Saturday, July 18, 2009

"Public Enemies" comes through like gangbusters



This week I saw "Public Enemies", the newest film by Michael Mann. I really like Mann's movies, which include "Heat", "Last of the Mohicans", "The Insider", "Collateral", "Ali" and "Miami Vice", so I was looking forward to seeing this one. In fact, the night before the movie premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Holly and I went to the theatre eagerly to buy tickets. The vendor literally laughed in our faces. "Tickets were sold out months ago!" Pendejo. 
Anyway the movie is about John Dillinger and the war between bank robbers and the lawmen during the Great Depression. So the film has a lot of potential, given that "Heat" was a fantastic cops & robbers movie with THE best bank robbery and shootout ever filmed. But to my surprise, the bank robbery scenes were the least interesting parts of this movie, which is not to say it was a let down. Rather, the movie's greatest suspense came during the jailbreaks and narrow escapes.
A bit about Mann's movies. They are macho but at the same time very thoughtfully executed. They feature tough guys, tough women, sophisticated action sequences, curt dialogue, booming sound and occasionally sublime cinematography. His more recent films have been shot digitally to capture a more realistic look, like something you might have filmed with your home camcorder, but actually looks good. The end result of Mann's attention to realism is a more moving visual experience, compared to the ostentatious Transformers, Harry Potter or other movies loaded with CGI visual effects.
Dillinger is of course played by Johnny Depp, who does a good job. He is smooth yet down-to-earth with honor-among-thieves principles. His girlfriend Billie, played by Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, is terrific. She is sweet but no lay-down Sally, as her penchant for the bad boy brings her, and the audience, into the exciting underworld of crime.  Billy Crudup plays J. Edgar Hoover, who takes the old-timey high pitched speech of the 30s to a new level. Alas, the scene stealer in this movie is Baby Face Nelson, played by the same guy who played Tommy in "Snatch" (remember "before ze Germans get here"). Nelson is the crazy Scarface-esque mofo who remorselessly shoots innocent people, a foil to Dillinger, the suave modern Robin Hood handing out cash to the poor. Christian Bale plays Melvin Purvis, the G-man on the hunt for Dillinger. I don't know about you, buy I'm a little Bale-d out, especially after seeing "Terminator Salvation". As an aside, the Terminator series should have been terminated after T2 grumble grumble.
Throughout the movie, you enjoy the wild escapades of Dillinger, his girl and his cronies. But gradually you feel the weight of the law, and it's not long before the crimes catch up with them. In "Miami Vice", Colin Ferrell, in his infinite undercover cop wisdom, warns the bad guy's girl "Probability is like gravity: you cannot negotiate with gravity." Naturally the era of the tommy gun-toting bank robbers came to an end, just as the days of the gun-slinging outlaws ended when the wild west's frontier was claimed. But as you'll see, it was a fun ride while it lasted...

A blog is born

Hi there! This is my new movie blog, thanks for visiting. Holly suggested I start one of these after listening to me rant about movies for the millionth time. Now that intern year is over and I've got some more free time, I decided to give it a shot. We'll see how long it lasts...
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