Wanted Dead- JOHN DILLINGER.

Rating: 9/10 (5 July 2009)

I have always been a fan of the director Michael Mann, and I thoroughly enjoyed his 1995 film Heat, which is known for having arguably the greatest action scene in the history of film making. So naturally, I was eager to see what he could do with telling the story of, in my opinion, the best criminal of all time- John Dillinger. And let me tell you, he did NOT disappoint.
As expected, the acting was superb. Johnny Depp is always great, and he did a fantastic job playing John Dillinger, and Christian Bale was awesome in his role as Agent Melvin Purvis, especially with that old-school accent. I was previously unfamiliar with Marion Cotillard, but she impressed me with her role as Billie Frechette. All of the supporting cast did a good job as well, but Depp and Bale are the ones that truly made this film.
From the instant the film opens, you feel yourself submerged in the movie, and you truly want to know what happens. This movie has a good amount of very intense and adrenaline-pumping shootouts, and the camera will often go to angles that are over the shoulder of one of the gunners, and it often makes you feel as if you are right in the middle of the firefight.
I have read some reviews that said this seemed rushed, but I disagree with those statements. The film ran just over 130 minutes, and for a film of this type, that's the perfect duration. Perhaps it would have been nice for the film to open with a flashback depicting Dillinger's rough childhood, but the film pretty much covers the main details of his childhood in all the conversations Dillinger has with the various characters in the film. The movie covers all of the main points of Dillinger's criminal life, and that's what I would have done if I had been director. There's no need for all of the minor things that have nothing at all to do with the main story, and that would have thrown wasted time into the film, and I think it would have made it an overall inferior film to what we got.
I would only recommend this to people who enjoy crime films with a good amount of action, so basically what I'm saying is this- Public Enemies is a 100 percent guy film, so if any of the guys are looking for a compelling, testosterone-filled thrill ride, head over to your local cinema and check out Public Enemies.