Style Over Subtance But The Style Is Good

Rating: 7/10 (6 September 2013)

I caught this on ITV4 last night and came in to the film not knowing anything about but a gangster film starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale based on the true story of the FBIs attempt to catch John Dillnger does make for a good premise . One thing that did strike me was that the number of gun battles did remind me somewhat of HEAT though unlike that film this one seemed to concentrate more on the action sequences rather than the character interaction . After all Depp and Bale aren't really on the same plain as DeNiro and Pacino . I felt slightly stupid when the end credits rolled and the caption Directed By Michael Mann appeared
In some ways PUBLIC ENEMIES is a more glossy , action packed version of HEAT but it's more of style over substance . Not necessarily a criticism because when you've got style this good what is there to complain about ? Not much because the high digital cinematography is genuinely impressive . One wonders though if the decision to shoot it in this style is to hide the fact that from a narrative point of view is entirely down to the structure is too close to HEAT for comfort . We get scenes where a femme fatale is arrested and the protagonist has to drive off with tears in his eyes and lots of shoot outs with extras hiding behind cars etc . In truth there's nothing here you haven't seen before but is very well done it doesn't matter very much