America's Most Wanted: PUBLIC ENEMIES Review, and MORE!

Wow, it's been way too long since my last post. What can I say, it's been a crazy week or so. Work's been busy, and things have otherwise just been seeming to go nonstop as of late. I can't friggin' believe it's already the middle of July. Ahhh where is the summer going?! I feel like I'm working just as much if not more than I was in the winter, and I for one am ready for a nice long vacation (though not of the "you're fired" variety, FYI). Anyways, crap, it's almost Monday. But it was in fact a fun weekend ...

... First off, I saw BRUNO on Friday, which, long-story-short, was completely hilarious. I am VERY behind on my movie reviews though, so I am going to save the full Bruno review for a later post that will hopefully be coming your way shortly. Something to look forward to, right?

... Also, I lucked out in that a friend of mine had an extra ticket to go see the RISE AGAINST and RANCID show at The Forum here in LA, which took place on Saturday. It's not a concert that I probably would have normally shelled out big bucks for under normal circumstances, but, in this case, it was too good an offer to pass up! And overall, the concert was pretty rockin'. I was pretty excited to see Rancid, who I became a fan of back in college when a couple of their songs were in regular rotation on Boston modern-rock radio. Songs like Ruby Soho became some of my favorites of the pop-punk genre. Meanwhile, I can't say I'm a *huge* Rise Against fan, but I think most rock n' roll fans will agree that some of their hits like Ready To Fall and Prayer For the Refugee are fairly badass tunes that are perfect when you're in that fight-the-man / screw-the-world state of mind. So yeah, the show was really enjoyable top to bottom. Rancid was great, but I think their performance was slightly lacking only because the crowd seemed more into Rise Against, so people weren't going as nuts as they should have for classics like "Time Bomb." But hey, it was a thrill to hear that one, Ruby Soho, etc. live. Kickass. As for Rise Against, they had a pretty solid showing - they breezed through a bunch of songs with barely a pause in between. They had a section in the middle of the show where they slowed things down and performed two accoustic songs, but then ended on a rush of adrenaline with an encore that included Ready to Fall as the finale. And yeah, that was pretty awesome. Still, to me, I enjoyed the hits, but just found that a lot of the other songs seemed to blend together a bit. Overall though - a really rockin' show. And really, this was my first big concert of the summer, and it was cool to just be in The Forum among tons of rabid fans pumping my fist to some great bands doing their thing. RAWK.


- Okay, I mentioned earlier that I'm way behind on my movie reviews. So I'm going to back up a bit and review a film I saw last weekend, that being Michael Mann's latest -- Public Enemies. Yes, right here in this very blog. What's coming up? Well, I have to review Woody Allen's WHATEVER WORKS. And of course, BRUNO. And I hope everyone reading this read my earlier review of THE HURT LOCKER, right? Regardless, please run out and see that amazing movie ASAP.





PUBLIC ENEMIES Review:



- For me, Public Enemies was one of the absolute most-anticipated movies of this summer. It seemed to have it all: Michael Mann, one of the best modern action flick directors there is, Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, two of the best actors of their generation, and a true-life story of guns and gangsters that seemed like the perfect subject matter to bring together all of these heavywights. So yeah, I did have pretty high expectations for this one, and I really, really wanted it to be great. The fact is that Public Enemies isn't exactly a great movie, but it is a very good one. As expected, it's ably directed, well-acted, and contains at least a couple of action scenes that scream "vintage Michael Mann." But ... the movie sometimes struggles to really pop. It reminds me a bit of another recent star-power-packin' crime movie - American Gangster. Like Ridley Scott's true-life epic, Mann's latest doesn't quite live up to its potential, but still packs enough of a punch to be a fun and at times riveting film, that is still well worth checking out.

Public Enemies tells the story of John Dillinger, a career criminal who was America's most infamous and celebrated bankrobber in the pre-war 1930's. The movie portrays Dillinger as sort of the last of a dying breed - the last of the old-school crooks who flamboyantly committed his crimes with a sense of theatricality and panache. As J. Edgar Hoover's FBI begins to crack down on crime, the criminals become increasingly less visible and more white-collar. Some of Public Enemies' most fascinating moments concern Hoover's one-man war on crime -- and Billy Crudup does an excellent job as the enigmatic but tough-talking FBI boss. Taking things a step further than what was the norm at the time, Hoover dispatches a take-no-prisoners squad of elite agents to hunt down Dillinger and co. Chief among them is Christian Bale as the unfortunately-named Melvin Purvis, a stone-faced agent who made his rep by taking down gang members in cold blood if need be. Bale is good here, but to be honest he isn't given much to do. Mann doesn't spend much time diving too deep into Purvis' psyche, and I think that, ultimately, it hurts the film a bit. But then again, despite the Bale and Depp's double-billing, this really is Depp's movie. Bale is kind of the inhuman, unstoppable force coming after Depp's Dillinger - the guy who doesn't play by the old rules and will cross whatever lines he has to to get his man.

It's interesting though, as a couple of surprise players really end up shining in this one. I mentioned Billy Crudup, for example. But how about Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's loyal gal, Billie. Cotillard is great here - again, not so much because she is give a ton to work with, but because she brings a real presence to the role. She has some great scenes with Depp, both during his initial courtship and later on, when she has gone past the point of no return and been irreversably caught up in Dillinger's fast and furious lifestyle of crime. In fact, the romance between John and Billie is easily the heart and soul of the movie - it's the one area in which the movie really sucks you in and grabs you, and it's the area that delivers a real knockout punch or two to the audience. This dovetails nicely with another unsung hero of the movie - Stephen Lang as an imposing lawman who Purvis recruits to his cause. The veteran Lang brings a concentrated dose of gravitas to the movie, and amazingly, he does it with a minimum amount of dialogue. But with an Aaron Pierce-esque presence of badassness about him, Lang kind of lingers in the peripherey of the movie, and then steps up in the movie's crushing final scene and puts the exclamation point on the film in a way that only he likely could - in a key exchange with Cotillard. Good stuff. Really good, even.

But again, Public Enemies has all this cool periphery stuff going on, and of course there is that intriguing Depp-Cotillard chemistry. But ... the main attraction here was supposed to be Depp vs. Bale, and that showdown never really manifests in the way that you want it to. Part of the problem is that, as I alluded to, Mann doesn't paint a full pictur of what makes these guys tick. He tells us that Purvis is a haunted badass, but we only *see* that once or twice. We are told that Dillinger is this beloved folk hero of sorts, but again, we don't exactly *see* this play out so much as we are just told it.

As far as the action goes - it's pretty good overall but there isn't really one particularly standout scene. There's a fun chase scene in woods as Dillinger and Purvis' respective teams finally converge, but it's another instance where so many of the characters tend to blend together that it's hard to tell who just got shot and who did the shooting. A guy like Lang kind of rises above the fray through sheer force of will, but a lot of the other supporting players do tend to get lost in the shuffle.

In the end, what all this adds up to is that Public Enemies is a very good movie, but not the *great* movie that it very well could have been with a little more focus on character and storytelling. As always though, Mann creates a heightened reality that draws you in with its visual crispness and iconic characters. This is a great turn from Depp. A standout role for Cotillard. Bale is a badass as per usual. And there are some intriguing themes at play here, a little slice of true-crime history. So even if this isn't quite all it's cracked up to be, it's still a movie that's well worth checking out.

My Grade: B+


Alright -- stay tuned for some big movie reviews in the next few days. Peace out.