The poor man just wanted to go to the movies, or a review of "Public Enemies"

This was almost going to have to be an open apology to Michael Mann, and in a way it still is, because the first time I saw "Public Enemies" it just seemed turgid and way too slow for a summer flick.

But luckily, I need as many second chances as anyone, so I gave his movie one, and found that though it was indeed released at the wrong time of year, it moves at its own pace while delivering an engaging tale very well told.

But before I get into any of that, perhaps a word or two about my personal connection to the '30s flicks Mann is so enamored with is in order. When I was a senior at the great Catholic University of America, I was rather dismayed to learn that, along with managing to pass all those classes, I also somehow had to do a senior thesis.

Well, luckily I was taking a class in political film that semester, so I somehow conned them into letting me write about "the social implications of '30s gangster flicks," or some such tripe. Which meant studying "The Public Enemy," "Little Caesar," "Scarface" and my personal favorite, "Angels with Dirty Faces."

And Michael Mann has clearly studied all these great flicks too. Has he made something that stands up to them with "Public Enemies"? Not quite, but his movie gets a lot of its strength by sticking to their template while adding quite a few of his own touches.

But before I go any further, it might be helpful to briefly say what this is about, since it only took in a respectable but not outstanding $41 million in its first five days. It's deceptively straightforward: Johnny Depp is bank-robbing expert John Dillinger, Christian Bale is Melvin Purvis, the lawman on his tail, and Marion Cotillard is Billie Frechette, the doll who stole his heart.

As I said earlier, though it by force has its fair share of shoot-em-ups, Mann's flick moves at a deliberate pace, and therefore has to be driven by great performances, which it almost uniformly is.

I had to go take a look back at Johnny Depp's IMDB resume to find the last time he was this good, and, with all apologies to the partisans of the pirate movies, I'd say it's his best performance since "Ed Wood." Like Jeffrey Wright did last year with Muddy Waters in the seriously satisfying "Cadillac Records," Depp manages to capture all the bravado that drove Dillinger and also the loyalty that at least in part led to his demise with looks as much as words. Marion Cotillard is his equal here, instantly imprinting the mix of attitude and innocence that would cause her to latch onto Dillinger so quickly, even after he tells her right away what exactly it is he does for a living.

And there are great performances riddled throughout "Public Enemies," from Billy Crupup's preening J. Edgar Hoover to Peter Gerety's hilariously sleazy turn as Dillinger's master lawyer, Louis Piquett, to an unrecognizable Giovanni Ribisi as his partner in crime, Alvin Karpis.

The seriously weak link, however, and what makes this ultimately a very good but not great flick, is Christian Bale's performance as Purvis. In order to give this tale the intensity or, well, heat of "Heat," Bale needed to deliver a lot more of the passion that drove him to be a lawman and his eventual disillusionment with it all, but his wooden performance just lets us down almost completely.

Well, that was a lot more about the performances than I intended, but they really are the best and worst things about "Public Enemies," mostly for the best. The ending, however, though you know beforehand what's coming, is nearly perfect.

I always enjoy watching people in movies watch movies (my favorite is still "Amelie"), and seeing the joy and recognition on Depp's face as he's watching Clark Gable in "Manhattan Melodrama" are a delight, as is an earlier moviehouse scene in which Dillinger and his gang watch a newsreel about themselves. And right before Dillinger's fateful night, Mann throws in a dreamy scene at the Chicago Police Department that's almost too clever for its own good, but still very entertaining.

But a word of warning for those who haven't seen this yet but want to: This is, as the lady sitting behind me helpfully said while watching the particularly brutal demise of Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham), a "real shoot-em-up." Just as in the original gangster flicks and amplified by the passage of the time, the bad guys die proper and often very bloody deaths.

That said, however, "Public Enemies" is a nearly first-rate flick that almost stands up to its predecessors, and is well worth checking out if you get the chance. Peace out.

Can Johnny Depp rescue movies for adults?

