The reason why Public Enemies shouldn't be made.

Rating: 10/10 (31 October 2009)

Clearly, because this movie existed, Public Enemies should never have been made. With very believable depiction, legendary film-making and performances, The Untouchables gave you the best crime epic about 1930s.
One of the best efforts pulled off by the movie, as mentioned, lies within its believability. The depictions of either Ness or Capone could have been totally cartoonish or on the other extreme, being like robots. However, Kevin Costner and Robert De Niro were so good in their characters that Johnny Depp and Christian Bale should have taken notes. Ness was never an "action hero" or someone really so "untouchable" in the movie. On the contrast, he is weak, regularly depressed and could fail at all. As the core character of the story, he is legendary not only in his achievement in taking down Capone, but also in his character's development from a dedicated white knight to a somewhat bad-ass crime fighter. Costner's performance totally made Ness more convincing and emotional, charged by Brian De Palma's best casting ever. The movie is convincing also because it's multi-dimensional, that a 20-year-old and a 40-year-old will both enjoy but got different things from it. The storyline flowed so naturally and realistically that as an audience one felt the pain, the fear and the price of fighting crime and criminals. Yes, this is a movie where the heroes can get hurt, killed, but still they pulled off a legendary fight with the most vicious criminal. Unlike Public Enemies' self-indulgent storyline, The Untouchables is a lesson about character study in a streamlined story-telling. The reason Sean Connery deserved his Oscar is also justified here.
The visuals, along with other aspects of the movie, are nearly perfected by director De Palma. The gunfights may not be so stylish and kinetic as in recent films like Public Enemies, but definitely had their edge. Essentially, the movie never put too much weight on actions, yet the actions stood out to entertain. Sometimes, old school is good school.
If you notice, The Untouchables already had everything that Public Enemies wanted to talk about, and in a better way and shorter time. It's full of mesmerizing camera works and likable characters, yet stayed true to the nature of reality, no doubt it's only getting better and better after all these years.