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Public Enemies

2009

Michael Mann

Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup ...

6.3

52,745

Thriller. Drama The Feds try to take down notorious American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during a booming crime wave in the 1930s. No one could stop Dillinger and his gang. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone—from his girlfriend Billie Frechette to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression. But while the ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"'Public Enemies' comes at you like Dillinger did: all of a sudden. It's movie dynamite (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"A grave and beautiful work of art."
		Lou Lumenick New York Post	"The fatally miscast Johnny Depp's smaller-than-life performance as the famed gangster is the central flaw in Michael Mann's disappointing, curiously uninvolving 'Public Enemies' (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"
		Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"This is a very good film, with Depp and Bale performances of brutal clarity (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Todd McCarthy Variety	"Tries to forge the aspects of American gangsterdom; results are more admirable than electrifying (...) [Mann] has put images on the screen that are compelling to watch even though the overall impact is muted"
		J.R. Jones Chicago Reader	"The movie is so dense with incident that there isn't much room for cultural comment or character development"
		Ian Nathan Empire	"Intelligent and challenging: Mann’s crime epic could take two viewings to fully absorb, but it’s worth every devoted minute. (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Dana Stevens Slate	"Oddly unengaging (...) A central problem, though by no means the only one, may be that Johnny Depp is miscast as the elusive bank robber"
		Tim Grierson Screendaily	"A satisfying and absorbing portrait of the rise and fall of 1930s bank robber John Dillinger (...) As expected, Mann’s period piece is technically flawless and visually accomplished"
		Jonathan Romney The Independent	"Johnny Depp underacts and Christian Bale lacks charisma (...) Dante Spinotti's photography can be ugly and distracting"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Mann's G-Man opera has the ingredients of a great film which don't quite come together. But they are certainly potent (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"

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