Movie Review: Public Enemies

Public Enemies recently came out on DVD and Blu-Ray. It got mixed reviews and did reasonable in theatres. Should you buy the DVD? Or should you even watch the movie?

The story is about the so called 'Public Enemies' and in particular about John Dillinger. In the 1930s there was a lot of crime in the United States due to the poor economic situation. There were a lot of bank robbers, most famously John Dillinger, 'Baby Face' Nelson and Bonnie & Clyde.

Summary

This movie is about the manhunt for John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), with Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) of the Bureau of Investigation assigned as the man in charge. Dillinger robbed banks and sometimes gave the money to civilians at random. Some said he was a modern day Robin Hood.

The Bureau however, was not so happy. Dillinger was arrested at one point and came face to face with Purvis in jail. Purvis arranged the Army to guard the police station he was held at, but Dillinger managed to break out, something he was known for as well. After this, Dillinger couldn't find anyone to work with except Baby Face Nelson. Working with him they almost got caught. Dillinger and Nelson got away but almost all of their mates were killed. One of Purvis' colleagues ans friends was also killed

Meanwhile Dillinger started liking a girl named Billie and dated her. Eventually she fell in love with him as well, despite knowing he was a notorious bank robber. This eventually led to him wanting to stop robbing banks. Nelson came with one job that would provide him enough money to stop robbing banks. While preparing for it Billie was arrested and Dillinger wanted to help her, but he eventually saw that would make the situation even worse.

Dillinger and Nelson rob the bank, but it turns out there was less money in the bank than expected. Dillinger went to an old friend, a prostitute named Mara, after this. Mara decided to snitch on Dillinger, so she would not be deported, since she was a foreigner and had no proof that she was in the US legally. Eventually Dillinger was killed by a Bureau agent after coming out of a cinema. The agent who killed him put his ear next to Dillinger's mouth and heard him say something. Eventually he tells this to Billie: "Tell Billie for me: Bye bye, black bird".

Review

Overall, I liked the movie. It had some nice, sometimes emotional and dramatic, scenes. The story was easy to understand as well. However the movie missed something. I don't know how to describe it. Usually, my feeling after a very good movie is: "I want to watch that again sometime." I didn't have that with Public Enemies.

Nevertheless, Johnny Depp's portrayal of Dillinger is brilliant. The way he creates emotions by saying some words is very good. His acting is very 'real'. I liked it a lot during the movie. I had the feeling that it was Dillinger, not Depp. A bad portrayal would lead to the thought: "Why did Depp do that?" I didn't have that thought anywhere in the movie.

Also, Christian Bale's performance as Melvin Purvis was very good too. I still think that Johnny Depp acted better though. Bale's acting was pretty real too. His performance in the Dark Knight was better as well. But overall it went well.

So, in my opinion you should see this movie once. But I don't think you should buy the DVD, becayse you would probably won't feel the need to watch it again. There aren't any mysterious things that you need to see several times to understand, and the movie isn't that good that you'd see it over and over until you get fed up.

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