Public Enemies

After a fairly bit of a movie drought (earthdad had a yucky summer virus so we haven't gotten to the theater for awhile) we picked a 100 degree day and headed into the cool theater. We had been looking forward to this movie, being fans of Johnny Depp in general and thinking the trailers looked good. Unfortunately, this movie is another case of 'the best lines are in the trailer'. That's it.

We were and still are totally puzzled. Why in the world did Johnny Depp take this movie? Why did Christian Bale? It is one of the worst things I've sat through, and trust me, we nearly did not sit through it. We discussed walking out THREE different times! But feeling like we were working on an exhausting marathon, we hung in and lasted to the end, with no pay out for doing so. If you know the Dillinger story in general, there is not one surprise here. No additional information, no expanding the character, in fact just the opposite. The characters here are flimsy and one-dimensional, the story is chopped up and impossible to follow, the camera is imitating Blair Witch Project.

When we realized that Michael Mann directed and co-wrote it, the light bulb went off in our heads! OH! He's the TV guy - Starsky & Hutch, Miami Vice, Crime Story, etc. He's the genius behind crap tv. And thus, we get a crap tv movie done on a larger screen with no commercials. Commercials would have been a kindness, actually.

This is just a bad movie. Time and time again we got the impression that the actors were standing and saying "see these old clothes and this building? It really does look like 1933, huh??" or that everyone on camera was about to bust out laughing at the silliness they were trying to portray. It really felt like a kid's attempt to make a movie - some movie school project thrown together in 2 days and edited on someone's mac in their bedroom.

We give it a '1' And we feel like someone owes us for sitting through the whole thing.

Pueblo Tinseltown was the theater - popcorn was great, place was cool and clean so the entire experience wasn't bad.