Public Enemies: Johnny Depp and Christian Bale star in the cool looking, not-so-interesting story of John Dillinger. The casting of Depp as Dillinger is perfect. He brought a flamboyancy to the character that must have been present in Dillinger himself, thus leading to his legendary status. I also really appreciated Bale's performance as Melvin Purvis the FBI agent who was in charge of hunting down John Dillinger. The downside of the movie is the rather weak story. For being one of the most famous bank robbers of all time, Dillinger's life was a rather bore. The film tries hard, but fails to get the audience to care about his relationship with his girlfriend Billie (played by Marion Cotillard). This is supposed to be the emotional side of the story, but I don't think they gave us enough reason to care about either character. The film is brought to us from acclaimed director Michael Mann (Heat, Miami Vice) - this ensures us of one thing.....some awesome looking shootout scenes. I like gunfire on the silver screen as much as anyone, but these scenes came to us with no suspense and seemed to go on for too long. I wanted to be so engaged with the movie that when I walked out of the theater I would be afraid of being shot just like Dillinger was. Instead, I walked out of the theater feeling like I was robbed.
Ry's Rating = C+

If this movie had parents they would be: Road to Perdition & Wisdom

With a runtime of 132 minutes

This film is rated PG-13