Michael Mann is back!

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2009)

Firstly, let me say, that I have given up all trust and faith in film reviews. How 'The Times' could rate this 2 out of 5 I have no idea. Metacritic averages around 50% I think for this title, highly variable opinions. But then again, how could I place my trust in the judgement of yuppie journalists with nothing better to do than slag off the works of others.
Anyway, on with my review! Minus the shoddy cinematography towards the start of the film, and some poorly captured dialogue (sound-wise), this film is up there with the all-time greats! Johnny Depp delivers a stellar performance as always, the man exudes charisma and really does a great job at portraying John Dillinger as a lovable rogue rather than a cold blooded villain, in fact he's almost one of the good guys when compared to the character of baby-face nelson, brilliantly portrayed by Stephen Graham (Tommy from Snatch). Even Marion Cottillard plays her role to the tee, superb. Most Gangster's chicks drive me nuts (Penelope Cruz in Blow, I wanted to slap her!) but Dillingers girl was a real babe, down to ride in any situation! And she never sold him out, not once! The film does away with the classic rise and fall formula and focuses more on 'the fall'. The pace is relentless and bullets in abundance. I really enjoyed it throughout. If anything, I'm a big fan of Christian Bale, but his character seemed to lack something, he had a certain emptiness about him, but then again I think this was intentionally done.
Some of the cinematography seemed quite shoddy at the beginning of the film but this soon went away, whether I was so engrossed that I no longer noticed it or whether Mann had simply 'found his mojo'? I don't know, but its really not bad enough to justify the poor reviews I have seen. Some people clearly don't like these sorts of movies, I wouldn't write a review on something like 'Gone With The Wind' because that is clearly not my thing.
John Dillinger says "I like baseball, good clothes, fast cars and you." Well I like all that and Gangster films so this was right up my street. Ladies and gentleman, if you want to see a heart thumping gangster flick with the pace of a fighter jet and more bullets than the u.s army, this is for you. If not then go watch something pretentious, but don't go slagging this off with your yuppie articles in your local paper because I'm sick of reading them.
If you took a hardcore football fan to the opera or ballet, you wouldn't expect a glowing review of his experience would you? So why on earth are upper class yuppie journalists who much prefer the latest pretentious low budget love flick to come out of Cannes attempting to pass judgement on a big budget gangster flick of this caliber?! I'm so riled up right now, I'm sure the real John Dillinger would have loved Public Enemies and so did I! It may have received good press but I never thought much of Collateral anyway, so well done Michael Mann!