A 100 million dollars home movie !

Rating: 1/10 (29 October 2013)

This is so awful to stand. And director Michael Mann is the main Public Enemy here!
The script, which Mann co-wrote, is deadly flat. It has a cat and mouse chase, only. And forget about the rest, any rest!
Who's the movie's John Dillinger? He's a bank robber, in love, hates killing, AND THAT'S IT. Now imagine that that is considered a character compared to everybody else; like J. Edgar Hoover, Baby Face Nelson,.. etc. Look at FBI agent Melvin Purvis; it's the worst written character in history. He's so empty, with no past, family, or mark. What in God's name was written in the script? "He looks, He orders, He walks, He runs, He shoots"?? Neither the police squad officers, nor Dillinger's gang members, were distinct. The 2 teams were similar guys, who talk blandly; which added bore and unsolved muddle. So, clearly the script's method was: Don't make a good character, or a character in the first place!
Moreover, Dillinger used to be beaten by his father (so he became a criminal?!). Purvis kills himself after capturing Dillinger (because he hated police brutality?!!). Well, the movie is too slack to answer. However, even if, why to mention the matter of Purvis's suicide?? To admit that you're too slack?! Grrrrrr!!
Question: Dillinger, Purvis, Hoover.. what did transform in them between the start and the end?! The answer: NOTHING. Knowing the hatred that this movie planted in me, and aggrandized during the viewing, I had more character development than them!
The people love Dillinger as a public hero, so why is that? The movie answers us: "Go read history you morons, or watch better movies about the same era!". Dillinger stays at the home of 2 Romanian girls, so who are they?! The movie answers us: "Get lost, I don't care!". One of Dillinger's shooters, hears his final words, but doesn't tell them to Purvis, so why is that? The movie answers us: "Guess it yourself, I have no time!". Again, this script doesn't want to be a script!
So after ruining the characters, motives, character development, explanations, why not the dialogue too; which was uninspired and useless. Even the script's attempt to make a magical cinematic moment aborts; since Dillinger's visit to the Dillinger Squad offices seems like a fantasy, especially when no one looks at him, asks him for identity, and - in inordinate move - delays in telling him the running match's score!
Instead of repairing that stale script, Mann cared about shooting the movie not on traditional 35mm film, but on HD video, to be ALL digital. OK, give the man a break. He wanted to be new and revolutionary. But after watching the final result, please, you Mr. Mann, give us a break!
The image is incredibly primitive; I don't recall a TV image that bad. The lights' reflection on the actors' faces is disastrous. You'll be deeply sad for the good reactions of Johnny Deep. That technique has such a cold effect which freezes the expressions. However, the way it was used enhanced the catastrophe. OH GOD, I have never ever watched a director who was so fancy of shooting only the actors' faces like this before! Mann overused the close-ups, which were unexpressive already, as if the plan was "Go to the eye, the nose, the ear!!!". It gets boring and provocative with 140 minutes long. And as if that wasn't enough, he shook the camera non-stop, in a tipsy manner which assured that the cameraman was incurable sot!, and created the ugliest, most random, cadres, overstepping realism to amateurishness. The colors were between pale and dark, but I was sick by painting nearly everything with yellow. Whether to represent how the movie's time was old, or how the title characters' life was ailing; that was adolescent. And to make it perfectly adolescent, just watch the camera's shadow, so visible on- screen, too many times to count!
Is that your achievement Mr. Mann?! Making an artistically poor, faces maniac, unceasingly tottering, sterilely expressive, idiotically yellow, and utterly amateurish image?!! At one moment, Hoover talks to Purvis about the importance of arresting Dillinger, while Purvis looks way taller than Hoover. So what was the point of view, knowing that Hoover was the one in control? But I would be the stupidest man alive if thought that the cinematography here could utter a thing. And to die out of rage, you find critics who say: "The picture was beautifully slick and realistic. The cinematography made the cars, headlights, street lights look marvelous"!! My only remark is: Who left the mental hospital's doors opened?!!
Only during the sequence of Dillinger waving to his fans while transporting him to prison, and the scene where he was watching (Manhattan Melodrama - 1934), I felt I was watching something close to a movie. Still, Deep was the sole interesting factor in this who's-the-worst marathon. But, regrettably, all of his performance was violently wronged by that pedant cinematography, and horrid directing.
With that script, (Public Enemas) could have been a vapid Hollywood movie, but with that directing, it turned into worse: a vapid home movie, yet produced with truly wasted 100 million dollars! Mann has the right to renew, and we have the right to tell him: You Failed. After watching the horrible (Miami Vice - 2006), I said maybe Mann hates his job. Now I'll say it frankly: he's vain or dumb.. namely awful both ways!