"Public Enemies": The movie that should be killed and turned in for a bounty
This summer has been one of the slowest movie seasons in recent memory. There were barely any movies that I was legitimately excited about. However "Public Enemies" was one of those movies, where I saw the trailer and went "wow this could be a really good movie." So this past weekend I talked my friend out of going to see "Transformers 2" and instead talked her into seeing "Public Enemies." Was it a mistake? (Probably not since from everything I'm hearing "Transformers 2" is a really awful movie not to mention that I really didn't even enjoy the first one.)
The film is supposedly based on the famous bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) and his exploits during the Great Depression. The FBI task agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) to catch Dillinger. Throw in a shoddy love story angle with Evelyn "Billie" Frachette (Marion Cotillard)and that is basically the gist of the film. Yes it is as shallow as I make it sound. The plot was a mess. It felt like the movie was going nowhere. There was no great "cat and mouse" game between Purvis and Dillinger. Hell there was barely any interaction between the two. So if you went to this movie thinking you'd see Depp and Bale acting alongside each other you are going to be sorely disappointed. The two shared about a whopping 5 minutes of total screen time in the same scene throughout the entire 2+ hour movie.
When I say the film is based on the exploits of John Dillinger I mean very loosely. I was doing some research (and by research I mean reading wikipedia) into John Dillinger and I found that the movie took a lot of liberties with his life and character. The movie clearly wanted the viewer to see Dillinger as the protagonist and I must admit somehow they pull it off. However upon reading up on him he doesn't seem like all that good of a guy. The funny thing is the movie took liberties in order to try to make his life more Hollywood worthy but I found that reading the wikipedia entry was far more interesting and informative than the actual film.
The film also doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. There are many parts of the story that they introduce but never flesh out. Especially the characters outside of Dillinger, Purvis, and Frachette. I left the theater not even knowing the names of any of the other characters even though some of them played important roles in the film. It was like the director or writers were just trying to fill time, which was completely unnecessary the film was long enough as is and would have benefited from a good editing job. As it stands the movie feels really drawn out and can get very dull at points.
As if I don't have enough complaints a major one has to do with the only big shootout of the entire film. This shootout looked terribly unpolished and took me completely out of the film. The cuts were really quick and many of the scenes look the way they would look on a making of featurette for the film. By that I mean they look fake like they were filmed in a studio. The quality is dramatically worse than any other part of the film. I was just waiting to see a gymnastics mat or a breakaway wall that's how bad it looked. I don't know if it was done on purpose or if it was just rushed to the theaters to cash in on the 4th of July audience. You will know exactly what I mean if you go and see the film.
I feel like the movie completely wasted the talents of two good actors in Depp and Bale. It felt almost reminiscent of "Righteous Kill." The actors were dragged down and not fully utilized because of the lame script. It felt a lot like they were just reading lines with an accent. The script really didn't require either one to act.
I found the film to be a long and drawn out affair. It was neither entertaining as a drama nor informative as a psuedo-biopic. It was just lazy writing. By the end of the film there a scene where the audience is meant to feel tension however by that point I was bored to tears and waiting for the film to reach the inevitable conclusion. I really hated how they romanticized the character of John Dillinger especially the final scene. If they were going to change his entire character why not just make the movie about a bank robber during the Great Depression? I feel like all the characters in the film could have been replaced with non famous historical characters and it would have still been the same film. "Public Enemies" is a shitty film that tries to cash in on a historical figure and really isn't worth your hard earned money.
Just on an aside. Kudos to the editors of the trailer. Great trailer for a really boring film.
The film is supposedly based on the famous bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) and his exploits during the Great Depression. The FBI task agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) to catch Dillinger. Throw in a shoddy love story angle with Evelyn "Billie" Frachette (Marion Cotillard)and that is basically the gist of the film. Yes it is as shallow as I make it sound. The plot was a mess. It felt like the movie was going nowhere. There was no great "cat and mouse" game between Purvis and Dillinger. Hell there was barely any interaction between the two. So if you went to this movie thinking you'd see Depp and Bale acting alongside each other you are going to be sorely disappointed. The two shared about a whopping 5 minutes of total screen time in the same scene throughout the entire 2+ hour movie.
When I say the film is based on the exploits of John Dillinger I mean very loosely. I was doing some research (and by research I mean reading wikipedia) into John Dillinger and I found that the movie took a lot of liberties with his life and character. The movie clearly wanted the viewer to see Dillinger as the protagonist and I must admit somehow they pull it off. However upon reading up on him he doesn't seem like all that good of a guy. The funny thing is the movie took liberties in order to try to make his life more Hollywood worthy but I found that reading the wikipedia entry was far more interesting and informative than the actual film.
The film also doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. There are many parts of the story that they introduce but never flesh out. Especially the characters outside of Dillinger, Purvis, and Frachette. I left the theater not even knowing the names of any of the other characters even though some of them played important roles in the film. It was like the director or writers were just trying to fill time, which was completely unnecessary the film was long enough as is and would have benefited from a good editing job. As it stands the movie feels really drawn out and can get very dull at points.
As if I don't have enough complaints a major one has to do with the only big shootout of the entire film. This shootout looked terribly unpolished and took me completely out of the film. The cuts were really quick and many of the scenes look the way they would look on a making of featurette for the film. By that I mean they look fake like they were filmed in a studio. The quality is dramatically worse than any other part of the film. I was just waiting to see a gymnastics mat or a breakaway wall that's how bad it looked. I don't know if it was done on purpose or if it was just rushed to the theaters to cash in on the 4th of July audience. You will know exactly what I mean if you go and see the film.
I feel like the movie completely wasted the talents of two good actors in Depp and Bale. It felt almost reminiscent of "Righteous Kill." The actors were dragged down and not fully utilized because of the lame script. It felt a lot like they were just reading lines with an accent. The script really didn't require either one to act.
I found the film to be a long and drawn out affair. It was neither entertaining as a drama nor informative as a psuedo-biopic. It was just lazy writing. By the end of the film there a scene where the audience is meant to feel tension however by that point I was bored to tears and waiting for the film to reach the inevitable conclusion. I really hated how they romanticized the character of John Dillinger especially the final scene. If they were going to change his entire character why not just make the movie about a bank robber during the Great Depression? I feel like all the characters in the film could have been replaced with non famous historical characters and it would have still been the same film. "Public Enemies" is a shitty film that tries to cash in on a historical figure and really isn't worth your hard earned money.
Just on an aside. Kudos to the editors of the trailer. Great trailer for a really boring film.
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