By Debbie Schlussel
You’ve already read my review of “Public Enemies,” which arrived in theaters, Wednesday. Here are the other new offerings I screened.
* “Moon“: This movie was meant to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1969 landing on the moon. But the storyline has little to do with that, though it does take place on the moon.
This futuristic thriller is sort of like an extended episode of “The Twilight Zone” or “The Outer Limits.” While it’s a little slow, I enjoyed it very much. The modern sets and cinematography of the moon are cool. I also liked its campy use of the 1991 Chesney Hawkes hit song, “(I Am) The One And Only,” as the repeated alarm clock tune in this flick. And the plot is engaging.

Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, an astronaut working on the moon in the future. We’ve learned how to harvest the moon for energy back on earth. Rockwell is just two weeks shy of his three year contract to serve on the moon. He’s about to return to Earth to be reunited with his wife and young daughter. But he feels like he’s starting to see things, beginning to crack up. It’s tough to spend three years in solitary existence on another planet, with a clever robot who makes smiley (and other) faces as your only friend and talking partner. Will he make it back or are things not exactly as they seem?
If you like sci-fi and modern, futuristic movies, this is for you. An interesting aside: Trudie Styler, Sting’s wife, is one of the producers of this. It’s good and the ending keeps you wondering. Not all the questions are answered. I like movies like that because they make you think.
Fun, enjoyable, entertaining, escapist–the way movies are meant to be.
THREE REAGANS

* “Whatever Works“: This is typical Woody Allen stuff, though it’s among his worst. The title of this awful cinematic tripe refers to the ending sexual choices of the characters–a religious Christian southerner becomes half of a gay couple, after his wife becomes an artist living with two men in a menage a trois. Yup, Southern, middle-American Christian conservative red-staters becoming gays and sexually experimental in Manhattan, and they all live happily ever after–isn’t that great!
That’s not to mention the extremely snooty, one-dimensional, snobbish way this movie presents and looks down upon Southerners. From beginning to end, the message is that Southerners–actually, all middle Americans–are stupid and backward, that their values are inferior to Manhattan intellectuals.
Larry David plays a much older snobby, genius scientist who falls for a young Southern girl runaway (Evan Rachel Wood) in Manhattan. The girl’s mother soon follows, after her husband leaves her for another woman. The mother becomes an artist (whose work consists of naked photos) and is living and sleeping with two men. Soon, her father (Ed Begley, Jr.) comes to Manhattan and comes out as gay. And, hey, “Whatever Works,” right?
That’s the sad message of this highly unentertaining movie. “Whatever Works”? Isn’t that the philosophy South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford practiced? And, um, it’s not working for him. Ditto for former New Jersey Governor, James McGreevey. A lot of sad victims are left in their wake.
So, to sum up this movie: New York intellectuals–good, very good; Southern middle American conservatives–bad, very bad (and stupid hicks) . . . until they become gays and “artists” in menages-a-trois.
FOUR MARXES

By Debbie Schlussel
Wanna be forced to go to an Al-Qaeda-linked dentist, where Islam is first, dentistry is, at most, second, and your teeth could be harmed as a result? Here’s a little slice of Great Britain’s version of ObamaCare.
I guess it’s redundant to say that Dr. Butt is a real ass.
But the Muslim dentist–whose brother was the spokesman of an Al-Qaeda splinter group–has a last name that definitely fits.

Omer Butt, 32, whose brother Hassan used to be spokesman for the banned radical Muslim group Al Muhajiroun, ordered female patients to wear headscarves and forced men to take off gold jewellery before allowing them into the dentists’ chair.

He even kept a box full of hijabs at his practice so he could lend them to women before checking their teeth.
Butt enforced his religious dress code despite previously being warned by the General Dental Council for the same offence. . . .
Butt was also found to have confrontations with two patients known as Ms B and Mr C and their families during that period. . . .
“Your evidence was that you regard yourself as a Muslim first and a dentist second and it is clear you were using your position as a dentist to seek to influence patients as to non-clinical issues,” committee chairwoman Gill Brown told the dentist. . . .
During treatment Butt asked the mother if her son prayed and when she said “yes” he gave the boy composite fillings rather than silver ones. Using the precious metal for fillings is frowned upon in Islam.

