Public Enema’s

That’s right! I said it, “Enema’s,” cause that’s what it felt like when watching this film. Public Enemies was a very disappointing film that lowered my expectations. We won’t talk about the fabulous acting because we already know that these actors can portray magnificent characters. Johnny Depp (John Dillinger) and Christian Bale (Melvin Purvis) have sensational talent that allows them to invisibly fall into a character and get lost in the moment. We have no problem with the great acting in the movie. Billy Crudup (J. Edgar Hoover) can play with the best of them as well. He just impresses us over and over. So, it is not the acting or character work that is the problem with the movie, it is the convoluted script that takes the audience in a whirlwind of events.

The movie opens in 1933 with Dillinger being taken under arrest to a penitentiary by a prison officer (Jason Clarke; later identified as his partner in crime John “Red” Hamilton) who helps Dillinger plan an escape for the rest of their gang members. During the escape, a massive shootout ensues resulting the mentor (Walter Dietrich; played by John Russo) of John Dillinger to get killed. After Dillinger beats and disposes the gang member who caused the shootout, they head to a safe house to recollect themselves before they head off to begin their multiple bank robberies. Elsewhere, we meet FBI agent Melvin Purvis who is in pursuit of another criminal Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum). In an act of self-defense, Purvis shoots Floyd in the abdominal area causing him to quietus. J. Edgar Hoover is deeply impressed by this slaying that he promotes Purvis to the task to search for Dillinger (America’s Most Wanted Criminal). After Dillinger’s first successful bank robbery, he paints the town by celebrating with his miscreants in an upscale nightclub. There he meets his love interest (Billie Jean: kidding! Billie Frechette: played by Marion Coillard) and he takes her on a ride on his notorious adventures.

Honestly, I didn’t really go into detail of the story because I didn’t know what was going on during the entire grueling film. It was hard to follow because the story was not only mundane but also exceptionally bewildering. I didn’t understand why Dillinger was upset when his mentor dies because I didn’t know that Dietrich was his mentor. There was not a strong relationship built between the two to realize that he was his mentor. I just thought that he was just another gang member.

This film had too many unnecessary scenes with the FBI agents sitting around in their office talking unavailing dialogue. In one of the scenes, Dillinger walks into a police station for some unknown reason (I believe it was to tag along with his partners sibling Polly Hamilton; played by Leelee Sobieski) and looks at his criminal photos. At one point, he asked the police officers a question. Granted he was in a deplorable disguise, the officers did not even recognize him. The only difference that hid his appearance was the tiny moustache covering his identity! That is absolutely ridiculous!

The real issue about the film is not the baffling script but the horrendous cinematography. The film starts off with decent camera work and lighting. As soon as we enter the big gun fight battles, the quality of the picture goes from beautiful to downright atrocious. The gun fights looked liked a horrible reenactment from the television show “America Most Wanted.” The sound quality wasn’t any better. The audience could barely hear the dialogue and I believe the theater had the volume on full blast.

The most shocking notion about this film is that the budget was 80 million dollars. Michael Mann must have paid 25 million dollars each for the two A-list actors. Then ten million split for the rest of the crew. He spent Another 15 million for the cameras, costumes, old cars, etc. Rumor has it that Johnny Deep got to touch and play around with John Dillingers real possessions (clothes and guns) which probably cost Mr. Mann another 4 million. So, that leaves Mr. Mann with one million dollars to spend on the film in order to actually make the film in the highest quality of “America’s Most Wanted,” episode. Those criminals split 80 million dollars, I feel like I got robbed!

Going into a movie like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, you pretty much know what you’re in for.  Afer all, it is a Michael Bay movie, and with that label comes certain expectations.  The movie will be a huge spectacle of noise and fury.  It will be loud, it will be crass, and it will probably not make a whole lot of sense.  Some people buy into Bay’s world of excess, and just as many despise everything about it.  At the risk of alienating the latter, I have to confess that with the excpetion of Pearl Harbor, I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of his movies.  And that includes Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Having said that, it could have been much better.  There is a terrific movie buried within the entirety of the film, but sometimes it’s pretty hard to spot underneath the extraordinarily juvenile “humor,” disjointed storytelling and inane dialogue.  Another vicitm of the Writers’ Strike, an outline of the script by Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Ehren Kruger was rushed into completion in order for Bay to begin Pre-Production during the strike.  As such, it’s a film of (rather spectacular) ideas and sequences more than anything.

Assuming that we have all seen the first film, this time around begins with the Autobots (the good Transformers) working with the Govenment in an attempt to hunt and capture the remaining Decepticons (the bad Transformers).  But why are the Decepticons still here when they were defeated in the last film?  Of course, in typical sequel fashion, the answer is on a much larger scale than last time, spanning thousands of years, enhancing the mythology of the Transformers, and yet all coming back to the central character, Sam Witwicky.

