SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard in "Public Enemies"

In 1933 as John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) is brought to a penitentiary by his partner John “Red” Hamilton (Jason Clarke) but they are actually there to help their gang members to break out of prison before heading to Chicago to rob banks.

Meanwhile, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) and several other FBI agents manage to gun down another criminal, Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) and J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) recruited Purvis to lead the hunt for Dillinger.

At a party, Alvin Karpis offers Dillinger a role in a kidnapping plot but he declines politely stating that the public doesn’t like kidnappings. There, Dillinger meets Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard), whom he takes to dinner. But when Dillinger begins talking to associates of Frank Nitti, Al Capone’s right hand man, Billie leaves and takes a taxi. Later, Dillinger manages to locate her and beats up a drunker who is verbally abusing her. Impressed, Billie leaves with Dillinger to a motel.

After getting a tip up, Melvin Purvis and his men ambush the motel where he believes Dillinger is staying but they only find an ordinary husband and wife. As Purvis is suspicious of the “husband”, he leaves one of his men to stay behind and watch the door. But, the agent is distracted by someone approaching the door and is killed by the “husband” who turns out to be Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham).

While Purvis has mistaken Baby Face Nelson to be Dillinger, Dillinger and his men manage to conduct another robbery and Purvis admits it’s his mistake and demands from Hoover to bring in professionals to help him to catch Dillinger.

When Dillinger and his girl are enjoying their vacation together, the police manages to locate and arrest Dillinger. In the court, Dillinger’s lawyer is able to convince the judge to keep him in the county jail instead of transferring him to the state prison. With the help of a few inmates, Dillinger manages to escape using a fake gun but is unable to meet Billie due to tight surveillance by the FBI.

Later on, Billie manages to escape and meets Dillinger as they spend a night together. The next morning, Billie is recaptured by the FBI and is severely beaten by an interrogator. Purvis and his men come later on and stop the interrogator from his abusive ways.

With the help of Anna Sage, a prostitute who is also Dillinger’s acquaintance by threatening to deport her back to Romania, Purvis manages to track down Dillinger. But, it is another agent, Charles Winstead who shoots Dillinger. Purvis quits the FBI a year later and committed suicide in 1960 while Billie lived the rest of her life in Wisconsin after her release in 1936.

Public Enemies has slight reassemblance like the movie “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” where actor Johnny Depp’s character, John Dillinger is the Al Capone version of Brad Pitt’s Jesse James. Asides from Johnny Depp’s incredible performance as Dillinger, Public Enemies is brilliantly filmed in high definition and it has a great cinematography and is beautifully set up.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Tom Hanks and Ayelet Zurer in "Angels & Demons"

Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is once again being called upon to solve the kidnapping of four Cardinals from the Vatican City and a possible bomb threat.

Langdon believes it’s the work of the Illuminati, based on his expert interpretation on the events. Dr. Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) is also being called upon to help the investigation as the anti-matter stolen from the LHC project is from her lab. Vetra makes known that the bomb can wipe out an entire Vatican City and even part of Rome. The secret Illuminati has warned to kill each of the Cardinals every hour from 8pm. And when the clock struck at midnight, the bomb will go off.

While Langdon and Vetra, together with the Vatican City police travel around Rome to find clues in churches, Father Simeon and other followers stay put inside Vatican City. Unlike Da Vinci Code, in Angels & Demons, Langdon seems to be the one who’s asking questions and the only person who’s able to answer them as well.

Overall, the movie lacks actual dialogs like it’s in a hurry to get to the conclusion. Angels & Demons also lacks the inquisitive and thrill of a mystery and crime-solving film. The actors are not convincing enough with the exception of Ewan McGregor whom plays a priest, Camerlengo Patrick McKenna, of whom his father was the previous Pope. Camerlengo is young but intuitive and wise and looks innocent until the very end of the movie where the truth unfolds. Like The Mummy and National Treasure franchises, it gets boring and loses its appeal when the sequels are made.

My ratings: 6 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Dev Patel in "Slumdog Millionaire"

Jamal Malik is interrogated by the police for cheating as he has made it through to the final question in the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? because he is just an 18-year-old "Chaiwalah" (tea boy) who is neither knowledgeable or lucky.

As Jamal tells the inspector of how he answered each of the question, there are constantly flashbacks of his childhood in the slums of Mumbai, Dharavi. Jamal and his brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal) were orphans after their mother has died during the Hindu-Muslim riots, they befriended an orphan girl Latika (Freida Pinto). While living in the trash, Maman the gangster offers them two bottles of Coke, but little did they know he collects street children to train them as beggars with Salim being groomed to become part of Maman’s operation.

When Salim realizes how Maman blinded the children who know how to sing and that his brother is a talented singer, he pours acid into one of Maman’s men and the three children try to escape, but only Jamal and Salim manage to escape with Latika purposely left behind by Salim.

The brothers earn a living by selling goods, pretending to be tour guides at Taj Mahal, stealing and pickpocketing. Jamal insists to go back to Mumbai in order to locate Latika. When they find her, she is working as a dancer in a brothel. The brothers attempts to rescue Latika but Maman and his men intrude causing Salim to draw a gun and kill Maman.