He admits he was a Muslim first, dentist second, even while practicing as a dentist. Folks, not only is this the real Islam, it’s also what’ll happen if we have socialized medicine a/k/a ObamaCare, under which Dr. Butt isn’t just a butt-hole, he’s a government employee in Britain’s National Health Service. And you might be forced to accept “services” from him under a nationalized plan.
Thanks to Rodrigo Veleda for the tip.

By Debbie Schlussel

Jackson said in the morning television show interview that he wishes he had died instead of his younger brother, and that Michael was “a gift from Allah.”

Hmmm . . . but, Jermaine, if “Michael is a gift from Allah,” why did he have to get like 50 plastic surgeries to correct the “gift”?

By Debbie Schlussel
*** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES ***
One of our readers predicted this, wondering how long it would take until the Jews were blamed for the death of pill-popping drug addict Michael Jackson.
The answer: Not very long.
Some guy has already bought the URL/domain name JewsKilledMichaelJackson.com. Yup, it’s disgusting. Here’s the info of the site owner, who snapped up the online address before rigor mortis even set in:

Yes, It’s Michael Jackson Waving the Israeli Flag

Registrant:
Christopher Anderson
5334 Ridge Ave
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19128
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: JEWSKILLEDMICHAELJACKSON.COM
Created on: 25-Jun-09
Expires on: 25-Jun-11
Last Updated on: 25-Jun-09
Administrative Contact:
Anderson, Christopher canderson@arcadia.edu
5334 Ridge Ave
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19128
United States
(410) 830-9776

I contacted Mr. Anderson, who claims he bought it for his friend and that they’re not anti-Semitic. Uh-huh.
And I’ve been a target of the “Jews Killed Michael Jackson” rage. Ever since I wrote about Michael Jackson’s Ministers of Hate–Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Louis Farrakhan–all of whom he embraced in life and who are pimping him in death, I’ve been getting a ton of e-mails from angry Nation of Islam members who are the paragon of tolerance. And–shocker!–they all have the last name Muhammad (as do most members of NoI). Wow, quelle coincidence.
And they all want me to know one thing: their belief that the “Zionist bloodsuckers” killed Michael Jackson–or perpetrated some other horror close enough to it–and that now Jackson is getting his revenge by cutting them out.
From Dewayne Muhammad, who has e-mailed me several times and calls me “Caucasian She Devil”–a name we could almost have called Michael Jackson at the time of his death:

From: riseup7 riseup7@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 4:24 PM
Subject: Michael wasn’t as crazy as you all trying to make him out to be, HUH?
To: writedebbie@gmail.com
Michael wasn’t as crazy as you all trying to make him out to be, HUH? He was smart enough to keep yall blood sucking Zionist out of his pocket.
I would say Blood sucking Jews, but most you are not a jew. Yall are just claiming to be. Real Jews don’t act like you all.
Jackson’s will cuts out ex-wife Debbie Rowe

Yes, Michael Jackson’s ex-wife, the mother of his older two kids, is Jewish. The natural father/sperm donor of these kids–Michael’s dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, is a Jew, too. Funny how Jackson neither picked Nation of Islam members nor Black people to have his kids.
Mr. Muhammad doesn’t seem to notice that part.
As for the “bloodsucking” part, I think we know who charged Michael Jackson double the rent on the house he rented in his last months. In case you didn’t, it’s the Nation of Islam. We know who forced him to agree to do the fifty dates in London and who “ran” his affairs . . . into the ground. The Nation of Islam and Jackson’s chief of business affairs, Leonard Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan’s son-in-law and chief of staff. Click here and here for a brief refresher course.
Jews, on the other hand, helped Michael Jackson throughout his life and helped him make a ton of money. They fathered and gave birth to his adopted kids, they were his lawyers, his managers, etc. When he should have been forced into involuntary bankruptcy and had amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in debts, Jews were the ones who kept him afloat with credit lines and massive loans, despite his horrible financial track record of repayment. Regardless of his anti-Semitic lyrics and a taped phone conversation, if he felt the Jews were “bloodsuckers,” why did he repeatedly hire and do business with them? Because they were the only ones who gave him good advice and counsel.
***

