Public Enemies is a masterpiece. In how NOT to direct a film. It should be studied in acting and directing schools.

The film manages to start badly and degrade minute by minute. I genuinely had the sensation that the production ran out of money after the first 20 minutes.

The camera work is so unrealistic it reminded me of south-american crime soap operas (yes, there is such a thing). The dialogs get so bad and the abundance of clichés so vast that I had to struggle badly to keep myself seated.

The director pulled an incredible feat: he made the viewer positively enjoy the girl’s torture and the hero’s death at the end. It looked like comedy. I was GLAD the film was ending.

In the 2nd half of the film the scenes are unbearably short covering very small fragments of the bad screenplay, new actors pop into existence out of thin air to fill very small gaps that needed not exist in the first place, the camera moves and angle changes get completely erratic, the story loses any glimpse of coherence or realism.

For any critic it’s really worth seeing this film. To set a new low bar for what can pass for a Holywood production these days.

“The action moves from Indiana to Chicago to Miami to Tucson without warning or explanation.”

Also without actually telling you where you are. You only figured out Miami and Tucson by looking up John Dillinger’s biography later that night.