Before I jump into gangsters or anything about Johnny Depp, there are at least three news nuggets that just thoroughly intrigue me today, so here goes:

* With Amy Adams now set to star opposite Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in David O. Russell's "The Fighter," you can now count it as one of the movies I'm most looking forward to for 2010. The drama revolves around the life of boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and his trainer-brother Dick Eklund (Bale), chronicling their early days in Lowell, Mass., through Eklund's battle with drugs and Ward's eventual world championship in London. Adams, who makes absolutely everything she's in a little better, will play Charlene, a "tough, gritty" (well, I can't really see that) bartender who ends up dating Mickey.

The movie begins shooting next month in Lowell, and is there anyone you could make this sound any better? Sure, add Melissa Leo as Mickey's mother. Now I'm hooked.

* You know, I really should have more faith in Matt Reeves. I thoroughly enjoyed "Cloverfield," even though I expected going in to hate it, so maybe there's hope he won't make a mockery of "Let the Right One In," my single favorite movie of 2008, with his completely unnecessary remake, now called "Let Me In" (because, I suppose, the original just had too many words.)

I still can't see any reason to do this, and transport the movie to Colorado, but Reeves does at least seem to be a genuine fan of the material. As he told The Los Angeles Times about reading the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist:

"I was just hooked. I was so taken with the story and I had a very personal reaction. It reminded me a lot of my childhood, with the metaphor that the hard times of your pre-adolescent, early adolescent moment, that painful experience is a horror."

OK, fair enough. In the interview, he also disclosed that one extremely essential thing will remain the same. Oscar, the boy who becomes intrigue with the pale young girl who moves in next door, is 12 YEARS OLD, and therefore way too young to be played by Zac Efron.

Like I said, I'm still solidly against all this, but I have to admit it's getting me at least a little intrigued.

* When I heard that Duncan Jones, who directed easily one of my favorite flicks of this year with the traditional sci-fi tale "Moon," was going to next direct a submarine flick, you could call me rather psyched. Well, not so fast ...

Instead of "Escape from the Deep," he's apparently already working on something called "Mute," which he describes as a "thriller-mystery." Set in various locations around Berlin (Germany, not, oddly enough, the Eastern Shore of Maryland), it's about a woman whose disappearance causes a mystery for her partner, a mute bartender. When she disappears, he has to go up against the city's gangsters.

Excellent. And if you haven't seen "Moon" yet, do it as soon as you can on DVD (though no release date has been set yet), because Sam Rockwell is just amazing.

And speaking of gangsters and something amazing, if I may finally get to what should have been the lead, it really looks like Johnny Depp is walking right into a bear trap, as impossible as that seems.

I mean, really, what could be more all-American for the Fourth of July than a Michael Mann flick starring Depp as John Dillinger, Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the law man who doggedly pursued him, and Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's mol, Billie Frechette? Well, apparently a lot of things.

Trying to figure out if I could squeeze in a screening of "Public Enemies" on Thursday afternoon before I have to go to work (thanks to the glorious 11 a.m. movie, I think I can), I found something rather shocking (at least to me.)

At our two local multiplexes (the third, rather sorrily, doesn't even have Wednesday showtimes up yet), Mann's flick is getting a total of 12 showtimes daily. Fair enough, right? Well, not really, because the also-opening "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" gets 25 (thanks to 3-D), and even more egregiously, the holdover "Transformers" flick gets 24. Where's the justice in that?

I suppose it's what you get when you release a possibly Oscar-caliber flick (actually, with 10 finalists, I'd call it a mortal lock) in July. Given the way the deck is stacked, I'd have to predict "Public Enemies" will finish third this week, and be lucky to pull in $50 million, even with the holiday bounce. Mind you, I certainly want to be wrong.

The much bigger problem, as EW highlighted a few weeks ago, is that movies for adults have pretty much disappeared from mainstream theaters. I suppose "The Hangover" sort of counts, and "Star Trek" certainly appeals to all ages, but "Public Enemies" should just be a timeless tale that deserves a wide audience. Having watched the trailer several times now, I can assure you that, yes, there really is something therapeutic about watching Johnny Depp wield a Tommy Gun.

