All flash, no cash and completely unnecessary.

Rating: 1/10 (6 July 2009)

Ever look forward to something only to find out that it blows in ways you never thought it could? Did the producers think that all they had to do was stick a tommy gun in Johnny Depp's hands and they'd have a gangster movie? Depp gives an adequate performance as Dillinger but it is a selfish and self enclosed one. Christian Bale is at his most insufferable playing Melvin Purvis as dour dolt. And everybody else, particularly Giovanni Ribisi and Billy Crudup, is simply hung out to dry. If you're interested in Dillinger then track down "Dillinger " with Warren Oates and Ben Johnson. If you want Depression era gangsters then it's "Bonnie and Clyde" or even "Road to Perdition". All of these movies have more excitement, humor and grit in any twenty minutes than "Public Enemies" has in its entirety.