Consensus: ‘Enemies’ style splits critics

By Jonathan Tully | Action, Family films, Movies | July 02, 2009

Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in Michael Mann's 'Public Enemies' (Universal Pictures)

Quiz: How well do you know your movie gangsters?

Public Enemies is one of the most eagerly awaited movies of the summer precisely because it’s not your usual blockbuster. It’s about a real criminal — John Dillinger — and stars two guys who like to go big in movies, but not explosions and special-effects big.

Johnny Depp likes to make his characters completely inhabit the screen, yet somehow, he doesn’t quite chew the scenery. And Michael Mann makes his movies stand out with style and gives them some sort of touch that lets his audience know this is not your usual movie.

In both men’s cases, the movies they make can be divisive to critics — some thinking that Mann values style too highly over substance, some thinking that Depp can be too much of a caricature, etc.

Public Enemies scored a 61 at Rotten Tomatoes, and a 71 on Metacritic.

• FilmBlather’s Eugene Novikov called the film ‘one of the most interesting and challenging wide releases of the year’: “(Public Enemies) uses the gangster movie form to say something profound and unexpected about the way we respond to evil.”

• Sean O’Connell of Carolina Weekly says Mann gets wrapped up in the Dillinger hype: “(Mann) is more enamored with the Dillinger myth than with the actual man.”

• Devin Faraci of CHUD (Cinematic Happenings Under Development) says the movie feels like a sequel without a first film: “The movie plays like a rise and fall story (sort of like Soderbergh’s Che, which was split into two halves) but there’s no rise.”

• Lest we forget that Depp’s in the movie, Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News paints him as the hero of the situation, basically saving things: “Johnny Depp is so compelling and charismatic as John Dillinger, he provides enough firepower to make the film legit.”

Ice Age: Rise of the Dinosaurs: The third in the series about a group of prehistoric animals isn’t exactly getting the kind of strong critical love of animated counterparts such as Up.

It only scores a 35 on Rotten Tomatoes and a 51 on Metacritic.

Keith Phipps of The Onion’s AV Club says the film actually tosses out what made the series special in the first place: “Let other movies have their velociraptors and their T. Rexes — here was a movie happily filled with mammoths and saber-toothed cats. The series kept it going for one more entry, but throws its commitment to the era away with movie number three, a ploy sure to anger Ice Age purists everywhere.”