From: riseup7 riseup7@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 5:31 PM
Subject: This is a Love bond that can not be broken!
To: writedebbie@gmail.com, online.editor@timesonline.co.uk
This is a love bond that can not be broken! This was our brother. You blood suckers are angry because we ran you all out of his life and out of his pocket.
Dewayne Muhammad

***

From: riseup7 riseup7@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 11:14 AM
Subject: The love has already been established.
To: writedebbie@gmail.com
Hey Caucasian She devil,
since you like to spread hate, spread this! The love has already been established. You devils are too late. By the way, how is Ariel Sharon doing? Is he still hooked up to that generator? I hope he suffered. . . . The brain dead bastard.
Minister Farrakhan Predicted how the Media Would Treat Michael Jackson

***
On Twitter (follow me on Twitter), Eric Muhammad (who has a green symbol on his icon, in solidarity with the faux-democracy protestors in Iran–that should be a huge hint to the rest of you greeniacs) also sends me anti-Semitic, pro-Nation of Islam tweets about Michael Jackson, the Jews, and Israel, including these:

@DebbieSchlussel . . . u wicked jew

***

@DebbieSchlussel The Criminal Rothschilds

Both Eric Muhammad and DeWayne Muhammad repeatedly send me a link to a hoax–a fake confession by Michael Jackson’s first alleged victim, a Jewish kid–and urge me to “report” it. But it’s a fake, a fraud. While I’ve always said, I didn’t believe his allegations, the kid never recanted. And, of course, this is all coupled with their repeated anti-Semitic jibes.
Like I said, look at the track record of Jews who helped Michael Jackson throughout his life. Then, look at the track record of how his “brothers” in the Nation of Islam sucked him dry up until his last breath.
***
UPDATE: I’m no fan of his, but Rabbi Shmuley Boteach says Jackson met with Ariel Sharon, against the wishes of his advisors:

“We used to have him over for Shabbat dinners,” recalled Boteach. . . . “At one point, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was visiting and I wanted Michael to meet him.”
Jackson’s entourage urged him not to meet with Sharon for fear of offending some of his fans, but the music icon ignored the advice and met with him, Boteach said.

*** UPDATE #2: Since I noted that only “JewsKilledMichaelJackson.com” has been bought, I’ve just bought “THEJewsKilledMichaelJackson.com” to prevent any anti-Semite from buying it and using it to promote this absurd conspiracy theory.

By Debbie Schlussel
For years, we’ve been fed the canard that American Muslims are different from their fellow co-religionists who flew the planes into buildings and murdered 3,000 Americans. We were told that American Muslims are “moderate,” that these Hezbollah/HAMAS-supporting U.S. citizens and residents were different because they are “educated,” “have better economic opportunities,” blah, blah, blah.
Those of us in the know always knew and have been saying for years that this is utter BS. And the latest “achievement” of our moderate fellow Americans from the “Religion of Peace” is that 20 of them have been indicted for Al-Qaeda activity.

Al-Shabaab Al-Qaeda Terrorists: They’re Here

(Photo From Bill Warner)
As readers know, I’ve written a ton about Minneapolis- and Seattle-area Muslims of Somalian descent, their involvement in violence against Americans and terrorism back in Somalia. Most notable is the case I’ve repeatedly written about–that of Shirwa Ahmed (more here), who left Minneapolis to become a homicide bomber terrorist. But there are also cases of kidnapping, forced prostitution, gang rape and shootings, and Americans are the victims of those crimes.

