Reviews

I was very disappointed with this film as I have always been a fan of George Clooney. The first twenty minutes of the film gave very little of the plot away. Once the plot did start to take shape it was so very simple that I assumed the director was deliberately trying to confuse the audience into thinking that were not intelligent enough to follow the story. This was done by using long periods of silence and shots of Clooney being sad and thoughtful. When there was an occasional bit of action it seemed to have been introduced to wake up the audience. In one scene George Clooney was woken up when he was stalking around the alleyways pursued by another killer; he was listening for the other's footsteps but failed to hear a motor scooter approaching until it nearly knocked him down. I only watched this boring film until the end in the hope that it would either improve or make some amazing revelation to justify the hour and a quarter of total tedium.

This film was a very big disappointment, especially coming from a director of Michael Mann's reputation. There was little in Dillinger's character to empathise with and Johnnny Depp did nothing to make the role interesting. The self indulgent directing and photography made it a difficult film to focus on at times. Also the way most of the players mumbled their way through their lines made it tedious to listen to. The American gangster has been portrayed so brilliantly by such giants as Cagney, Bogart, and George Raft, that I am surprised that Mr Mann decided to make this film. Especially as it told us nothing new about Dillinger. In fact it seemed to be trying to turn a cold blooded killer into a sympathetic character. A film which did succeed in arousing sympathy for murderous thieves was 'Bonny and Clyde.' But then it would be very easy to make a list of gangster films that stand the test of time and head and shoulders above this long and boring offering. I am sure that it will soon be forgotten.

There seemed to little if any plot to this film and it lacked continuity. It was a re-hash of so many ideas seen before in this type of action film. As it moved from scene to scene there was little to excite the viewer in spite of some routine special effects. The direction, if there was any, did little to motivate the actors who seemed to be sleep-walking through their parts. This movie gave the impression of being very low budget and in this era of fantastic special effects, the film gave you the feeling that each and every cost had been spared. At no time during this tedious movie was there any excitement or feeling that the protagonists were in any sort of danger. The only danger was that they would become as bored as the viewers.