Public Enemies. A review.

I've been meaning to update my blog this week with something other than a movie review but frankly, it's been a little tough.  More articles will come, soon, so please just stay patient.  I'll try my best to write something new this week for everybody, until then here's my review for PUBLIC ENEMIES.

I'm sure you are all aware of my extreme attraction to Michael Mann's HEAT, so for that, his new film PUBLIC ENEMIES was always going to be great in my mind.  But was it?  I wouldn't say great, but it's definitely one of the more enjoyable films so far this year.

This film is certainly rich with story and characters, only they all just appear, all of a sudden.  Most of their backstories and motives are never really explained, they just are, and they just do.  Which is fine, except with a film about one of the most notorious, elusive, and mysterious criminal minds in American history, I expected a little bit more.

It seems as though the director's goal was to somewhat ground all the myths around John Dillinger and the way he lived.  And in the film, Dillinger is not as mythical and mysterious as all the stories you've heard may lead you to believe.  That's all well and good, but we needed more, we needed to see what sets Dillinger so far apart from other gangsters like Baby Face Nelson and Al Capone.  What makes him so unique that he warrants a two and a half hour movie?

The film takes place during some of the most significant events in Dillinger's life, and each event is played out so naturally, it'll feel like you are watching a documentary.  All of the standoff/gunfighting scenes feel so real, and place you so close to the action you might catch yourself flinching at some gunfire.  And though the movie is about two and a half hours long, it really felt like every scene of the movie needed to be in there.  This movie doesn't leave you with a lasting echo in your brain when it ends (like HEAT does), but it does fulfill your needs for a highly entertaining gangster epic that audiences have not seen in a long time.  And one that's truly worth seeing.