The notion of sexy stars is so juvenile. All of these stars are "sexy". The problem is, they are "sexy" to alot of "sexy" people who are "sexy" to alot of people. I hope you see the problem. Here's how to control yourself, think anal cancer.

That's queer...I mean weird.

"The sexiest gangster ever."

Gee, didn't see that headline coming...(roll eyes).

No, the sexiest gangster ever was Linda Fiorentino in "The Last Seduction."

but Mann does damned sexy film. Miami Vice. Last of the Mohicans. Need I say more?

What I take away from your review is that this is good-looking hunk of a movie starring a good-looking hunk, but the hunk ain't too smart.

Maybe that's good enough these days, what with Transformers running amok, but surely a small quality film somewhere is playing at a local arthouse that is worth more of our time than "Public Enemies."

Still, I too will see almost any Johnny Depp movie, for similar reasons as you. He alone is almost reason enough to see a film (excluding that pirate nonsense). Be sure to wake us up when "Alice..." comes out, okay?

Note to SoberInput: dude, see a therapist.

...just get better and better. It's great when reviewers are writers, too - I mean, true writers.

I like Johnny Depp, and being from Indiana, look forward to seeing the film. I happened to be in the Michigan City area when he came for a visit as part of his research.

Having said that, I always thought the Dillinger story would require something along the lines of Seabiscuit -- in that film, there is lots of effectively muted dialogue. "What are you so mad at?" Charles Howard asks his jockey in a pivotal scene. "You don't throw a whole life away because it's banged up a little," says the trainer in another. I think people probably talked that way in the 30's -- different than the windy self-reflection we see today.

So, I'm skeptical of giving this the Miami Vice treatment. I'm also skeptical of the movie star treatment for Dillinger. Gangsters like Capone were elegant -- silk suits, casinos, jazz musicians impressed into service. Dillinger was much more common, and both his terrorizing small town bank robberies and occasional Robin Hood touch require a whole different (rural, slow pace) outlook than your typical movie today.

When I heard Johnny Depp was in Michigan City, I frankly hoped he would dig deep and really hit this part right. Whether he did or not, or just created a good Michael Mann glossy adventure, I'll probably enjoy it.

I will go to see his movies like a well-trained automaton.

Automatons, like autobots, are well-trained but autonomous, John Anderson. Automaticons, however, are a different story.

Especially if he expects me or anyone else to forget Warren Oates in the same role.

But Mann brought the heat to the Mohicans, so I'm guessing his 'Linger will look lightning-like rather than lacrimose.

Onamommameeaa!!

You're sure one to know your Onamommameeaa, Oed"a!"

Another fun way to keep ourselves entertained!

Standard Template for a Stephanie Zacharek film review:

1) Make copious references to the leading man or leading lady's "sexiness," or lack thereof. Base your entire evaluation of their performance on how fuckable you deem them to be. Don't bother to analyze anything so mundane as performance styles or specific acting choices in context, but go into ecstasies over the leading lady's "glorious" flash of bare leg. (The only surprise here is that it's Marion Cotillard being lauded, as opposed to Angelina Jolie yet again.) Fail to note what an exclusive emphasis on sex, sex, sex, in review after review says about one's own probably ultra-vanilla, staid, dull-as-ditchwater love life.

2) Express chagrin and disappointment whenever an actor you respect (in this case, Bale) gets cast as a not-so-glamorous or radiant human being. Don't bother to try and understand what their function in the narrative is, or what sort of person their real-life counterpart might have been, but base their alleged success or failure as an actor entirely on whether they succeed or fail to be sexy, witty, and Cary Grant glamorous. If they're not glamorous, they're in terminal decline to permanent Dullsville. If they are glamorous (e.g. portraying Bob Dylan), they're at the peak of their thespian powers.

3) Bemoan our decline from the supposed Golden Age of Hollywood. Compare the present negatively to the past whenever possible, in droningly Baby Boomer fashion. Don't bother to question whether one's own ceaseless celebration of "trashy pleasures," one's ceaseless attempts to be Pauline Kael Redux, have contributed in any way to a time when assembly-line movies like TRANSFORMERS are triumphant.

Zacharek: "There's a massive cast of guys in fedoras in "Public Enemies," and while it's easy enough to tell the good guys from the bad (the bad guys are the stiff, boring ones)..."

Don't you mean the good guys are the boring ones?

I enjoy Depp's performances and don't usually find much fault in them. But something really puzzles me about a major choice he made in Public Enemies. Why is he playing Dillinger with a Texas accent? Listen to the ads for Public Enemies on TV (hard to miss them as they're on everywhere). Depp sounds EXACTLY like Matthew McConaughey. Why anyone would want to is a mystery in itself, but surely it was a conscious choice, since that's not his own voice or accent. Have Tim Burton and the success of the Pirate movies turned Depp so deep into the world of role-playing that he has to adopt weird costumes and physical characteristics for all his films? Dillinger was born in Indiana and "worked," so to speak, in the midwest. So why would Depp want him to sound like a bongo-pounding playboy from Austin?

Johnny Depp is one of my very favourite actors. He has great range, and it's nice to have him play a tough-guy role for a chance. I think the such he did was in Blow, where he was very, very cool.

I don't quite boycott every single film in which Johnny Depp appears, but boy, oh boy, on a personal level, when he opens his mouth outside of a film set, he's just so supercilious and dripping with contempt for all those who are beneath him, I feel like screaming, "don't feed Princess's ego! It's already far too big!" Needless to say, then, the fact that people swoon over him, and that Hollywood simply lines up to give him what he so snottily criticized Bill Clinton for getting, drives me completely insane. I think he needs a bit of a get over himself pill. And the idea of anyone who did what he and Tim Burton did to my beloved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory daring to show a superiority complex is really just daring Nemesis. He really

But I Love Marion Cotillard and Billy Crudup, no problem. The film looks to be exciting, effective popcorn fare.