As played by Shia LaBeouf, Witwicky is just a normal kid starting college with typical freshman worries.  He just happens to have gotten caught up in this epic battle.  Tagging along for no reason beyond providing eye candy for the audience is Megan Fox, bringing absolutely nothing substantial to the role.  There is an attempt at fleshing out their relationship, but that is all filler between the robot fighting.

And the robot fighting is what this movie is all about.  It is non-stop, huge-scale, massive action animated superbly by the geniuses at Industrial Light and Magic.  The effects aren’t the most photo-realistic they’ve done, but the artistry behind them is a thrill to watch.  There is almost always something visually exciting on screen, even if there isn’t anything of real substance behind it.

With so much happening at all times, it is very easy to lose yourself in a movie like this.  Having said that, there are three characters that come close to ruining every scene they are in.  The first of these is Sam’s mother, Judy Witwicky, played by Julie White.  While the entire movie is over-the-top, she takes this concept to a cringe-worthy, embarrassingly awful level.  Overacting the simplest of sequences, she creates a caricature of a mother losing her son to the adult world.  I hated every shrieking line of dialogue, and every aspect of the performance.  The other two are the twin robots, Wheelie and Skids, played by Tom Kenny (the voice of Spongebob Squarepants).  Portrayed as uneducated ghetto robots, complete with gold teeth, I felt like cringing everytime they were on screen.

Despite these flaws, the movie is a blast to watch.  Every setpiece and every transformation took me back to when I would spend hours playing with my Transformer toys as a kid.  This is a Michael Bay movie through and through, and if you are somebody who can appreciate his over-the-top playground, then this is definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

Columbia Pictures and Apatow Productions (founder Judd Apatow) should have thought about it very thoroughly to change the name to “Year None,” since the movie had nothing to provide to the audience, not one bit of satisfaction. The movie was disappointing to say the least. You have two main characters an awful hunter, Zed (Jack Black) and an awful gatherer, Oh (Michael Cera) who are smitten by two of the women in their tribe Maya (June Raphael) and Eema (Juno Temple). Zed wants to desperately impress Maya that he can be a useful man to the tribe, so he decides to eat a golden apple from the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil. Zed begins to believe that he is becoming a genius but the tribe finds out what he did, so he is forced to leave the tribe. He decides to start his own tribe and as he leaves to explore the other parts of earth he accidentally sets fire to Oh’s house forcing Oh to join his quest. During their exploration, Zed and Oh encounter many biblical people. The first are Cain and Abel, and they witness Cain killing Abel thus forcing Cain to flee with them on their quest. They encounter another civilization where they find out that Maya and Eema have been enslaved and they ploy a plot to release them.

The film had too much potty humor that was childish. It took away from the clever humor that these comic genus’s could have provided. The film had wasted talent riding on this film. Paul Rudd and Bill Hader, two brilliant comic actors, wasted their talents on their cameo parts. Bill hader as the shaman was probably the only one that outshined the entire cast, which is sad to say. The ending credits were probably the funniest part of the movie because you got the chance to see the bloopers where the actors were honest in their comedy. The person to blame was Harold Ramis for not having a well-written script and no sense of direction. Ramis’ actors were all over the place without any clear direction to go. In the Abel and Cain scene, Cain (David Cross) did not know what he was doing. Cross is an amazing comic actor, yet he did not have a clear intention in the scene. Cross was just simply trying too hard because he was focused on being funny than being honest. The difference is that being funny is trying to make unfunny jokes funny, which can be Inevitable. Honesty is the key to funny which is as simple as playing your intention with action. At times, Jack Black and Michael Cera had the same problems. The blame really falls on the horrible script that didn’t provide clear intentions. It basically went for the potty humor, which is a cheap shot of making comedy films. Films that do this type of humor is not challenging, it would be understanable if it was half potty and half clever, yet it did not provide that.

Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Isaac) have a common acting ground, they tend to play the same character in every movie. They are one-dimensional actors that have no level of range. It is working for Cera because he does have a unique type of humor. His improvisational skills are very strong and at times can be limitless. Cera does need to take an acting class, which would make him unstoppable. On the other hand, Christopher Mintz-Plasse definitely needs to take an acting class. He is becoming annoying and if he keeps this up his fifteen minutes of fame will be up. He does deserve some credit with Role Models because he did play a role a little different from his Mclovin role from Superbad. In Year One, it seems that he reprised the role of Mclovin, which did not surprisingly fit in this type of film.

The costumes and make-up in the film was very valued for a comedy. The production value was up to par. It should be up to par if you have a budget of 60 million dollars. The gold make-up on Cera was priceless. The amazing make-up on Bill Hader was also priceless. Bill hader was completely unrecognizable. His impressions in the ending credits were great; one in particular was Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood.” His impression alone helped the film get a rating of 5 out of 10. Here is some advice; Judd Apatow is a genus when it comes to directing comedies. Everything he touches becomes gold. He should have directed this one when he read the script because he could have possibly salvaged some things from the awful script. Never mind, when you have a bad script it is Inevitable.