Johnny Depp portrays infamous 1930s bank robber John Dillinger in ‘Public Enemies’. Director Michael Mann has made a career out of making stylish action epics with great shootouts and interesting characters. ‘Public Enemies’ is no doubt stylish, it no doubt has great shootouts, but the characters are a bit flat. There’s no real character development during the 150 minute running time. The film simply shows a year-long view into the final year of Dillinger’s life. He is portrayed as cold, precise and mechanical, but the film is made quite differently.

It’s loose and swift in execution and feel, partially because of the handheld cameras used to film it, partially because of the mostly banjo and roots-oriented soundtrack. This gives the film an uneven feeling, given the large contrast between the subject matter and the handling of the subject matter.

The film is set in 1933, starting when John Dillinger breaks out his gang members out of prison. Dillinger travels the country, looting millions of dollars from banks along the way in a year-long crime spree. He becomes something of a hero to the country, given that in the Great Depression banks obviously weren’t well regarded by the public. At this time, FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) has been assigned to capture Dillinger, by any means necessary. Neither men will give up without a fight.

The last couple times Johnny Depp was in a major blockbuster, he was either a drunken pirate or a barber who cut up his customers into meat pies (literally), so this is a sort of return to a “normal” character for him. However, it shows the eccentricity of most of his roles when a low-key character for him is a legendary bank robber. He is perfect in this. Christian Bale is a bit underused in this film, given that he’s probably the best actor of our generation. He’s very good, but he’s mostly in action scenes and not many dramatic moments of dialogue. That said, he looks insanely cool firing off a Tommy gun with one hand.

Which brings us to probably the best aspects of the film – the shootouts. This film doesn’t too many, but the ones it does have are unforgettable. The best part of the film is a 30-minute sequence where Dillinger’s in a house secluded in the woods, surrounded by his accomplices. There’s four cars outside packed with armed federal agents. The results are classic, worthy of the best scenes in Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and director Michael Mann’s own Heat. Like I said earlier the cinematography is loose and wild, but it is gorgeous. You can tell lots of effort goes into the sets and costumes, it replicates the era with incredible detail, and will likely net the film some Oscar nominations come February.

Public Enemies is a well-acted, gorgeously shot crime film with some great action and one or two scenes that are simply unforgettable. It’s a bit uneven and has some pacing issues, but thats easily forgiven. If only every summer film was this good. A-

‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’ is by the far the best ‘Ice Age’ film so far. It’s the best because the animation is now on a whole new level, as photorealistic as it gets, only enhanced by the 3-D. It’s the best because its way more action-oriented, focusing on the more slapstick elements that really sort of lacked in the first two. And simply, the first two ‘Ice Ages’ were kinda boring in the first place.

It features the same characters, who all behave and talk as if they were in a sitcom. Manny the Mammoth with his pregnant wife Ellie, the weird but charming sloth Sid, and the tough saber-tooth tiger Diego. Their outlandish adventures are continued in this film when, despite them being in an ice age they stumble upon an underground world populated with…you guessed it. Dinosaurs.

As I said, the animation is gorgeous. Waterfalls, dinosaurs, mountains. It’s all looking gorgeous, and the animators here outdo themselves, rivaling Pixar sometimes. This film and 3-D were practically made for each other, all the three-dimensional vistas are simply spectacular. The plot itself? Sort of weak, person gets kidnapped, friends bond in quest to find him, yada yada yada. Rather predictable. The elements of Manny trying to deal with fatherhood would be more poignant if it hadn’t been done in 15 million other animated films, and films in general.

On the other hand, one doesn’t go to ‘Ice Age’ movies for plot. They go for slapstick, for action, and they go because their kids force them to. This is, however, a standout animated movie for its gorgeous animation, impressive action, and – what else? The awesome 3-D. B+

‘My Sister’s Keeper’ is a movie as calculated and forced as its main character, a young girl genetically conceived to provide spare organs for her cancer stricken sister. It knows who will watch it: Teenage girls, their mothers, and women looking for a weepy film in the vein of ‘A Walk to Remember’ or ‘The Notebook’. These women should be mostly pleased, although the film in its last half alternates randomly between weepy family drama and a courtroom battle.

Anna is an 11-year old girl, who as already said, was conceived to provide spare organs and blood for her older sister Kate, who suffers from acute leukemia. She becomes sick of always being the donor child and sues her parents for the rights to her own body. Her parents, however, think there is an ulterior motive. Meanwhile, Kate falls in love with a fellow cancer patient, Taylor.

Many, many plot points are forgotten as the film progresses. In one moment, Cameron Diaz shaves her head, to make her sick child laugh and feel better. When the scene is over, her hair is back to normal. Also within the courtroom, Diaz seems furious at Anna, disgusted at the very idea that she would sue her own mother. Out of the courtroom, they all blow bubbles and laugh and play. Inconsistencies among characters are the film’s biggest problem.

When it comes to performances, ‘My Sisters Keeper’ delivers. Abigail Breslin fleshes out her character to the extent that she displays a wise side, in wanting control over her decisions and taking that desire to court, and a youthful side when asking about boys, when playing with her sister. Cameron Diaz plays way against type as the mother of Anna and Kate, and is pretty good. She portrays a mother unwilling to let go of her daughters, and Diaz formally breaks out of the ‘Cute Girl’ role that she’s been typecast as, all these years. Sofia Vassilieva as Kate, the girl with the leukemia is the breakout star of the film. She portrays a teenage girl that knows she will die soon, but tries to find love before she does. It’s heart-wrenching stuff.

