Public Enemies A Decent Action Crime Drama

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2010)

Public Enemies is a decent action crime drama with exceptional performances by it's two leads. Writer/Director Michael Mann is admirable in bring this movie of notorious bank robber John Dillinger but some flaws with character development and the pacing weighed it down. I thought the good outweighed the bad though with this one. Johnny Depp is great as always playing the charismatic Dillinger who became public enemy number one in the 1930'S Chicago. Christian Bale is equally impressive as determined FBI Agent Melvin Purvis the man whose assigned to track Dillinger down. Depp and Bale only have a few scenes with each other but they both are very believable as their characters. Well done. Marion Collitard as Dillingers love Billie Frechette, Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hover, Stephen Lang as Charles Winstead, and Giovanni Ribisi as Alvin Karpis are also good in their limited screen time but lack development. Their characters and others including Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd who makes a brief cameo aren't really developed which weighed the movie down a bit because most of the focus is on Depp and Bale. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but you don't really get to know many of the characters that well except for them. The pacing of the film was a little slow at times with a running time of 140 minutes but overall I thought it was a decent. If you like gangster movies than chances are you'll enjoy this one. Public Enemies has action and drama with solid performances by Johnny Depp and Christian Bale who make this film worth watching at least once.