Spiked Wall (spikedwall)

Coming from someone who rates Mann's Collateral above his Heat (Heat simply hasn't aged very well), it shouldn't be surprising that Public Enemies disappoints me. I''m not a big Depp fan; I pretty much tolerate Bale when I have to. But they're not the problem here--in Mann's capable hands you could wring out a solid performance out of Owen Wilson.

No, the problem here is that there is no meat to the movie. Everything else is up to the usual Mann finesse, but when you simply don't care what's happening fifty minutes into a film, well, someone needs a better script.

The first twenty minutes are terrific. Beautiful, choreographed camerawork and lightning, slow, steady movement (they took a page from Kubrick's The Shining). Then it devolves into The Matrix. This is one of those movies which would have benefited tremendously from a lack of story, or a need to provide some cohesive explanation for what we see.

There are plenty of reviews spread out all over the internet telling you why this one's a must-see. They're all right. They've said damn near everything there is to say about it. If I have a single gripe, it's that Ridley Scott--though he came close with Bladerunner--never surpassed this. And it's not that hard to see why: clever motion picture storytelling that still appeals to the masses doesn't get better than this.