didn't know who anyone was so any references to characters were useless. I couldn't tell you who played who besides Depp and Bale. The film opens with text about the Great Depression but the movie has one scene that even seems to indicate any kind of depression is happening.

The plot is paper thin. It's basically Dillenger (Depp) robbing banks while falling in love with a girl and being chased by the feds. The problem is that it never feels like there is a coherent plot happening. It just seems like a series of scenes strung together that loosely relate to each other.

This is certainly Johnny Depp's movie. He does great as usual. Christian Bale has about a total of twenty minutes of screen time and to be honest I was not impressed with him at all.

It just didn't work for me. It didn't feel like a Michael Mann film at all. It felt like a movie trying to be great simply to garner good reviews. It's probably one of the worst Michael Mann movies I've seen, including Miami Vice.

With luck the movie can be saved with some serious editing and reshoots. It needs a LOT of work though.