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Public Enemies Pretty, if Rote

Mann's film is visually luscious, but some find it rote

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 1, 2009 2:39 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Critics mostly like Public Enemies, Michael Mann’s lusciously shot—if not terribly deep—ode to ‘30s gangster life with Johnny Depp as bank robber John Dillinger.

  • The film is a "beautiful work of art," declares Manohla Dargis for the New York Times, "a vividly realistic portrait of a country deep in depression and jumping with bad men, which looks and plays like no other American gangster film."

  • Likewise, David Denby finds Enemies to be "a ravishing dream of violent gangster life in the thirties," though "emotionally neutered," he writes for the New Yorker.
  • But Keith Phipps of the Onion AV Club finds it rote: "Depp goes about the business of not getting caught; Bale goes about the business of catching him. Mann reduces a legendary game of cat-and-mouse to a standard police procedural."


Johnny Depp stars as legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger, in a scene from Public Enemies.
Johnny Depp stars as legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger, in a scene from "Public Enemies."   (AP Photo/Universal Pictures, Peter Mountain)
Cast member Johnny Depp arrives at the premiere of Public Enemies in Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 23, 2009.
Cast member Johnny Depp arrives at the premiere of "Public Enemies" in Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 23, 2009.   (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
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COMMENTS
Showing 1 of 1 comment
Jes
Jul 2, 2009 4:14 AM CDT
I really don't care if it's rote, it has Johnny Depp in a pin stripe suit. I would watch it if he was reading the 1977 tax code.

 
Johnny Depp • bank robber • Great Depression • gangsters • John Dillinger • Public Enemies

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