A federal grand jury has indicted a group of Somali-Americans on terror-related charges after more than 20 young men from the Minneapolis area were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia, according to two law enforcement sources.
The indictments have yet to be unsealed, but an announcement is expected in the next few weeks. . . . The grand jury already has handed up indictments against at least three people.
Among those charged is a man from Minneapolis who went to war-torn Somalia and then, about four months ago, relocated to Seattle, according to the two sources and a leader in the Minneapolis Somali community. The man was then arrested in a Seattle airport and transferred to a jail in Minneapolis, where he is currently being detained, according to the law enforcement sources.
The law enforcement sources said the man, described as in his 20s, has been charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, in this case al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006.
Omar Jamal, the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn., identified the man as 21-year-old Abdifatah Ise. . . .
For much of the past year the FBI has been looking into how dozens of young, Somali-American men were recruited to train and possibly fight alongside al-Shabaab in anarchy-stricken Somalia. The investigation has centered around Minneapolis, where a grand jury has been hearing testimony from witnesses for several months, but the investigation has also been active in Seattle; Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati; Boston; and San Diego. . . .
“Several” recruits had returned to the United States, but counterterrorism officials have repeatedly said there is no intelligence indicating that any such recruits are planning attacks within the country

Terrific. They know these murderous terrorists are here, but it’s A-OK because “there’s no indication they’d attack Americans.” Incredible. They could have said the same thing about Mohammed Atta ten years ago. And don’t forget that these Somalian Muslims have already been involved in multiple cases of rape, kidnapping, and forced prostitution, as well as killings on our soil, against Americans.
And, of course, The Lesbionic Woman takes this same absurd view.
“[Their] primary focus obviously is not on the homeland, it’s abroad,” Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said during a briefing with reporters last week.
And she knows this because . . . ? I repeat, these Somalian Muslims have already been involved in multiple cases of rape, kidnapping, and forced prostitution, as well as shootings on our soil, against Americans.

According to Osman Ahmed, whose 17-year-old nephew was one of those to go to Somalia late last year, at least a dozen people have testified before the Minneapolis grand jury in the past few weeks alone, including officials from the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in St. Paul.
One law enforcement source said that shows “major progress” in the investigation, since the Abubakar mosque has been a focal point for investigators from the beginning.
Many of the men recruited to join al-Shabaab attended the Abubakar mosque, and several mosque officials, including director Farhan Hurre, could face indictment, one source said.

Ah, the same mosque that faux-moderate Muslim Dr. Mohammed Zuhdi Jasser, star of “The Third Jihad,” claimed is not responsible for a gazillion boys being recruited for terrorism there, and shouldn’t be blamed. The imam of the mosque is on the no fly list “just ‘cuz”?
Bill Warner has more on the indicted American Muslims, including names, pictures, and details.
Like I said, more “peaceful,” “moderate” activity from American Muslims. Ah, the “Religion of Peace.”

By Debbie Schlussel
As longtime readers know, I was not a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat” movie (read my review). It mostly made fun of well-meaning, good Americans and mocked them. And it was a mockery of America in general . . . by a European whom America has made very wealthy. On the other hand, “Bruno” looks–at least to me–to be slightly better. We’ll see. I’ll be screening it soon and posting my review on July 10th, when the movie debuts.
In the meantime, I can’t help but notice Cohen’s selective sympathy for subjects of his mockery. Cohen had no qualms about punking and p3wning Alan Keyes and Bob Barr in “Borat.” And he does the same to Ron Paul in “Bruno,” the trailers show.

Sacha Baron Cohen Has Sympathy for LaToya, but Not Alan Keyes or Ron Paul
And “Bruno” also included a segment in which LaToya Jackson–arguably weirder than her late brother, Michael Jackson–was the target of Cohen’s jokes and trickery. But that scene has been cut, out of sympathy for the Jackson sister in the wake of the death of her estranged brother.
I find that interesting, given that La Toya Jackson was, in 1993, among those who attacked her brother while he was alive and insisted he was a child molester. I also find it interesting because I doubt Cohen would have any such sympathy for Ron Paul, Alan Keyes, or Bob Barr (and I’m no fan of Islamic terrorist enabler Barr), if they had a death in the family, even a death of a family member whom they publicly denounced and from whom they were long estranged. I doubt he’d change the movie for any of them or show them any lenience.
But, hey, they’re only conservative politicians on the right. Therefore, they don’t deserve any sympathy. And a weirdo hanger-on sister of a dead pop star, well she deserves every sympathy and bit of compassion in the world.
Ah, the selective standards and sympathy of the Hollywood crowd.

