Public Enemies

This film turned out to be exactly what I had hoped it wouldn’t be… And I vow to not spend too much time discussing this film. Overall it was a large cat-n-mouse game of chase. Here’s the formula: the police would track down John Dillinger and then there would be a shootout after which Dillinger would escape. Or, he would get arrested and then he would escape from jail and then a shootout would follow. Throw in a couple romantic type scenes with his woman and they believed that they had a film.

Public Enemies Trailer

I really wanted to like this film, but I just couldn’t – and that saddened me. We really don’t become involved with any of the characters to where we develop any type of connection with them. Even with Dillinger we are removed from his inner circle. The best part of the film was the recreation of the 1930s. They did a really great job in all the sets, the costumes, and the automobiles. The death sequence of Dillinger at the end of the film really let me down. The CG was so terrible that I died a little bit inside. It looked so fake that you couldn’t feel anything for Dillinger at all but grief for the debacle that was this film.

Mainstream blockbusters yet again let me down and turn an extremely interesting character’s life from history into a 2-hour joke.

Rating: 4/10
RT: 68%