The Best Yet

Public Enemies Review

Public Enemies
Directed by: Michael Mann
Produced by: Michael Mann and Kevin Misher
Screenplay by: Ronan Bennett, Ann Biderman and Michael Mann
Book by: Bryan Burrough
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard
Cinematography by: Dante Spinotti
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Running Time: 140 min (2 hr 20 mins)
Budget: $100 Million

Cinematography: I hated it. I may be nit picking, but I really disliked the cinematography. I realize what they were trying to do, however I believe they could have accomplished a similar feel without the film looking so disgusting and cheap. it feels like the film cost 10 million rather than $100 million.

I really didn’t think the cheap digital video doc style fit with this film. It kept pulling me out. The digital look makes me think of reality tv, poorly produced reality tv at that. I don’t normally have a problem with the doc handheld style of filmmaking, however I didn’t think it fit with the film, or used effectively. It felt like they were making the film for speed rather than storytelling.

I felt the handheld was sloppy and inconsistent, and at times they just stopped and made it more of a tradition drama. I think the style worked much better in Rachel Getting Married, than it did for Public Enemies.

Directing: biggest complaint was that I really didn’t like how many close ups were shot. Sometimes I didn’t know where any of the characters were. Very confusing, when it could have been more fluid, again, like Rachel Getting Married or The Wrestler.

Sound design: some people really dug it, but I felt it was again very inconsistent. I did enjoy it when the gunshots were muffled, however I felt the dialogue scenes to be distracting with volume levels going up and down. It may have been a theater problem though.

Script: I thought this was one of the weakest points. The film felt more like a list of historical facts, with loose exposition put in-between, added with a sloppy love story. I didn’t care for a lot of the characters, and I had no reason to. Nothing really happens in this film thats engaging other than a few gun fights. The actors had almost nothing to work with, no one was developed in any meaningful way and a lot could have been cut out from this film.

Acting: I thought the acting was done well with what the actors had to work with, though I did had a minor problem with Christian Bale’s accent at times.

Overall, I didn’t like this film very much, with the script problems, and cinematography putting below enjoyable. It does have some decent action scenes, but because of the way they are shot I really think it takes away from what could have been good, or great action scenes.

4.5/10

Blocking

Blocking is a theatre term which refers to the precise movement and positioning of actors on a stage in order to facilitate the performance of a play, ballet, film or opera.- Wikipedia

Okay now why is blocking important? Because it shows all the technical crew exactly what’s going to happen so they can make it happen. Lighting setups, hair, make-up, camera team (if it’s being filmed) ect… This also allows the director to see the scene, and make adjustments as needed.

Blocking is very important, without it will surely slow down production because everyone will not be on the same page, and without clear communication to what is happening in the scene, problems such as miscommunications are going to occur. So blocking is essential.

So if you are a director, BLOCK YOUR ACTORS! it’s not just for you and the actors, but for the whole technical crew. If you don’t want to have to end up cutting shots due to time constraints, skipping blocking is a very poor choice. Blocking, even though it may seem like it eats time, at the end of the day it will save you many hours and headaches.

Acronyms and Idiots

I hate finding acronyms that are not defined in any way. How am I suppose to know what it means when nobody defines it. Not like it’s a common one, it’s one that you just made up and put on a supposibly legitimate posting.

Very unprofessional. I would call them an IPOTW… Idiot Posting On The Web. See how cryptic that was until I defined it. This is what I go through everyday.

Rush Rush

There’s a reason people in the camera department don’t rush. It will take longer to accomplish a job if you rush at it, rather than taking your time and inspecting all the details so that everything is working properly. You could shit down a low budget production for the whole day if you aren’t careful, or cost them lots of money and repair and maintenance time.

This of course can be applied to real life like today. Instead of rushing out the door to the government office, we could have paused for a minute and got all our papers in order. It’s not going slow, it’s double checking so that you don’t waste the whole day. I understand the need to not waste time by making it to the office on time, but in this specific circumstance she would have benifited from taking a moment to make sureall the necessary papers were in order.

Passport

Just got my passport photo done. They said my mom couldn’t wear white because it would blend in to the white background, why does this matter? who cares if it looks like a floating head. Is it going to be that much harder to identify the face of the person in the photograph, to the face of the person in front of you.

Boarder Officer: “Ermm… Apparently you don’t have a body in this photograph, THOU SHALL NOT PASS!”

Solution, my mother just wore my button up shirt.