The 1930's thriller, Public Enemies, doesn't quite live up to expectations and it mainly comes down to the fact that the movie is long and drawn out. The entire movie spans 140 minutes (that's two hours and twenty minutes for those of you too lazy to do the math) and becomes extremely repetitive.
The storyline sticks to the true story of bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) almost too accurately to the point where it hurts the movie. The movie includes way too many gun fights. These gun fights are long, repetitive and poorly shot. Lots of the movie is shot using handheld camera angles which looks very cool except during gun fights. I want to see whats happening, not random angle changes every two seconds, with loud bangs that go on for fifteen minutes at a time. In the end you don't find out what happened during the gun fight (ie. who died) until after it is over, just because it is near impossible to keep track.
Dillinger also escapes from jail twice. The first escape is very cool and starts the movie off with a bang, but when the second escape comes around the element of surprise and excitement is gone.
The various bank robberies are also very similar. The first one or two = cool, the next few = boring.
The movie would have been a lot better if it had been cut down to one and a half hours, with less, but more intense action sequences.
With all that being said Johnny Depp is phenomenal. Unless the otherwise poor film robs him, Depp may be in line for an Oscar. He portrays Dillinger as a witty, yet conniving criminal with an edge.
In the end Depp steals the spotlight in Public Enemies, a movie which has lots of potential but falls short of what it could have been.
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