MSN has its hands on a second trailer for Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies,” starring Johnny Depp as notorious American gangster John Dillinger and Christian Bale, as one of the Feds attempting to take him, along with Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum), to justice during a booming crime wave in the 1930s.
It boasts an excellent supporting cast (Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Leelee Sobieski, Giovanni Ribisi to name a few) and this new trailer is more of the same, but worries us less than the first one. We loved the script, but the first initial trailer did concern us a bit. We weren’t entirely convinced that a lo-fi digital look suited a 1930s piece at all, but we’ve since seen the trailer on the big screen (and not on a computer screen) and we have to admit it looked a lot better and we were very impressed. The digi-look still doesn’t look amazing via Trailer Addict, but this version seems to have more mood and tone that convinces us this won’t be just a dumbed-down bang-’em-up (the first trailer was bigger and broader to take in more flies).
Here’s the full synopsis:
In the action-thriller Public Enemies, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard in the story of legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger (Depp)—the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoover’s fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the downtrodden public. No one could stop Dillinger and his gang. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone—from his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Cotillard) to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression. But while the adventures of Dillinger’s gang—later including the sociopathic Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi)—thrilled many, Hoover (Billy Crudup) hit on the idea of exploiting the outlaw’s capture as a way to elevate his Bureau of Investigation into the national police force that became the FBI. He made Dillinger America’s first Public Enemy Number One and sent in Purvis, the dashing “Clark Gable of the FBI.” However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis’ men in wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of Western ex-lawmen (newly baptized as agents) and orchestrating epic betrayals—from the infamous “Lady in Red” to the Chicago crime boss Frank Nitti—were Purvis, the FBI and their new crew of gunfighters able to close in on Dillinger.
“Public Enemies” hits theaters July 1.
