Genre: Crime films

Another Michael Mann movie that does not disappoint. The camera work (which is the biggest turn off for most people) was my favorite part of the movie. It was done by using all digital, HD cameras, similar to other "hand-held, live action" movies like "Cloverfield" and "The Blair Witch Project". The live action, moving cinematography gives the whole movie the feeling of a COPS episode. The history and details of the movie were amazingly accurate. The only major difference between this movie and fact was the rearranging of a few characters deaths to make the movie's story more streamlined. Now, down to the acting. I was actually unimpressed by Depp's performance, and I thought that the worst part of the movie was Cotillard's character. She did a fine job, but Mann took way too many dramatic liberties with her relationship with Dillinger. Michael Mann's low point has always been his romances (except in his best films "Heat" and "Mohicans"). Of course, I can't complain too much, since the romance of the movie was one of the only things that kept the balance between documentary and drama. Christian Bale's character was flat, straight forward, and REALISTIC!!! He did an excellent job recreating a believable, true life man with subtle expressions and a distinctly non-Dark Knight voice. I really enjoyed this movie and, don't get me wrong, I thought Depp did a fine job, just not the "amazing, career-defining, Oscar winning" job that everybody is saying it is. Really, I thought Steven Grahm's "Baby-Face" Nelson was absolutely fantastic. He (like most of the supporting cast) did not even feature prominently, and yet he stole every moment he was on camera. If he had had one or two monologues added into his performance, I would cry "supporting-actor Oscar". Billy Crudup also did a stand out job as the famous J. Edgar Hoover. One of the most disopointingly underdeveloped characters was Giovanni Ribisi's Alvin Karpis. I was expecting a whole lot more from this character, and would have liked to have seen him live up to his nickname "Creepy" Karpis. I am actually hopping that a four hour directors cut will come out with more development of supporting characters. All in all, great movie, did not disappoint.

I really enjoyed this movie. I liked how the brothers bonded so well and didn't have alot of drama twords each other. I was expecting it to be a bunch of racial trash ,but it actually turned out to avoid that ditch that so many movies get caught in these days. Cool action. All the brothers were cool. Angle was cool, Bobby was cool, Jerry was cool, Jack was the coolest. Oh ya.

An okay Michael Mann movie, but not nearly his best. The style, cinematography, and overall look of the film was excellent and very mood setting. The gun battles were typical of a Michael Mann movie: absolutely amazing! Manns' history as a gun instructor really paid off in his film career, allowing him to construct action scenes that are well above other Hollywood films, even in one of his worst movies. Where the movie goes wrong is in the overly long and ridiculously melodramatic love story. It is placed right in the center of the film, breaking apart the rhythm of the undercover vice work that should have been the main focus of the story. The acting on a whole was not amazing or really bad, it was just hammed up by the "seriousness" of the story. Basically, the characters and dialog did not match up with the rest of the movie: a cool, calm, modern take on the classic buddy-cop TV show.