Public Enemies

Public Enemies is a crime story about one of the country's most captivating and infamous outlaws—John Dillinger. Johnny Depp stars as the charismatic and elusive bank robber marked by the FBI as America's first "Public Enemy Number One." The story covers the love affair Dillinger had with Billie Frechette (Cotillard) and the hunt for Dillinger lead by top FBI Agent Melvin Purvis (Bale), ending in an explosive, legendary showdown. (Gary Reber)

Special features include commentary with Director Michael Mann; five featurettes: Larger Than Life: Adversaries (HD 10:19), Michael Mann (Making Of) (HD 20:32), Last Of the Legendary Outlaws (HD 08:44), On Dillinger's Trail: The Real Locations (HD 09:48), and Criminal Technology (HD 09:39); a Gangster Movie Challenge game; D-BOX Motion Code™; a U-Control picture-in-picture and interactive timeline; BD-Live functionality; plus a digital copy of the film.

Shot almost entirely in high-definition video, the 1080p VC-1 picture is extremely stylish, with a dark production design that slightly subdues saturated colors for effect, to create the impression of the 1930's Great Depression. Blacks are prevalent throughout in coats and hats, exhibiting a deep and solid depth that enhances overall dimensionality. Colors are richly hued and deeply saturated, but subdued for effect. The lighting design is dramatic, to enhance mood and tension. Fleshtones are perfectly natural in appearance. Resolution is sharp and clear, particularly in close-ups, with finely defined facial features—and object textures perfectly revealing. The imagery is pristine, though, at times slight edge enhancement appears to have been applied, but the artifacts are never distracting. This is a movie that requires that it be viewed in a darkened, preferably black, environment, with no incident lighting to interfere with the gorgeous dark cinematography created by Dante Spinotti. While challenging to accurately display, the reward is a beautifully crafted and stylized picture that is sure to impress. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is immensely stylized, though, inconsistent in effect. This is particularly evident in the dialogue production, which at times is perfectly integrated spatially and natural sounding, but at other times muted and muffled. The music score is, at times, well recorded, with a wide and deep soundstage, though, slightly subdued in presence, and at other times reliant on old recordings, exhibiting compressed sounds. At times the modern recorded orchestral score heightens the drama with its wonderful presence, including a sultry rendition of "Bye Bye Blackbird" sung by Diana Krall. This is in stark contrast to the full-on assault of well-recorded shotgun blasts and spewing Tommy Guns, whose intensity is enhanced with effective D-BOX Motion Code™ delivery. Some scenes collapse to monaural or are excessively frontal focused, even some with intense gunshots. But then the surrounds, at times, are fully energized with abundant directionalized gunfire that spurts out and whizzes across the surround channels. The .1 LFE channel is often intensified, with response to below 25 Hz, to reinforce the gunfire, and the intensity is literally felt, especially enhanced with D-BOX tracking. When everything is excited, the soundfield is fully energized and holosonically® enveloping. The sound design effectively creates depth to the atmospheric and sound effects, which enhances the sense of nuance in shootouts. Interior scenes are sonically rich with nuance and Foley effects. The D-BOX motion effects, when engaged, are quite effective and substantially enhance the overall experience. This is an engaging soundtrack experience that effectively draws you into the storytelling. (Gary Reber)