Public Enemies

[Bruce Malone]

He's actually 15 years older than dillinger was when he dies yet somehow looks 10 years younger..go figure

 

[Bruce Malone]

He's actually 15 years older than dillinger was when he died yet somehow looks 10 years younger..go figure

 

[Schlosser85]

Depp is much better looking than Dillinger, but he's got the smirk down.

 

[The Guard]

He's actually 15 years older than dillinger was when he died yet somehow looks 10 years younger..go figure

I'm gonna go with the fact that he didn't actually spent 10 years in prison.

 

[Schlosser85]

People tended to look older than their age back than anyway.

 

[bullets]

I thought Depp had a good resemblance

 

[bullets]

Bale looks nothing like Melvin Purvis

 

[bullets]

Like a few of the reviews say, we didn't get quite enough of the public's reaction.

I could see that but I thought they handled it well. The movie seemed like one long ending to me.

 

[Drizzle]

I saw this today. I was kind of let down because my expectations were so high and I felt the movie was mediocre. Depp was good, but this is far from his best work. If he gets an Oscar for this, it'll be out of pity for the times they shafted him for much more deserving performances. Bale was okay as Purvis, but was it just me, or did his character suffer from a severe lack of screentime?

 

[bullets]

I don't think there was one scene of Purvis without him being on the job. When Depp says that line about getting a new job i think that was as deep as it got.

 

[RKO]

Really loved the movie. It was what I expected and it had some great performances.
Dillinger breaking down by the end seeing Billie taken away, was great. Depp was really good, and Bale was just total badass.

 

[Asr]

I'd give this movie a 7 out of 10. It wasn't exceptional but it wasn't that bad either.

My biggest nitpicks against it are: (1) almost no character backstory or development for the major characters - Dillinger, Purvis, Hoover, and Billie (the girl), (2) the pacing overall felt just a tad too slow (as in, the motion within scenes, not the editing), (3) despite above-average casting, none of the acting was particularly exceptional - it was good, just not great.

Relatively minor nitpicks though, because otherwise the movie was solid and the directing was pretty good. I didn't personally notice anything odd about the cinematography, though maybe that's because I really got into the movie and the story. And the shoot-outs were really fantastic too - every one of them blew me away! Are theaters really dialing back the sound-volume level of this movie? I could kinda believe that since the dialog felt too quiet throughout, and it would've been even more amazing to get even louder gunfire. Wow that was so intense every time a gun got fired. The one in the remote cabin was just so damn awesome and would be awesome at full volume!

I'll also have to re-watch this on DVD when it comes out because I totally missed Emilie de Ravin (Claire from "Lost") and Diana Krall (credited as a "torch singer"). And Giovanni Ribisi was in this too which threw me for a moment initially, as I haven't seen him in any movies since Flight of the Phoenix which was 5 years ago.

 

[theoneandonly]

saw this movie last night, i loved ever second of it
when dillinger walks into the police station is just total badassery. my cinema turned down the volume though which was pretty annoying. depp was amazing as always and bale was good in it but suffered i think due to lack of screentime .

 

[BestGirl]

Bale looks nothing like Melvin Purvis

There was some guy standing next to Bale in one of the clips (the one where Hoover introduces him to the press) who looked a heck of a lot more like Purvis than he did.

 

[bullets]

This movie reminded me of the assasination of jesse james by the coward henry ford.

 

[The Guard]

I thought JESSE JAMES was much better.

 

[terry78]

This was more of a bio/crime drama than anything, it wasn't really a summer blockbuster type flick. I went on Friday night to an 11pm showing and it was filled with teens, probably expecting an R-rated gangsta shootout action flick, but it was more nuanced than that. I caught like 7 brats texting the whole time or on their phones, and considering me and my guys were in the back row, it was ridonkulous.

 

[JaD]

I'm getting ready to go see this movie now

 

[Schlosser85]

Rewatched it today and had a higher opinion of it the second time around.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

This movie reminded me of the assasination of jesse james by the coward henry ford.

Jesse James was better about character motivations though. The "Legend" was kind of a dick.

 

[Nightmare]

Rewatched it today and had a higher opinion of it the second time around.

I loved it the first time, I cant wait to see it a 2nd time.

 

[Twin723]

I thought JESSE JAMES was much better.

Yes... and it's not even close.

 

[flickchick85]

I thought JESSE JAMES was much better.

I liked 'em both pretty equally in that they were each one my favorite movies of their respective years, and yeah, PE reminded me of that one with its dreamlike quality, even though they had two very different (yet both completely fitting and effective) styles of cinematography. They were both these kind of impressionistic snapshots of an era (In Jesse James, it was the death of folk legends/birth of celebrity; in PE it's the death of the American 'Wild West' as Bale put it in an interview) disguised as different types of films (JJ -western, PE -crime thriller). In fact, as soon as I came out of the theater of PE, I thought, "well that was definitely my Jesse James of this year."

I just got back from seeing it again, this time with a group. Everyone in my group also loved it, even though none of them would know Michael Mann from Michael Bay. And I too loved it even more the 2nd time. There are just so many wonderful nuances in this movie to catch. I developed a real appreciation for Stephen Lang's performance as Charles Winstead, who I didn't even notice 'till the end the 1st time I watched it, but this time I thought he had some nice little moments throughout. And I loved this little shot in the Biograph scene:

Spoiler

When John turns around to the first guy (Reinecke) who was pointing a gun at his back, with nothing but a glare, scares the guy stiff, freezing him in his tracks - and it was the guy who beat the hell out of Billie, who she warned about what "her Johnny" would do when he found out. I loved that since it was a nice little follow-up to Billie's threat. Or as it says in the script:

ECU: REINECKE - draws his weapon. He stares at the back of Dillinger's head. He's getting closer. Sweat runs into Reinecke's eyes. This isn't the firing range with a paper target. This isn't theory. This is the beast. The beast is a gunfighter. The beast is better than you. You beat up his girl. Your shot will miss...

Reinecke stalls. He doesn't want to be the first.

[a few descriptive passages later]

DILLINGER SEES REINECKE Reinecke's hand holding the gun is frozen in the air. He's paralyzed. He lacks the power to pull the trigger.

DILLINGER'S EYES There's the man who slammed Billie into the car. Dillinger's lethal intent focuses on one target.

Of course, they changed it in editing so that Reinecke doesn't freeze up until Dillinger turns around, but yeah, I thought it was a tiny-yet-wonderful moment.

 

[Matt]

Its decent enough. It is entertaining. But in the end, it is pretty much just an average time piece. It'll never reach the quality of a bio-pic like The Aviator. A big part of that is Michael Mann. He had a cast and story that directors would kill for but as always he simply creates an average movie. Michael Mann's movies are never bad. In fact, thehy are perfect from a technical stand point but they always lack something that I cannot put my finger on (perhaps heart) and this is no exception.

 

[Schlosser85]

And I loved this little shot in the Biograph scene:

They really made Reinecke look like an a$$.