By Debbie Schlussel
I feel for the unemployed in this bad economy. As we know, many who’ve lost their jobs have been laid off or terminated not because they were incompetent or bad employees, but because the economy is just rotten.
Well, now, they have another problem, something of a Catch-22–a double whammy. They can’t win for losing.

With unemployment at 9.4% and rising, it’s a buyer’s market for employers that are hiring. But many employers are bypassing the jobless to target those still working, reasoning that these survivors are the top performers.

“If they’re employed in today’s economy, they have to be first string,” says Ryan Ross, a partner with Kaye/Bassman International Corp., an executive recruiting firm in Dallas. Mr. Ross says more clients recently have indicated that they would prefer to fill positions with “passive candidates” who are working elsewhere and not actively seeking a job.
The bias extends from front-line workers to senior managers. Charlie Wilgus, managing partner of executive search for Lucas Group, based in Atlanta, says a manufacturing client looking for a division president recently refused to consider a former divisional president at Newell Rubbermaid Inc. whose department had been eliminated. The client doesn’t want candidates who have been laid off, Mr. Wilgus says.
Bobby Fitzgerald prefers to hire the already employed even though he gets two dozen or more unsolicited resumes each day at his White Chocolate Grill.
Employers’ preference for the employed adds another hurdle for those who have been laid off. Job seekers frequently are competing with dozens of other applicants for the few available positions.
Bobby Fitzgerald, a partner in five restaurants in three states. . . . He currently has 50 openings across his five restaurants and has told recruiters to bring in only people who are working. Mr. Fitzgerald’s preference for the employed can be time-consuming and expensive. . . .
“We are always looking for the very best of the industry, which happens to be people who are still employed,” he says. . . .
Many employers consider the employed more valuable and worth the extra effort.

So, what do you do to overcome this prejudice? Well, I think it’s only going to encourage job seekers to lie and fabricate phony current employers. Hungry, destitute people do what they have to, to get a job.
The Wall Street Journal gives this advice:

Calm an employer’s biggest worry about out-of-work applicants: that your termination was the result of poor performance.
Arming yourself with strong letters of recommendation from your previous employer, stating that you were laid off for economic reasons. . . . If you can’t obtain formal letters, get references from senior-level employees at your prior company. . . .
And if you lost your job when your department was eliminated, make sure to tell prospective employers; that will be considered more benign than selective layoffs

Yes, you wouldn’t want a serial terminee or otherwise undesirable person running your business or working there. Chances are that employee will end up in the same position with you. Just as you wouldn’t want a person who went to six different colleges in six years and barely graduated to be the country’s Vice President. It shows a pattern of incompetence and lack of commitment or direction.
But if someone is laid off in this economy, it’s not necessarily a sign they aren’t a hard worker. And, sadly, many employers take it that way. Frankly, many of the unemployed will work that much harder because they don’t want to be back in such a desperate position again.
And I’ll bet some of these employers who won’t hire an unemployed worker are the same people who voted for a President named Obama who didn’t stay very long in a single job of late. Yes, he was always “employed”–including as the nebulously described “community organizer.” But he didn’t stay anywhere very long. And that’s a better sign of trouble than whether someone is out of a job in a sour economy.
And yet, they didn’t have the same kind of qualms, despite the stark signs.
It’s a free country and business are free–and should remain free–to hire whomever they want to hire for whatever reasons. But they’re missing out on some of the best job candidates if they take this tack.
I’m not usually a fan of zero tolerance policies. Sometimes, people remain employed because of whom they’re sleeping with or related to, not because they were the most qualified candidates and thus avoided the chopping block.
And, if I were an employer, I’d rather have an experienced employee who might have been temporarily down on his luck than a hot chick who simply doesn’t know the biz but is pleasant to look at or a slacker guy who is a frat brother of the right guy at work.