But, enough preaching for a Tuesday morning. Here's hoping I'm wrong, and Michael Mann's flick just does bonkers box office. Peace out.

Trailer Thursday: A trio of fun clips

Actually, the first and most distressing news this morning comes from Latino Review, who I've never known to get anything wrong, as much as I wish they would this time.

Yesterday came the news that "Friday Night Lights" ultra-hottie (for lack of a more technical or less piggish) term Adrianne Palicki, along with Chris Hemsworth and Josh Peck, would be joining the cast of a remake of "Red Dawn." Unaddressed in that news, of course, is the question of why in the world anyone would want to remake "Red Dawn," but I really don't want to get into that today ...

Instead let's just deal with the rather depressing fact that none other than Tony Gilroy has apparently already turned in a rewrite of this monstrosity. Now, I thought "Michael Clayton" was perhaps a tad overrated but still very enjoyable, and I think I'm one of the very few people in the world who loved Gilroy's "Duplicity" almost unconditionally. Even if you didn't, I'd imagine it's gotta be pretty much a consensus that the man deserves better than this.

Oh well, I'll just say I hope he's being very well paid for this, and move on to three things that are just thoroughly fun time-wasters.

First up is another viral marketing installment from the makers of Judd Apatow's "Funny People," and I have to say, judging from the two clips they've put together so far, there's little doubt Apatow's third directorial effort will be thoroughly entertaining when it comes out at the end of July.

First came the trailer for the fake NBC tv show "Yo Teach!" starring Jason Schwartzman, which you can still watch here, and the clip below is even funnier. I don't want to spoil it too much, but it's Adam Sandler and Justin Long in a dead-on spoof of "Little Man" and any other flick that makes the always hilarious (sarcasm, in case it doesn't come through) move of putting a man's face on the body of a baby. Enjoy.



I was thinking the other day about doing a midyear scorecard of sorts, listing my 10 top movies from the first half of 2009, but I decided to cheat and put that off until the end of July to include the aforementioned Apatow flick and Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," set to drop July 1 with Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard and Christian Bale in the saga of John Dillinger vs. the FBI. Those would have to be the two flicks I'm most looking forward to for the rest of this summer (unless Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo" somehow gets a wide theatrical release, keep hope alive!), so enjoy this 90-second clip "Assault" clip, because what workday isn't just a little bit better with a good gun battle?



And finally, like apparently everyone else in the world, I just can't get enough of vampires. I've made my love for "Let the Right One In" (for the sorry American remake, that title is apparently too long - it will simply be "Let Me In" - blurg!) clear on this site many times, and I thought the second season premiere of "True Blood" just set things up perfectly (and I'm about to dive into the fourth of Charlayne Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels, on which it's based.)

But the one vampire vehicle I'm most looking forward to this year would have to be Chan-wook Park's "Thirst," the poster for which is at left. Of Park's movies so far, I've only managed to see "Oldboy" (another lame American remake alert - see a theme here?) and "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," and those were both just fantastic. As you can see from the (redband, though I really can't imagine why after watching it) trailer below, the flick is about a priest who goes to Africa to find the cure for a deadly disease but, of course, comes back as one of the walking dead. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Thursday. Peace out.

I knew "South Park" was powerful, but ...

If you happened to tune in for Wednesday's "South Park" episode, you know that - as the best ones do - it starts out sanely enough with Jimmy writing "the greatest joke in the world" about fishsticks (on the 8-year-old level from which I sometimes view the world, it was indeed pretty funny) before spiraling all over the place and ending with Kanye West singing about the joys of being a gay fish.

It was pretty inspired satire of someone who surely deserves it, and surprisingly, it seems that Mr. West - in his own way - has sort of gotten the message, which I never would have guessed possible.

In his blog, the "rapper" (quotations added only because I can't stand his music, mind you) had this to say about it:

"SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT'S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER."

