Not Great, Just Decent

Rating: 7/10 (1 July 2009)

I should first say that Michael Mann is quite the master when it comes to shootouts. In Heat, he orchestrated what I consider to be one of the best gun battles ever filmed. And in Public Enemies, there's a pretty darn good one too, albeit, not as good as Heat's. Unfortunately, it was after the gun battle that Public Enemies went from being a great movie, to just a decent one. It's from that point on, that the slick cinematography, the good acting (which is mostly why I give the film a 7/10 instead of a 6/10), and the authentic look and feel seem to be great parts that, for some reason, don't add up to a great whole. I guess I'll blame it on the screenplay. The dialogue, at times, just doesn't seem believable after a while. I guess it was somewhere around the 1 hour and 45 minute mark that things started to drag a bit. It's then that Depp's Dillinger is, for all intents and purposes, on his own. It's then that there really doesn't seem to be a whole lot left to say. And it's from that point on that there were only glimpses of the brilliance that came before it. Indeed, I must admit that my mind wandered somewhat until the very end, where I was reeled back in for a pretty good, tense finish. Impressive, considering I knew what was to come. But also not enough. It was not enough to elevate this film back up into the ranks of some of the best gangster movies ever made.