Spoiler- Free Review of Public Enemies

Public Enemies is an interesting film, starring Johnny Depp, who plays the infamous John Dillinger, a bank robber who was on the rise during the Great Depression. This review is not intended to spoiler the ending or tell you everything that happens in the movie, I think that takes a lot of the fun out of it. My soul purpose for writing this review is let readers know if they would be interested in seeing the film.

The movie is set during the Great Depression so most everybody around is struggling with money with the exception of the notorious bank robbers featured in the film. They rob whatever bank they wish and most of the time, get away with it. Dillinger also becomes somewhat of a celebrity during the time period and gets a lot of recognition from the media. He and his band of fellow bank robbers take the US by storm, cleaning out a ton of banks along the way. The film includes a lot of shooting scenes for all you action lovers but there also comes somewhat of a love story when Dillinger meets Billy, played by Marion Cotillard, one evening. He is not shy to let her know that he is interested and his always charismatic charm seems to win her over.

The film, however, lacked a lot of the "gangster" elements with the exception of the shooting scenes which in my opinion, did not happen as often as the viewer would have liked them to. The entire movie seemed to be building up to a climax, that I do not think ever quite happened. Not to say that it was not a good film, because it was, it was just a bit to drug out for me. The actors in the film give good performances with the material they were given to work with but it lacked a lot of action that you would think would occur.

Overall, I would say that if your looking for a gangster movie similar to Scarface or Goodfellas, this movie was not up to par in my opinion but the story as a whole was OK. It would be a good movie to watch when all else fails in my opinion. I hope this was helpful and if you watch it, don't neglect the thrill of the shoot-out scenes, some of them are rather eye-catching.