Now, the caps alone (which certainly weren't added by me) show that he hasn't really completely gotten over himself, but I suppose it's a start. The whole thing, which you can read here, is actually a hoot, and this would have to be easily the best line: "I GOT A LONG ROAD AHEAD OF ME TO MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE I'M NOT ACTUALLY A HUGE DOUCHE, BUT I'M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE."

OK, since he also actually posted the video of South Park's gay fish song, I should probably just stop the hating. Here's the video, in case you missed it:



In another bit of TV news, according to Entertainment Weekly, Aaron Sorkin is actually considering another return to TV, and more incredibly a return to yet another "show about making a show."

According to writer Lynette Rice, along with working on two screenplays (one for a Facebook movie [yawn, but yes, I'm on it] and one for a courtroom drama about Guantanamo Bay that sounds much more promising), he's also considering the idea of a new TV drama that takes a behind-the-scenes look at a cable news show.

Man, does that sound like nothing but meh. Now, don't get me wrong, "Sports Night" was pure gold, but his second attempt, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," was just almost completely devoid of any heart or soul, and lasted much longer than it should have. Given the set of this new show, if it were to happen, I'd imagine the politics he would cram down our throats week after week might be just about unbearable.

And in "The Office"-related news, it seems that Jan (Melora Hardin) is getting a starring role in an upcoming FX series that actually sounds really promising. Called "Lights Out," it will be about a former heavyweight boxing champion (Holt McCallany) who suffers from pugilistic dementia and is forced to take a job as a mob legbreaker to support his wife and three daughters. Hardin will plays his wife, an orthopedic surgeon. That all sounds great to me.

Two promising trailers

I have to admit that this one caught me just about completely off guard. I really like Sam Rockwell and love old-fashioned sci-fi (which Danny Boyle tried to fashion with "Sunshine" but just failed spectacularly), so "Moon" looks like it will be right up my alley. It's being distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, which hopefully means it will somehow play wide enough to reach my little corner of the world when this hits theaters June 12. Enjoy.



And finally, here's the international trailer for Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," which looks much, much better than the teaser he put out earlier this year. You can tell from this clip that what he's cooking up will be as much an epic romance between Johnny Depp's John Dillinger and his mol Billie Frechette, played by Marion Cotillard, as it will hopefully be just a really fun gangster pic. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Thanks to the largess of two of my old friends, Cory and Kaori, I'm going to watch the Braves beat down the evil Nationals Saturday night (yes, Facebook can really be great sometimes), and before that see Jody Hill's "Observe and Report." Peace out.

The joys of summer: Ten (or maybe 13) flicks I'm really looking forward to

Actually, the most important thing happening possibly today for fans of great television is that DirecTV and NBC are expected to announce whether or not they've come to an agreement for a fourth and fifth season of "Friday Night Lights."

Now, I know I talk about this show a whole lot, but you'll just have to believe me that it's that good. It's the best TV drama since "The Wire," and in the interest of full disclosure, it routinely comes very close to making this grownass man cry at its most touching moments.

If you've missed out on the ride thus far, it's easy to catch up, and free too. I was rather amazed to find you can watch the first two seasons and the second half of the current one on Hulu, so I encourage anyone to give it a try.

The final decision, of course, will come down to money, specifically how much DirecTV is willing to pay to air the shows before they hit NBC. I'll definitely pass on what I hear as soon as I can, but here today it's all about summer, and what's in the movie pipeline.

There's actually some pretty good stuff coming before summer, which for argument's sake will start in May, including this week Greg Mottola's "Adventureland" and - if you live in a bigger city than me - "Sunshine Cleaning" and Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's baseball flick "Sugar," and next week Jody Hill's "Observe and Report." For a look at what comes after those that intrigues me, here goes (and please forgive any misspellings, because the Blogger spell check just wouldn't work this morning):

May 21: Terminator Salvation

I really had little to no interest in this one until I saw the latest trailer, but am now fairly convinced that McG will cook up something both genuinely gritty and fun with it. McG? Yes, McG.

May 29: Three definitely worth waiting for

The Brothers Bloom: Memorial day weekend will probably be the single best movie weekend of 2009 if Rian Johnson's sophomore flick actually manages to play wide enough to reach my little corner of the world. It was originally supposed to come out late last year, and I've certainly been ready to see this con man flick starring Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi since then.



