rDadsLife!

Heat was and is a great movie.  Yes, it had its slow parts, but the action was intense and the characters were as deliberate as they were calculating.  Pacino and Deniro could sit on film for two hours just staring at one another and the movie would be classified as a thriller.  Miami Vice also had its slow moments, but those moments were at times so unnerving you could feel the audience squirming in their seats.  Even Cruise held some merit in Collateral.  Not much merit, but some.  In his prime Michael Mann could turn Will Smith into a believable serial killer.  Somewhere along the way Public Enemies turned into a movie with way too many stars and not enough guns. 

Set in the 1930's the story opens with Dillinger's jail break a Lima.  At this point in Dillinger's life the majority of his biggest bank jobs have been done and he is already on the decline.  Why make a movie about a bank robber, but start that movie at the end of the bank robber's career?  I want to see the cool shit, not the life and times of a melodramatic dumb ass who couldn't walk away from a woman to save his own skin.  Michael Mann introduced story line after story line and left them just as unfinished as the junk cars sitting in my father's back yard.  My mother always wished my dad would actually start to work on just one of those cars and complete a single project, but it just never happened.  The only thing she could count on is more cars showing up.  With the only end in sight being my father's death.  Funny, that is just how Public Enemies ended. 

The cinematic style with which Michael Mann made himself famous is ever present in PE and true fans will not find themselves disappointed in the action Mann serves up.  The bank jobs are as quick as they are brutal and the style and charisma with which Johnny Depp plays Dillinger certainly will gain Depp even more appreciation from the fans and his fellow thespians. Unfortunately for Christian Bale his character is given no real substance for him to play on.  The audience only experiences the serious side of a tortured man yet the audience is never given the opportunity to learn any part of Melvin Purvis's history.  Instead we are only treated to Bale doing what he did as Bruce Wayne.  Look serious, be tough and wear expensive suits while chasing bad guys.  Ok, what else is new?  I was told Channing Tatum was in this movie.  Why would Michael Mann even look twice at Channing Tatum unless he mistook Channing for a valet?  Only further proof Michael Mann made some critical errors in the making of Public Enemies.

Unfortunately for Mann, Public Enemies will never be mentioned in the same breath as its predecessors The Untouchables, Once Upon A Time In America or Bonnie and Clyde.