There was a lot of high expectations for this movie. You'd think that with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale that it would be an automatic hit. It may have been that, or it may have been the long(ish) run time but this movie just didn't have the gusto you'd expect.
The first point of contention is the camera work. As Micheal Mann may have pissed off someone in the union this may be forgivable by some people as he seems to do it a lot. But it seemed that a lot of the movie was shot without the benefit of a tripod. This provided a lot of shakey camera work and moves back and fourth that can also be seen in any beginners college news package. He tends to do this in a lot of his movies. But I just prefer a more slick look and don't need the camera to be jarring to get the point that there is action going on
Think Johnny Depp is a hunk? Well if you love staring into his eyes then this movie may give you a better chance then any other. As Mann also tends to have a lot of close ups with the actors faces. Bale also tries out a new southern accent in this movie which is a welcomed change of bace from the Bruce Wayne accent he had in his last few movies (including Terminator: Salvation).
From what I can gather it seems like this movie is fairly accurate in the historical perspective from the perspective of both John Dillinger and FBI pursuer Melvin Purvis.
But there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot driving this movie, which is tough to do in a bio-pic if the substance isn't there. The climax seems to be going towards the capture of Dillinger but what the audience wants to see more of are his robberies and planning.
There are some quality points to this movie and you can definately do a lot worse then this movie, but this is not a must-see.
No comments:
Post a Comment