Public Enemies movie posterDirector Michael Mann competes with his own definitive crime drama Heat, as cops and bank robbers go head to head in 1930's America.

Real-life Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger's lightning bank raids made him a folk hero and national celebrity, with the fledgling FBI promoting him to 'public enemy number one.' Mann's movie is essentially a remake of the 1973 Dillinger, a Depression-era Western with hangdog Warren Oates as Dillinger and Ben Johnson as the monolithic lawman Melvin Purvis.

This movie begs comparison with Dillinger and Heat and finds itself lacking - mainly Pacino and De Niro, Johnson and Oates. We're in typical Mann territory, virile and testosterone-fuelled; casual cruelty and the uncaring society. What we get instead is Mann's slick visual style and adrenalin-pumping shoot-outs. Read more of this post