Who will win: ‘Public Enemies’ or ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’?
Who will win: ‘Public Enemies’ or ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’?
Hanging out of a car isn not safe.
Oh sure Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, you’re big stuff when your competition is My Sister’s Keeper, but what happens this Wednesday when Johnny Depp’s gangster film, Public Enemies is released? Explosions, bullets, and yes, some fireworks.
Just in time for our holiest of American holidays.
While Transformers 2 looks to advance its hording of box office booty to become the year’s biggest movie by week’s end, Michael Mann’s (Heat, Collateral) new crime thriller intends to dampen the mood for DreamWorks.
Depp stars as Depression-era original gangsta’, John Dillinger. Famed for robbing banks, escaping Johnny Law and making the ladies swoon, Dillinger’s exploits were splashed across newspapers throughout the country. While Public Enemies doesn’t have the pizazz and typical summer appeal of Up and Star Trek, expect the film to make a solid run at the box office. After all, not every viewer wants shiny things in their movies.
The film also stars Christian Bale (Terminator Salvation) as Fed Melvin Purvis, and Academy Award-winner Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) as Dillinger’s Charleston-dancing girlfriend.
While box office numbers remain to be seen, the popularity of Transformers, despite terrible reviews, is on the rise thanks to the bizzaro Dark Knight effect.
This time last year, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight debuted with the biggest opening ever, a staggering $203 million. The fun didn’t didn’t stop there. Based in part on the media circus involving the premature death of Heath Ledger, the momentum of the film kept growing. A potent mixture of great reviews and positive word-of-mouth, this “simple comic book movie” actually became the darling of the Fanboy Nation and the minions of the High-Brow Society. In the end, the film was partly responsible for the Best Picture category of the Academy Awards expanding from five to a whopping ten nominations. Whether or not ten movies are worth the nomination is another story…
In Transformers, it’s the opposite problem. With the headiness of opening week over, patrons are purchasing tickets to see how bad the movie actually is and to verify claims of racism. Not to see a solid and well-made film.
Yet it’s not all Tommy Guns and Decepticons this week. The time is right for a sneak attack from the 3-D sequel nobody wanted in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Families will now have another film to take their younglings to besides another viewing of the Disney/Pixar great, Up.
Article also carried on Examiner.com
