Rating: 7/10

Director: Captain Badass who was given the unfitting birth name of Michael Mann
Writers: Michael Mann, Ronan Bennett, Ann Biderman
Cast: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Billy Crudup, Marion Cotillard
Studio: Universal

Michael Mann brings his sleek visual style and his ability to create incredibly realistic and intense action sequences to the 1930s with PUBLIC ENEMIES, focusing on the infamous criminal John Dillinger, whose daring robberies and other crimes made him the most hunted and wanted criminal of the Depression. Mann proves that he still knows how to dazzle with his well-shot gunfights, but struggles when it comes to the human and emotional side of things with PUBLIC ENEMIES, much like his last summer outing, MIAMI VICE. However, while the film doesn't have the depth to stay with you, it is still highly entertaining when the guns start going off, and definitely one of the more exciting movies to come out what has been a disappointing summer movie season so far.

The film chronicles FBI agent Melvin Purvis' attempts to capture John Dillinger as he robs banks and continues to elude justice, despite being temporarily contained twice before escaping. Purvis and Dillinger, like almost of the PUBLIC ENEMIES' characters, are based on real people, yet they still come across as shallow characterizations, just like many cinematic mobsters and lawmen that we have seen many times before.

Johnny Depp's Dillinger is cool and calculated, so much so that when we see him finally show emotion and cry after losing his lover Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard), it's simply not believable; Depp's performance and the screenplay by Mann, Anne Biderand, and Ronan Bennett has not given enough us enough depth to make us believe his reaction. Maybe Dillinger didn't really have much to him, other than a smile/snarl and the tremendous confidence portrayed in PUBLIC ENEMIES. If Depp and Mann's depiction is accurate than perhaps you shouldn't make Dillinger the emotional center of your film, because there is nothing for the audience to relate to or become engaged with.

Purvis (Christian Bale), is the man who leads the task force to capture Dillinger, and could have been the character that made us become truly invested in the story - a man who has been given a great task and feels the pressure of the entire government on him as J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) demands results. Unfortunately, there just isn't a lot of screen time devoted to Purvis, and when we do see him he is usually giving or taking orders or waiting outside a building to capture Dillinger. We never get the chance to see Purvis as a person, but only as another cog in the FBI machine, so it's hard to care if he will ever get his man or not.

The last three paragraphs make it sound like PUBLIC ENEMIES is a bad film, but it's not, it just has problems but it still a lot of fun at times,. As you would expect from a Michael Mann film, PUBLIC ENEMIES' action scenes are very strong. Purvis' attempts to capture Dillinger in a remote cabin becomes one of the most thrilling sequences to appear on screen since the final shootout in Mann's MIAMI VICE; nobody can do a gunfight like Mann, he turns actors firing prop guns at each other into a gritty and visceral art, a big part of the reason why Mann is arguably the best action director working in Hollywood today.

Another area where Mann continues to excel with PUBLIC ENEMIES is in the visual department, as he gives us striking images, as he continues to make great use of the digital HD that he shot the the film with. The digital HD also allows Mann to give the film a realistic feel that wouldn't be possible with traditional film.

Yeah, PUBLIC ENEMIES is a film that just operates on the surface, but given that its surface is so much fun to look at, PUBLIC ENEMIES is usually entertaining, if not emotionally engrossing.