Friday, August 14, 2009

Public Enemy (US, 2009): a must-miss film

Urk! I just found out the director of this film is the same Michael Mann who did Collateral, a 2004 film with Tom Cruise as an assassin.

What links those two films, apart from my desire to walk out on both?

Well, they're both full of gratuitous violence, both have dual protagonists who elicit no sympathy in the viewer... and both were shot in HD format rather than true film stock - yuck!

All factors add up to an appalling film. While my regard for Cruise is not high, I do have respect for Johnny Depp, particularly through his work on Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. But he contributes little of interest to this film.

Plot? Not much. Dillinger robs banks and eventually dies. You already know the ending: he gets shot down by feds outside a cinema. So most of the film is spent waiting for him to make his appointment for that destiny. And it takes far too long.

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