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Avg. Critic Score: 70 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

Iffy for 15+

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

90

Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan
Simultaneously an art film and a crime film, Mann's latest work may not give you a ton to hang on to emotionally, but the beauty and skill of the filmmaking keep you tightly in its grasp. Read full review
90

The New York Times | Manohla Dargis
A grave and beautiful work of art. Read full review
88

Rolling Stone | Peter Travers
Public Enemies comes at you like Dillinger did: all of a sudden. It's movie dynamite. Read full review
88

Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert
This is a very good film, with Depp and Bale performances of brutal clarity. I'm trying to understand why it is not quite a great film. I think it may be because it deprives me of some stubborn need for closure. Read full review
75

USA Today | Claudia Puig
A welcome adult alternative to summer's sophomoric blockbusters. The only transforming going on here is actors skillfully taking on roles of '30s-era gangsters and lawmen. Read full review
75

San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle
If Public Enemies lacks anything, it's something audiences can't legitimately expect to find: a certain EXTRA something. Read full review
67

Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum
As filmmaker Michael Mann takes pains to emphasize in his handsome, underheated gangster drama Public Enemies, the gent may have been murderous, but he had style. Read full review
50

The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt
The film lacks the juice promised by the teaming of such extraordinary filmmakers with a cast as large as a Hooverville encampment. Read full review
50

Washington Post |
It's also a double-barreled bummer. There's no excitement in the bank-robbing, no thrill of the chase, no emotion over justice served or thwarted. Depp's Dillinger is neither charming nor despicable, nor does he occupy that delicious gray area between the two. His spree unspools dispassionately, cold as a Colt .380. Read full review
50

Variety | Todd McCarthy
Oddly, too, the film is somewhat shortchanged by its great star, Johnny Depp, who disappointingly has chosen to play Dillinger as self-consciously cool rather than earthy and gregarious. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Public Enemies on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+ Depp scores as Depression-era robber, but lots of violence.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this 1930s-set crime drama starring Johnny Depp as infamous bank robber John Dillinger is full of very realistic violence that some will find hard to take. Gun battles are frequent and intense, and characters suffer gory wounds and die. A woman is beaten during an interrogation scene; other characters are shot down in cold blood. Although there's not too much in the way of sexual content (aside from one somewhat steamy love scene with no nudity) or language (there's one use of "f--k," plus a smattering of other salty words) for an R-rated film, the movie's focus on the differences and similarities between cops and crooks yields complex role models and messages. Some law enforcement officers are depicted as corrupt and cruel, while others are dedicated, dignified, and diligent; similarly, there are cold, calm professionals among the film's criminals, as well as hair-trigger sociopaths. Expect lots of period-accurate smoking and drinking.

Families can talk about the movie's violence. How does its realistic, almost intimate style (intensified by the use of handheld digital cameras) affect its impact? Is it more or less disturbing than booming (but bloodless) explosions and big-budget mayhem?
Families can also talk about how the movie portrays both criminals and law enforcement officials. What distinguishes Dillinger from Purvis? Both are smart and determined; why is one a hero and one a villain? Is the rule of law more important than the rule of force?
Also, why do you think Dillinger, a convicted criminal, became such a well-loved figure during the Great Depression? Why did so many working-class people admire (and even shelter) him? How did he use the media to his advantage?

The good stuff

Positive messages: Despite -- or, in many ways, because of -- its violence, the movie offers a remarkably accurate look at social conditions in Depression-era America -- as well as a series of cautionary tales about the moral and physical cost of crime. Dillinger may be a bank robber, but he nonetheless has a moral code about what he will and won't do; similarly, lawman Melvin Purvis has the law on his side but also feels challenged by the moral issues of what his work entails.
Positive role models: The movie's two main characters are complex men. Dillinger is a hardened, violent criminal ... who also happens to be loyal, polite, and remarkably self-aware.Purvis is steadfast, principled, and dogged -- albeit somewhat ruthless. Supporting characters run the gamut from amoral goons and crooked cops to conflicted confidantes. As the movie's only significant female character, Dillinger's girlfriend Billie is both independent and easily influenced by Dillinger's charm and persuasiveness.

What to watch for

Violence: Extensive, very realistic violence (particularly with guns), including close-range shootings; gaping bloody wounds; and more. Many extended gunfight scenes with barrages of noise and debris. Several characters die on screen. Characters are also beaten, and hostages are taken. A woman is roughly interrogated -- she's slapped and hit and not allowed to use the bathroom. Another prisoner is pressed for information by investigators while in enormous pain from a gunshot wound to the head.
Sex: Some kissing and writhing in one fairly steamy love scene; intercourse is clearly implied, but no sensitive body parts are shown. A woman relaxes naked in a bathtub, shielded artfully from view (you only see her legs, arms, and shoulders). Depictions of prostitutes and prostitution as part of the criminal underworld; some women shown in states of relative undress, but no nudity.
Language: One use of "f--k," as well as fairly infrequent use of words like "s--t," "son of a bitch," "goddamn," "hell," "pricks," "damn," "bulls--t," and "Christ."
Consumerism: Not an issue
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Extensive, period-accurate smoking; plenty of drinking (hard alcohol, beer) in nightclubs and bars, etc.

Common Sense Media An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.