March 18, 2010

Review - Public Enemies (2009)


I am a big fan of Crime movies – specially those based on true people and events. Public Enemies is one such movie based on the life and times of John Dillinger. Starring Johnny Depp as Dillinger and Christian Bale as Agent Melvin Pervis, it is an almost true story of the last few months of the first “Public Enemy No 1″.

Set in the depression era, the movie details the last few bank robberies committed by Dillinger, and also showcases some of his (spectacular) jail breaks. Depp is impressive to say the least, charming and scary at the same time. Bale on the other hand is restrained, and showcases his acting abilities in portraying Pervis.

A lot of attention is paid to the actual facts and to the period in which the story is based, and the movie manages to transform you into the era of 1930s. There are some historical inaccuracies though, like the deaths of Baby face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd occur before Dillinger in the movie, while in reality they outlived him (by a few months though).

My rating for this movie would be 4.5/5 – with the .5 deducted because of the historical inaccuracies. Watch this movie if you are a fan of true crime movies, if you like serious stuff, and specially if you think that the only role Depp ever portrayed was that of Captain Jack Sparrow.

In the mean time, this is Hashir, signing off

Over and Out

P.S. – The movie poster has been taken from Wikipedia. The Author does not hold or claim to hold any copyright for the same. The copyright of this poster is most likely owned by either the publisher or creator of the movie. It is believed that the use of this image to provide critical commentary of the “Public Enemies” qualifies as fair use. If such is not the case, please feel free to bring this to our notice, and the image will be removed promptly.

4 comments:

Garima said...

A good initiative...I found the review quite tangy and critically appreciative. Your evaluation of deducting 0.5 left a smile though, it sounded quite like an inexorable examiner who fears the 100 mark :)

Hashir said...

Thanks for being the first person here.... :D
And can't help deducting the 0.5, after all studied from ISC board... if you know what I mean.

Vineet Rajan said...

Oh, this was one kick ass movie! Johnie Depp is brilliant in just about any movie. this was one of the few movies where i missed his eccentric moments!

Hashir said...

@Vineet,

Yeps, the movie lacks in his eccentric movies - but the overall package more than makes up for it :)