Mann is loosing his touch

Rating: 2/10 (24 July 2009)

Mann seems to be working backwards from Thief instead of improving over the years.
Public Enemy seems like a remake of many of other Michael Mann movies, and is so full of Mann standards that he seems to work off of a checklist of things his movies must include instead of a script. Must all Mann films include the scene where the "Good Guy" and "Bad Guy" tell each other they respect each other, but will kill each other if they have to, a scene where the 'good' bad guys kill/threaten to kill the bad guys that don't follow some code, a scene where the cops run out of the room after hearing of a tip on where the bad guys are going to be next, the huge shootout and getaway of the main bag guy so that he later has a more intimate death?
Why must Mann, who made the peerless "Thief," insist on using video tape to make movies? The interspersed scenes stand out and look like they were shot on VHS. This really looks bad and is utterly distracting in a period piece. Why would any part of a movie taking place in 1933 look like something shot on a camcorder instead of film? It was SOOOOO distracting.
Also distracting were a weak scripts such as when Bale's character allows torture at one stage and then later, as a plot device, discourages it. Is he Hoover's toady or not? Either the screen writers or Mann decide to leave this unresolved, even though it's a key part of the plot until the last quarter of the movie.
I couldn't enjoy the acting and wide variety of characters due to the ridiculous use of video over film. It's like Star Wars Prequels... Mann and Lucas seem to have surrounded themselves with yes men instead of producers who wanted to make good movies.