Public Enemies: Review By Angelo Liberati, CPA

Don't be an enemy of 'Public Enemies'. This is a blockbuster period epic motion picture that you cannot miss. True to the period it represents, 1933 - 1934, the film chronicles the heyday of bank robber gangsters like John Dillinger, Alvin Karps and Baby Face Nelson - and their downfall. Johnny Depp as John Dillinger is superb. Christian Bale as Special federal Agent Melvin Purvis and Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover shine.

Although packed with gangsters and tommy guns, this movie is not that violent.

There were a couple of items in this film that prevented me from rating this movie a 5 overall. First, there was a scene where it appears that John Dillinger, and his friend Red, were shot dead. Then, in the very next scene, we see a non - dead, non - injured John Dillinger and his friend, Red, is bloodied up and about to die.

Second, the film did not explore the controversy, generated over the last few years, that the individual that was shot dead outside the BioGraph Theatre was not John Dillinger, as originally thought, but someone named Jimmy Lawrence.

Third, and last, the movie does not show how the hunting down of John Dillinger, and his cohorts, contributed to the future vision of J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation.