Riley's Review: Public Enemies

Rating: 8/10 (4 July 2009)

Let me first say Gangster movies are my type of cinematic genre, thus bias was a component of my high rating of this movie.
Another reason why I think this movie is the best of its kind since 1987 (The Untouchables) was the good selection of actors. Whenever you have Johnny Depp you are bound to not have a bad performance. Stephen Graham's facial expression and delivery as acting as Baby Face was merely sensational. Christian Bale is Christian Bale. You may hate his off the camera antics, but he did an adequate job. I think Marion Cotillard (Billie Frenchette) did an amazing job acting as an emotional woman falling in love with the infamous Dillinger.
The art direction was one of the best I have seen. I felt like I was in 1933 Chicago. The action scenes with the tommy guns were awesome. Thus, the action component of a typical gangster movie was fulfilled.
So far this is summer 2009's best.