By Debbie Schlussel
In the past, I’ve posted video and unenhanced voice sound tracks for David Lee Roth and Britney Spears. And while Roth’s was funny, Spears’ was just downright awful. Girl can’t sing.
And, even though we’re all Michael Jacksoned out and have had enough non-stop coverage to last five Michael Jackson lifetimes, I gotta note this. A friend sent me links to several vocal tracks of Michael Jackson, alone, and when he sang with the Jackson Five. And the guy is the real deal. Even without his voice enhanced, the guy could sing. The first one, of Michael Jackson as a kid, is sooooo cute and reminds you how young he was (sadly, some jerk raps over his voice at about 1:40 into it). Too bad, he weirded out. Take a listen:

And check out the acapella track of Michael Jackson singing “Rock With You.”

By Debbie Schlussel
In the wake of the Monica Conyers bribery scandal in Detroit, several parties connected to Congressman Conyers’ convicted felon wife are under the microscope.
One of those is Sam Riddle, whom I’ve met. Riddle, a political consultant, is a clever and colorful person. And he’s a very likable guy, who, as a Black political advisor, was one of the few with the guts to speak out against the Williams sisters when they gave sanction to the United Arab Emirates’ anti-Semitic apartheid policy during the recent Dubai Open tennis tournament.
But, now, Riddle is embroiled in the federal investigations that are going on. And some of the things he’s saying are very, very interesting. He says the Michigan Democratic Party paid him off to keep quiet about Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm as she sought re-election.

Sam Riddle:

Dems Paid Me $50K to Keep Quiet, FBI Asked Me About Dem Gov
As you read this, keep in mind that Michigan Republican Attorney General and all-around sleazebag candidate for Governor, Mike Cox, was also an ally and political crony of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and deposed Detroit ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s father, Bernard, when they worked together for another sleazy Detroit political figure.

Riddle said the Democrats paid him not to say negative things about Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who faced a challenge from Republican businessman Dick DeVos in the November election that year.
FBI agents also questioned Riddle about connections between Granholm and business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick, the father of then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, said Riddle, the former chief of staff to Councilwoman Monica Conyers.
Granholm and Bernard Kilpatrick worked together in the administration of the late Wayne County Executive Edward H. McNamara in the 1990s. Federal agents have been investigating payments made to Bernard Kilpatrick’s consulting firm, Maestro Associates LLC, by companies seeking contracts with the city of Detroit while his son was mayor.
Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said the $50,000 contract with Riddle’s Meridian Management Systems of Flint was for media consulting and was not specifically related to the gubernatorial campaign.

Uh-huh. Sure.

Liz Boyd, a spokeswoman for Granholm, said the governor had no comment on what Riddle said. . . .
As for the FBI asking questions about ties between Granholm and Bernard Kilpatrick, “it is not unreasonable to assume that if the FBI is investigating someone, they might ask questions about someone they might have once worked with or known,” Boyd said.
Federal Election Commission records show the Democrats paid Riddle’s company the money in five $10,000 installments on July 15, July 29, Sept. 6, Oct. 10 and Nov. 5. The election was Nov. 7.
Granholm’s links to Bernard Kilpatrick were also an issue last July, when . . . Granholm spoke to a top official in the U.S. Attorney’s Office about whether it was possible to have a joint resolution of the ongoing federal investigation of Detroit City Hall– in which Bernard Kilpatrick was a major focus– and her review of then-Mayor Kilpatrick’s conduct in office, which was then pending.

Shhhh . . . Sam. Be quiet. And, by the way, here’s $50K for a “media consulting contract.” Nod, nod, wink, wink.

By Debbie Schlussel
If you’re planning on seeing “Public Enemies,” in theaters today, make sure you ingest a lot of caffeine. It’s slow and boring and seemed like it went on forever.
Last week, I told you about how “Public Enemies” star Johnny Depp said, “I’m a big fan” of John Dillinger, the cop-killing bank-robber he plays in the movie’s lead role. He also said, “I actually hope people root for him, too.”
Although I originally looked forward to the movie, I was worried that “Public Enemies” would glorify Dillinger, the way Depp did in press interviews. Fortunately, that did not come to pass. It shows Johnny Depp as violent and the crowd with which he ran as equally violent and murderous.

