Public Enemies

Video has arrived! Hazaah! But I’ll be damned if a lot of this movie doesn’t look fake. Why? I’m not sure. Why shouldn’t a period gangster movie look like an episode of Cops? Why must period movies be sepia-tone and desaturated? Nevertheless Michael Mann’s lust for video yields mostly distractions in what is otherwise a well-written and well-acted action/drama. And when the cinematography is attention-getting enough to be distracting, that’s BAD. It’s unfortunate because the movie strikes an interesting juxtaposition between the fledgling FBI "good" guys trying to catch some thugs, and the very thuggish methods they resort to.