“Public Enemies” – not so much! And find goofs in the movie here!

Johnny Depp - still from "Public Enemies"

On the Fourth of July, Monkey didn’t grill hamburgers or hotdogs,  didn’t stuff himself sick with potato salad, Doritos and pop, and didn’t partake in the consumption of even one alcoholic beverage. Rather, he took along a fairly amusing chap, his boss and friend of the homo sapien classification, Bryan Talbot, to see a movie about an American icon — John Dillinger.  How better, Monkey thought to celebrate the birthday of our most beloved country than to celebrate the life of one of our most intriguing and infamous heros.  A lover of gangster movies, Bryan agreed with alacrity to view the film and off we went to devour all the drama and intrigue that ”Public Enemies” was sure to propagate. 

Click here to read  about goofs in the movie “Public Enemies”!

Unfortunately “Public Enemies”  propagated naught but a few whispers in a darkened theater of  “What did he just say?”, along with  stark exclamations of “huh?”.  You see, my dear friends, the first of half of the movie was congested, like an asthmatic and bronchitic chest, stuffed full of non- essential scenes, poorly mixed sound, and actors playing flat, unloveable characters. Monkey couldn’t tell who was whom half the time, while the other  half of the time I was just wondering when the movie was going to engage me.  I wanted to care for our Johnny Dillinger, I just did, but my God, the man would have to express some sort of emotion for me to be able to grasp onto his persona.   It’s rather hard to love a character that emotes about as much as a Popsicle stick -sorry our dear Gwyneth it’s just true.  A character has to feel something, and then the audience feels with him.  And Monkey is not entirely sure the talented Johnny Depp is to blame here.  Monkey considers him one of his top ten…maybe even five… actors ever.  Monkey thinks perhaps the script didn’t allow the character much emotion, especially not nearly as much as the lovely Marion Cotillard was able to express in Billie’s interrogation scene.  She was astounding and mesmerizing , and that scene  made Monkey decide it was worth actually watching the rest of the movie.  It is Monkey’s understanding that the director too can have major impact on an actor’s performance, and since Michael Mann failed in a multitude of other aspects within the film,   Monkey’s decided to blame him for Depp’s lackluster performance as well.  And so disappointing Michael was in directing this film, that I am quickly reminded of another horror of his, “Ali”.  It really is quite astounding to Monkey that this same man also directed “Last of the Mohicans” and produced “The Aviator”.  Ah, well.  I guess some people can’t be geniuses all the time. It can be tiring, so I’ve been told, and it looks like poor Michael Mann’s genius lay exhausted on the sound stages  of “Miami Vice” and “Hancock”.  Laugh out Loud. LOL for short. Anywho, the movie picked up one half to three quarters of the way through the film, but ultimately I left the theater wishing I had pigged out on watermelon and ribs, and spent the day baking my hirsute figure under the Southern California sun while drinking frozen banana frappes.  Oh, well, there’s always next year.