Obviously the acting is well-done, although as said earlier there are problems with continuity. It aims to tug at your heart-strings and succeeds. ***/****

Jack Black, Michael Cera, Paul Rudd and Harold Ramis are all extremely talented comedic actors, who just starred in the worst film of their career together. ‘Year One’ is awful on several levels, one being that its entire concept is stolen from other, better films. (‘Life of Brian’, ‘History of the World Part I’) Another that it never utilizes this concept to earn any laughs, there is a grand total of one chuckle in the entire film. The final complaint is that with such a great crew, there was a chance for greatness.

Harold Ramis, come on. You’ve done ‘Caddyshack’ and ‘Groundhog Day’ for crying out loud, when you make a movie I expect an effort to make us laugh. Jack Black, Michael Cera, when people give you a script this awful, force them to re-write it or burn it and catch the soonest flight away from that area. They look bored and embarrassed out of their minds, and I don’t blame them.

After all, the entire story of the film is…well, nothing. It’s Year 1, AD. Two cavemen, Zed and Oh, are banished from their small village. From there they run into several biblical figures, such as Abraham and Isaac, and doomed brothers Cain and Abel. In the film they speak as if they were all modern 20-something slackers. This includes Cain saying to Abel, “Your name isn’t Abel, your name is SUCK”. It’s cringe-inducing to watch, it is the most spectacularly unfunny film in a long time.

The blooper reel? Probably staged. Still not funny. ‘Year One’ was a depressing film to watch, and this has been a depressing review to write. If by some divine miracle you ignore my plea and don’t see ‘Year One’, be sure to catch it in the $2 bin at Wal-Mart in about eight months. 0*/****

‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ is the dumbest movie in a long time. I never really understood when people complained about a film’s length, but ‘Transformers’ changed that. I never thought that there could be truly too much action in a summer movie, that explosions could numb one to the point of a headache. ‘Transformers’ has changed that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie as numbing, as desensitizing to the mind and spirit as ‘Transformers 2′. Well, who knows. There’s always ‘Monopoly: The Movie’ and ‘G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra’.

Want a synopsis? Best of luck, it’s impossible to decipher a plot. There’s good Transformers and bad Transformers, alien robots that conveniently morph into Chevy cars (blatant product placement 101) In the last movie teenager Sam Witwicky and his girlfriend Mikaela helped the good guys beat the bad guys. But the bad guys are back! *shock* You know the drill. Somehow, symbology, the pyramids of Giza, the Smithsonian complex and star patterns are involved. Cue the robot-techno-babble and non-stop explosions.

There is literally so much action going on in every frame of the film that you can’t distinguish one plot point from another, one character or one purpose. It’s just to blow stuff up. The first ‘Transformers’ was awesome because (A) it never took itself seriously and (B) it balanced tons of action with a coherent plot and characters that weren’t completely one-dimensional. It wasn’t exactly a character study of the highest order, but at least it tried to make you care for all the characters. Here, the characters act like the robots they co-star with, many existing to further the plot, without it ever actually making sense. All emotion is wiped out from every human in this movie. It’s sorta disturbing.

Director Michael Bay executes this fiasco rather well. The explosions give you a migraine after 15 minutes, but it takes talent to coordinate all of them, I grant him. Megan Fox is decent as the eye-candy girlfriend who otherwise does nothing to advance the plot. Shia LaBeouf says his lines and runs from robots, nothing more. The visual effects are sure to win awards, although I realized the Transformers only do any transforming about three times in the 2 1/2 hour movie.

Some highlights of the film: The lead teenagers and some Transformers barge into the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which is right in the middle of downtown Washington DC. They find a robot to help them, but the robot escapes by knocking a hole in the back wall. When they follow him, they step outside and are suddenly in a Nevada desert. Logic is completely abandoned. Other moments of the films “high-brow” humor include a two-foot tall Transformer caressing Megan Fox in an inappropriate way (played for laughs), and a giant 20-story tall Transformer with two wrecking balls dangling in between his legs, during a supposedly dramatic scene. Yes, you read that correctly.

My point through all this being that ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ has no soul. No heart. Evidently, no mind. It wants to blow stuff up and sell tickets, but it also demands something else. Painkillers for the intense headaches this trash will give you. ‘Transformers’ is awful, pure and simple. 1/2*/****

‘The Proposal’ does next to nothing to distinguish itself from the other fifty-seven thousand romantic comedies produced annually. It does not miss a single note when it comes to replicating the same conventions of plenty of other romantic comedies. And yet it is saved by the charm of its cast.

Sandra Bullock plays demanding boss Margaret Tate (taken from ‘The Devil Wears Prada’), who runs into some problems with her citizenship, and must be deported back to Canada. To avoid this, she blackmails her hard-working assistant, Andrew into marrying her so that she may remain in the country. (forced marriage and fake love taken from ‘What Happens in Vegas’) When a government officer is suspicious, to sell the act they must spend the weekend at his parents’ house, for his grandmas 90th birthday. (awkward weekend at parents’ house: taken from ‘Meet the Parents’) Although their love is initially an act, they have feelings for each other! (opposites attract: taken from every romantic comedy ever made)

If I haven’t made it blatantly clear yet, it borrows every possible plot device from another film before it. Which makes the comedic talent of its stars a bit remarkable, given that they could elevate this material. Sandra Bullock can’t play the ‘Intimidating Boss’ role for her life, but her comedic timing as a stuck-up, rich woman is good. Ryan Reynolds is a great comedic talent, he has a dry wit that compliments the role. Betty White as the slightly crazy 90-year old grandmother steals the film from everyone, though.

‘The Proposal’ isn’t the most high-brow humor you’ll find at the cineplex. Dogs being snatched by eagles right off the ground, Sandra Bullock flying off a speedboat, etc. Nor is it very original. But two stars together, having a good time? Teenage girls, meet ‘The Proposal’. **1/2/****