It does, however, show FBI agents as women-beaters and far less humane toward women than law enforcement. FBI agents are shown beating Dillinger’s girlfriend and denying bathroom privileges to her, causing her to urinate in the chair to which she’s chained. (The girlfriend, played by 9/11 Truther Marion Cotillard with a horrible attempt at an American accent–her real French accent rears its head at every turn. Cotillard took lessons to drop her French accent. She needs to sue the teacher for malpractice.) Dillinger, on the other hand, is shown as loyal to a fault when it comes to women, even the hookers.
Could have done without the indignant scene of Agent Purvis’ secretary lecturing him, “Mr. Purvis, they cannot treat a woman this way.” I thought I was hearing the ACLU lecture us on how to treat Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the rest of his Islamic terrorist buds.
Moreover, the movie shouldn’t have been called, “Public Enemies,” which fools you into thinking that the movie provides equal time to both Dillinger and FBI Agent Melvin Purvis (played by Christian Bale), the lead agent on his case. It doesn’t. Clearly, this movie is about Dillinger, with Depp as the star and Bale as a co-star, much like the Heath Ledger’s Joker was the real star of “The Dark Knight,” and Bale’s Batman was the co-star of that one. Insofar as that goes, the villain is elevated, the hero diminished.
The movie is very slow-moving and boring. There’s no excitement, little suspense. It’s rare that you see such an action-packed film–complete with lots of bank robbery and shoot ’em up scenes–that is so unexciting and slow. But this movie was exactly that. A silly love story, with cheesy lines and dialogue doesn’t help, but it’s quite obvious that was thrown in to give something to women who go to see it. I wasn’t buying, including when Dillinger cries over his girl, although I can’t say I didn’t smile seeing America-hating Depp shed tears.
The love story gives rise to one of the most gratuitous lines in the flick, in which Depp suggests he join his girlfriend in a tub:

Me and my friend, Prince Albert, will join you.

Um, is this a major motion picture or a bad Ron Jeremy porno?
My favorite scene in the movie is when a young J. Edgar Hoover testifies before a Congressional committee, seeking more money for his interstate manhunt of Dillinger and other criminals. He’s repeatedly asked by a Congressman to reveal the number of times he has personally ever made an actual arrest. He finally answers, “None,” and repeatedly decleared, “But I am an administrator.” The Congressman tells him that makes him completely unqualified to head the FBI or any law enforcement agency.
I wanted to shout out to the theater, “Where is this Congressman when we need him?” None of the people heading our law enforcement agencies have this qualification, and they’re all completely unqualified. Janet Napolitano, Robert Mueller, etc. None of ’em have ever made a single arrest in their lives. The same went for former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chieftess Julie L. Myers a/k/a “The ICE Princess,” and her Obama replacement John Morton.
The male stars in this movie are nice to look at, as are their suave clothes–sharp, dapper suits from the days when men’s sartorial splendor was all that. And the sets and cars from the 1930’s are also beautiful. If only the script and the storyline had such exquisite attention paid to them.
But they did not.
In fact, we barely see much of some of the other crooks with whom Dillinger hung. Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) is killed off in the first five minutes, and we don’t know why. The movie is basically this: Dillinger in prison, Dillinger broken out of prison, Dillinger lives openly among the public who support and protect him, Dillinger falls in love, Dillinger robs banks, Dillinger in with the mob, Dillinger out with the mob, Dillinger tracked down, set up, and shot, the end.
I like a good gangster movie or crime thriller. But “Public Enemies” is only mildly entertaining, and not entertaining enough to make it worthy of your $10 bucks. I’m glad it’s not the pan-criminal revisionist propaganda I feared.
But it’s just not a great movie. Not even good. It’s just eh.
HALF A REAGAN