Magic Review: Public Enemies

How Cool does this movie look? 1930's Mobsters, Bank robbers, Women, Tommy Guns.....I would love to have been the marketing guy at Universal Studio's whose job it was to market this to the general public. On that topic, this movie was simply posterised around my city as a picture of Depp with a small smirk on his face, that my friends is wasted potential and the irony is, so was this movie. This has what one would refer to as a stellar cast and under the direction of one of my 1990's favourites, Michael Mann (Heat (1995), The Insider(1997) & Last of the Mohicans(1991) it could have been award winning. The story surrounds FBI Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) tracking down Notorious Depression Era Bank Robbers John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham - Lock Stock) and Pretty Boy Flyod ( Channing Tatum). Purvis comes under the direction of FBI Director J Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup -Almost Famous) who plays a great part and shows the rise in power of the FBI not long after its inception. Dillinger is a modern day Robin Hood, loved by the public but hated by the authorities. He is followed by his merry band of men including Homer Van Meter (Stephen Dorff), Pete Pierpont (Australian Dave Wenham) and one of my favourite actors Jason Clarke who plays his loyal right hand Red Hamilton. All of these charachters were big names in that era and took many banks for many dollars. The reason I point out this cast in almost full is to highlight that even when you have a great cast, the script must follow suit. This failed to occur in this instance. As much as I would love to higly rate this movie, I cant as I felt it was wasted potential. The opening scene of the movie has Purvis (Bale) shoot down and kill Pretty Boy Floyd portayed by Channing Tatum. This to me was ironic as Tatum is a great actor and to kill him in the opening scenes only highlighted to me that the movie was dead before it started. There were enjoyable moments such as the old cars being used to depcit the 1930's Chicago and its culture and Depp is always amazing and from what I hear he studied Dillinger's every known fact however like Miami Vice (2006) , Ali (2001) and Collateral (2004), Michael Mann has done mediocre attempts at trying to outweigh a bad script with a good cast. Balance is the key!
Magic Rating: 6.6/10

Magic Review: Bruno

I am always amazed how Sasha Baron Cohen gets away with the stuff he does both on Television and the Big Screen. Bruno has again amazed me. Before I saw this I knew it was going to be raw but you know it is red raw when Russia decide to ban it from their cinemas. I always try not to go off what the critics say before I see a movie but could not help from hearing the same tune "guys wont' handle this well" ringing all the way to my cinema seat. From the get go, Bruno was as outlandish and "uber" gay as predicted although I swear there was 15 minutes before the audience struck a laugh, a stark contrast from Borat. The story, like Borat surrounds Bruno, the gay Austrian Fashonista getting dumped from the Austrlian fashion tv scene and deciding to take refuge in America where he plans to make it 'big'. Some of the encounters Bruno has are absolutely hilarious such as trying to get Paula Abdul to eat sushi off a naked Mexican's body and going on a live talk show with a black adopted african baby to taunt the audience. On a darker note there are scenes in it where you actually get angry at what is going on for example when Bruno tries to trick 2008 Presidential Candidate Ron Paul into being part of a home made porno movie. That was not cool. The film has it's high's and low's and is more of a stab at outlandishly gay shock moments and situations rather than Borat's witty and shock filled adventure! I must give it some credit as there were moments that I laughed so hard it made me feel ill however there were moments when I felt just plainly ill and I can tell you if I had been a church goer in my previous life, I would feel very violated. In my opinion, only in America will people fall for the stuff that Baron Cohen tries on, if he tried it on in Australia or other countries, the outcome would be a stark contrast. Nevertheless this guy makes me laugh and I will embrace his charachters with open arms. Check it out if curiousity gets the better of you.
Magic Rating: 6.9/10