As Salim joins a rival gang, Javed, Jamal works in a call centre as an assistant. Jamal enters the popular game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? as he knows Latika will be watching. In the final question, Jamal uses his phone-a-friend lifeline to call Salim, but Latika answers his phone since Salim has earlier given his phone to Latika. Latika does not know the answer but Jamal manages to guess the answer (Aramis) correctly while Salim’s deed is discovered by Javed’s men and is shot to death by Javed’s men after Salim has shot Javed.

Overall, the movie is magnificent and it creates a whole new perspective in the movie arena. Slumdog Millionaire is definitely breathless and simply breathtaking. I think that it can win an Oscar for the Best Picture. It is written.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Morgan Freeman, Michelle Monaghan and Casey Affleck in "Gone Baby Gone"

When a 4-year-old Amanda goes missing in Boston, the case attracts widespread media attention. Private investigator Kenzie (Casey Affleck) with his partner and girlfriend Angie (Michelle Monaghan) are hired by the child’s aunt, Beatrice ‘Bea’ McCready (Amy Madigan) to find her. Initially, they do not want to take up the case due to the little experience they have with this type of case and the dangers involved. But, after seeing Amanda’s mother, Helene McCready (Amy Ryan), a drug addict who cares very little about her own daughter, Kenzie and Angie decides to open an investigation that will probably risk everything including their lives. Kenzie and Angie bump into Capt. Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) while investigating the case. Doyle reveals that his 12-year-old daughter was abducted and killed as the reason he opens up the police’s missing children’s unit. Kenzie and Angie also meet up with Det. Nick Poole (John Ashton) and Det. Remy Bressant (Ed Harris), the detectives investigating the case.

Later on, Kenzie and Angie have discovered that Amanda’s mother, Helene, and her boyfriend, “Skinny Ray”, had stolen $130,000 from a local drug lord named Cheese (Edi Gathegi). Helene reveals the location of the money after Ray is murdered by Cheese. Nick and Remy arrange to trade the money with Cheese for Amanda at a nearby quarry in Quincy. While at the quarry, shots are fired, Cheese ends up dead and it is believed Amanda drowned. Captain Doyle takes full responsibility for the detectives’ actions and goes into early retirement.

A seven-year-old boy is abducted a couple months after Amanda’s death. Kenzie receives information from his buddy, Bubba Rogowski (Slaine) on the whereabouts of a known pedophile, Corwin Earle (Matthew Maher) and his accomplices of two drug addicts in Everett. They go to the house posing as drug dealers in order to find evidence of the presence of Corwin. Once they have, they flee and Kenzie later returns to the house with Nick and Remy. A shoot-out occurs and Nick is shot in the neck while Kenzie daringly enters the house and find one of the accomplices is dead. When ther other accomplice gives him a chase with a shotgun, Kenzie is forced to retreat into the pedophile’s room. Corwin is seen sitting on the floor and telling Kenzie that it was an accident before Kenzie shoots Corwin in the back of his head after he finds the boy’s dead body.

Nick later dies in a hospital. At Nick’s funeral, Kenzie recognizes a police officer Devin (Michael K. Williams) and questions him. Devin tells Kenzie to buy him lunch as a return. Devin tells Kenzie that Remy had been asking about the stolen money before Cheese knew it was missing. Kenzie questions Amanda’s uncle, Lionel (Titus Welliver), and finally discovers that Lionel and Remy have conspired in a fake kidnapping in order to take the money for themselves and to punish Amanda’s mother for her poor parenting.

Lionel speaks to Kenzie in a local bar, telling him that Amanda’s death was an accident and that the phony trade was arranged with the help of the drug lord’s associate. Remy enters the bar and stages a robbery while wearing a latex mask and holding a shotgun in order to kill Lionel before he can confess. Despite the latex mask, Lionel and Kenzie know it was Remy through his blue eyes. Lionel then tells Remy what he has already told Kenzie while Kenzie keeps on shouting “Amanda McCready was taken by Remy Bressant!” daringly. Remy tries to back away, but not before the barkeeper shoots Remy twice in the chest. Remy flees and is pursued by Kenzie to the rooftop of a nearby building. Kenzie asks Remy why he did it. Remy only replies that he loves kids before he dies.

Kenzie is later questioned about Remy’s death only to discover that an earlier call transcript which led to the quarry meeting was forged — this simply means Doyle was also involved in setting up the exchange. He is not satisfied with what he knows about Amanda’s abduction and drives with Angie to Captain Doyle’s home. He discovers Amanda (Madeline O’Brien) is alive and living with Doyle and his wife. Kenzie threatens to call the authorities but Doyle attempts to convince him that Amanda is better off living with them than with her drug-addict mother who couldn’t care less. Kenzie departs to discuss the choice with Angie, who says she will leave him if he calls the police. The police arrive and Doyle is arrested. Amanda is reunited with her mother, but Kenzie and Angie break up. Kenzie later visits Amanda and her mother, Helene, who is just about to leave on a date. He volunteers to watch over Amanda while she is out and they sit on a couch to watch television.

Overall, Ben Affleck’s directional debut is better than expected despite the many twists in the film, the truth in the end is just sad and depressing.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

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