The Script, the script, the script...Or not.

Rating: 1/10 (19 July 2009)

Alfred Hitchcock once said something along the lines of "To make a great film you need three things- the script, the script and the script." Public Enemies did not have "the script"- or anything else worthy of merit. The writing was clumsy and shallow at best- god help the actors- and the story itself was full of anti- climactic climaxes received about every 20 minutes. The film was far too long (almost 2.5 hours) and when it came down to it, very boring. The best dramatic scene of the whole movie (and the only one which was remotely compelling for any reason) occurred when Billie (Dillenger's girlfriend) was beaten by the police and then rescued by Melvin Pervis. Even in this scene the scripted words sounded "written" and clumsy.
Someone please shoot the camera man! The entirety of the film was shot in a "shaky" documentary style making the film look unfinished and the viewer seasick and confused. This style is tolerable during action scenes (of which there were an overwhelming quantity) but during dialog it becomes distracting in the most negative way.
My friend drug me to see this movie( which I knew nothing about at the time) after raving about Michael Mann's "Heat"- which I still have not seen, but if it's anything like this movie, I would rather have teeth pulled. At least the anesthesia is fun.