Saturday, March 07, 2009

Public Enemies

I wouldn't say that I dislike Michael Mann, or even that he's overrated, but I certainly wouldn't describe myself as a fan. I loved the Last of the Mohicans but Heat really didn't do it for me and the less said about Miami Vice the better.

However, he is very good at directing action. Whereas 'Bayhem' takes the wall of sound approach of throwing everything at the audience without letting them take a breath, Mann's approach is far more measured and focused, which I prefer.

That's one of the reasons why I'm really looking forward to seeing Public Enemies, the new film about the FBI's attempts to take down notorious gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd.

The fact that Johnny Depp is playing Dillinger certainly helped to raise my interest, but I think Mann's style will be very well suited to prohibition era America - there's just something very cool about the Tommy Gun.

1 comment:

MT said...

At first I thought it was strange that Depp is Dillinger and Bale is Purvis, when I first heard of these two stars being cast, I instantly envisioned Bale as our Baddy (and wouldn't that have been fun to watch?) but seeing the trailer, I can certainly see why it came out the way it did.