It's okay to make a modern movie about one of the most notorious criminals in American history. And, the makers and cast of "Public Enemies" did a good job in portraying the main characters. Johnny Depp does a decent job portraying the fun-loving nature of John Dillinger. If anything, he is not as humorous or frequently smiling as the real J.D. And, Christian Bale portrays the always somber FBI agent Melvin Purvis well. Billy Crudup does a good job portraying the young, impetuous J. Edgar Hoover. "Public Enemies" also is a good portrayal of the widespread lawlessness of the time. Prohibition lasted from 1920 to the end of 1933. Bootleg booze was big business and organized crime flourished. The Great Depression was on and many homeless and jobless Americans turned to crime. The almost wholesale corruption of law enforcement in Chicago made it a haven for criminals.Thus, John Dillinger returned often to his base of operations after his bank robberies. To this extent, this film does a good job. But, from then on, one begins to wonder. Dillinger joked with the press and liked publicity. And, there was something of a cult following, especially among the young, including boys. Some had a skewed notion of Dillinger as a sort of Robin Hood. And this film seems to play along with that. If anything the dour Purvis is pictured as an obsessed pursuer. Of all the criminal charges against Dillinger, he had just one charge of homicide against him. But this film shows him in scene after scene with Tommy Guns and pistols blazing away and people falling to the ground. Is one to think that Dillinger couldn't hit anyone and that only others in his gang were able to shoot all those people?The film has a scene of a fictional meeting between Dillinger and Purvis. They never did meet face to face in real life. In the movie, Dillinger is behind bars and Purvis comes to look at him. As Purvis walks away, Dillinger says to him, that he should change his line of work. At that point, Bale (Purvis) stops and the camera holds on him a few seconds, showing that he's obviously thinking something. What was the point of that piece of fiction? Might not the writers instead have had Purvis make that statement to Dillinger? That would have squared more with the matter of right and wrong among those shown in this film. After all, wasn't it Dillinger who was being hunted and constantly fleeing to avoid the law? Wasn't it he who was in the wrong "line of work?"The film overall seems to have slight empathy for Dillinger and his girlfriend, Billie (played by Marion Cotillard). It never shows anything about the FBI agents, police, people in banks or others who are killed. There is no empathy for the families of those people. "Public Enemies" overall seems to glamorize the lives of a bunch of brazen bank robbers and killers. It sure is a lousy public statement about right and wrong, justice and law and order. One wonders why this film was made at all. Incidentally, the Tommy gun could be fired with a 100-round drum or a 32-round magazine feeding bullets at a rate of 900 per minute. In the film, the actors were using magazines. Yet only a couple of times did it show anyone changing a magazine. But many scenese showed the robbers firing the Tommy guns for long blasts, one after another. And never a change of ammo.

Chicago, thirties of the last century. John Dillinger and the crew rob banks and with high-speed cars flee across state borders, escaping the police. The FBI is in its infancy and Hoover wants to build a reputation by catching Dillinger, a state enemy number one. Story is realistic, almost like documentary. Action scenes are well shot and from a technical standpoint film has no flaws. But, although it definitely isn't boring, it failed to pull me in. I was not tied to the characters, I wasn't rooting for either side, nor did I care about their fates. Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Jason Clarke, Stephen Graham and many other big names guarantee that trouble certainly doesn't lie in acting, but screenplay didn't left room for characterization. Characters are one-dimensional. Criminal is just a criminal, cop is just a cop, there's no background stories, no diverting from main course of the movie, no inner struggles, no emotions or depth. Just black and white and straight forward, like TV news. Though, here and there they inserted a couple of emotional moments, I guess in attempt to breathe some soul into the movie, but they only achieved needless pathetic that simply doesn't fit with the rest of it. Technically excellent film, but not essentially powerful.7/10

I couldn't hear a damn word they actors said in this movie. This film had the worst sound I have yet to experience. The dialogue was very muddy as if the boom mike was wrapped in cotton wool. The background ambiance was overpowering to the point of annoying and the gun shots were deafening. Micheal Mann is not my style of director and I dislike his writing. So why do you ask , did I set through this movie? Johnny Depp is why. I find him fascinating to watch and love his acting and delivery. But even Johnny couldn't bring life to this script. A decided lack of character development and to many characters overwhelmed the screen many times so it was difficult to determine who was who in some cases. I will not recommend this film.

In the first one hour, honestly, i didn't know what was going on except there were a lot of gunshots and bank robbing. I didn't understand the dialogue and the urgent. What were they trying to do there? I almost confirmed this gangster movie is lame. But soon after the first hour, I could relate to it. I was so much entertained by the chasing and it was so damn cool.John Dillinger is such a great villain. I mean, what a brave person he is to walk into the police department while they are clearly searching for him. Damn! His picture is everywhere. In the meantime, some of the team police look like they don't take it seriously. It's kinda different with other chasing movie where the police are so aware about the fugitive. So far, I think this is the first time I saw Johnny Depp cry in the movie. And the ending is just as sad. Gasping he said "Bye, bye, Blackbird."