Drag Me to Hell: If anyone short of Sam Raimi were promising a return to "real horror" I'd probably just laugh and move on, but judging from the trailer above I think he's come up with exactly that. If you hooked her up to a lie detector I bet Ellen Page would reveal she regrets passing on the lead in this tale of an old woman's rather nasty curse and handing the role to Alison Lohman.

Up: Having seen just last weekend what 3D can do in the wrong hands, being thoroughly bored from start to finish by Dreamworks' "Monsters Vs. Aliens," I can't wait to see it used for the forces of good again by Pixar. Everything I've seen and heard about this tale of an adventurous septuagenarian (Ed Asner) and his flying house says it's gonna be yet another Pixar winner.

June 19

Whatever Works: After countless years of casting his muse of the moment, Woody Allen has finally looked in the mirror and turned to a cranky old man as the lead in this one, and thankfully it's veryfunnyman Larry David. Here's hoping the success of "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (my favorite comedy of 2009) means this return to NYC for Mr. Allen will play very wide.



Year One: As you can see from the trailer above, the humor in this Harold Ramis flick will be extremely broad but hopefully also on the mark. Jack Black and Michael Cera play the leads in this biblical laugher, which Ramis promises was made in the spirit of Monty Python. I have my doubts, but bring it on so we can find out.

July 1: Public Enemies

Having tried it out on one of my Johnny Depp-obsessed co-workers when she was having a particularly bad day, I can attest that there's just something extremely therapeutic about seeing him tote a tommy gun. Christian Bale will be the lawman who pursues Depp's John Dillinger in Michael Mann's flick, and you've also got Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's mol and Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover, which all sounds pretty great to me.

July 10: Bruno

I'm not sure I'm ready for more of Sacha Baron Cohen's antics, but I laughed through just about every minute of "Borat," so I'll give him another shot. Besides, early word is that his exploits as the Austrian fashion reporter Bruno are at least as outrageous as anything he came up with the first time out, so it should at least never be boring.

July 17: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

It will be interesting to see if Harry Potter mania will still be running strong after such a long layoff. Given what director David Yates did with "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and that this installment is easily my favorite of the books, I'm betting this one will be both a critical and box-office winner.



July 31: Funny People

As you can see from the trailer above (which reveals perhaps too much of the flick's story), there's a whole lot more than stand-up comedy going on in this Judd Apatow movie starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. Given how often we hear the "Freaks and Geeks" creator's name nowadays, it's surprising (to me, at least) that this will be only the third flick he's actually directed, preceded by "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up" (the far superior of the two).

August 7: Julie and Julia

Far too girly for the heat of August, perhaps, but when you've got Meryl Streep and adorable Amy Adams in a movie that's all about food, I'm there. Streep will play master chef Julia Child and Adams a woman who decides to cook her way through Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in one year's time in her small kitchen. Sounds like nothing but fun to me.



August 14: Taking Woodstock

Out of some odd misguided loyalty to Dave Chappelle I've thus far resisted watching Comedy Central's latest sketch comedy star, Demetri Martin, but I'm beginning to think I'm really missing out on something good. Should I give in? As you can see from the trailer above, Mr. Martin also plays the lead role of Elliot Tiber in Ang Lee's flick about the famed hippie fest, which looks like it will be as simply silly as it is hopefully entertaining.

August 21: Inglourious Basterds

We finish, fittingly enough, with Quentin Tarantino's version of a World War II flick, assuming he actually both finishes it in time and decides to cut it enough to release it as only one movie. After watching Eli Roth removing a Nazi's head with a baseball bat I have serious doubts that this will be any good, but I'll definitely be there to see how it all turns out.

And there you have it. There are also certainly some pending blockbusters ("GI Joe", "Star Trek" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" among them) that simply don't interest me all that much, but if there are any other summer flicks I've omitted but should put on my radar, certainly let me know, and have a perfectly passable Monday. Peace out.