Johnny Depp’s Island:
I have loved Johnny Depp since his 21 Jump Street Days. I went to see Public Enemies over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed his performance as bank robber John Dillinger. My friend mentioned to me after the movie that Depp had recently bought an island. That’s right, Johnny Depp owns a 45-acre private Bahamian island. And he even named one of the island’s beaches after Heath Ledger. *tear*

Bruno’s Howard Stern Interview:
I haven’t seen the movie Bruno movie yet, but Sacha Baron Cohen is definitely back at his shenanigans with Bruno, the gay Austrian. Bruno recently appeared on Howard Stern. This is definitely NOT for the easily offended!!

The Bachelorette Finale Spoilers:
If you can’t wait two weeks for the finale of The Bachelorette, I found some finale spoilers over at The Hollywood Gossip. Good stuff!!

Is He Serious?:
This is why I love YouTube. People make complete fools of themselves and don’t think twice about sharing their buffoonery with the entire world! Well, this video was posted on one of my favorite blogs Crunktasitkal.net and it is so funny, I had no choice but to share with you for WTF Wednesday. Apparently there is some dance where you act like you’re having sex? All I can say is “That poor, poor pillow!” WTF is up with this dude??? Before you watch this, please know that this is NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

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By Matt Brunson

PUBLIC ENEMIES
**1/2
DIRECTED BY Michael Mann
STARS Johnny Depp, Christian Bale

Moviegoers hoping that Public Enemies would have been the film to save the summer season from its own worst impulses will be disappointed to learn that the Michael Mann production, while hardly part of the problem, is certainly no solution. A classy motion picture whose individual moments are greater than the whole, this period gangster saga may be filled with exciting gun battles yet can’t deliver the firepower in ways that matter the most: empathy, originality, and a willingness to burrow beneath the legend.

Forget about fidelity to the facts: Since this is a Hollywood production, historical accuracy matters less than streamlining a good story. So while real life might have dictated that the vicious bank robber Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) did in fact die four months after the imminently more likable John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), the filmmakers understand that our own sense of fair play (or narrative pacification; take your pick) demands that we see Nelson go down in a hail of bullets well before Dillinger has his own date with destiny. At any rate, Mann and fellow scribes Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman (adapting Bryan Burrough’s book Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-1934) capture what’s most important about Dillinger: his folk-hero appeal, and the way many Depression-era citizens would have found it possible to cheer an outlaw who spent his time sticking it to the banks.

Naturally, an actor of considerable charm would be required to play such a dashing rogue, so it’s obvious that the short list of candidates would basically consist of Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio (who was briefly involved with the project several years ago). Depp possesses the right demeanor for the role, and if he doesn’t register as powerfully as we would expect, that’s the fault of the writers, who make Dillinger more of an enigma than necessary. Still, the actor fares better than his two co-stars.

As Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent who pursues Dillinger with single-minded determination, Christian Bale is playing a character even more one-dimensional than his John Connor in Terminator Salvation. Purvis is supposed to be the dynamic point-counterpart to Dillinger (a favorite tactical ploy of Mann’s, as evidenced by past pictures like Heat and Collateral), but the role is so thinly written — and Bale tackles it with so little interest — that it’s hardly a fair fight.

Then there’s the case of La Vie en Rose Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, cast as Dillinger girlfriend Billie Frechette. Unless we’re discussing Bonnie and Clyde or Roger Corman cheapies, no film genre is less friendly to women than the gangster flick (not even the Western, which among other achievements allowed the likes of Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford to carve out memorable legacies). So until one brutal sequence toward the end, Cotillard has little to do but fret and fuss over her man’s line of work.

Yet what Public Enemies lacks in complexity, it makes up for in artfulness. Because the movie is lucky enough to have someone as skilled as Mann at the helm, it’s often able to camouflage its narrative limitations with stunning stylistics that, crucially, aren’t of the distant, hermetically sealed variety but rather infuse the piece with a different sense of purpose. Elliot Goldenthal’s soaring score, Dante Spinotti’s camera angles, and the sound team’s snap-crackle-and-pop approach (gun shots are frequently delivered with stunning clarity, a far cry from the sonic overkill of that infernal Transformers sequel) support the costume and set departments to fully immerse us in an era in which a man’s best friend is his weapon, and the manner in which he tips his fedora is as important as what’s in his heart or on his mind. That’s a remarkably shallow outlook, but with Public Enemies, that’s usually about as deep as it gets.

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USA Today and movieweb.com have released new stills from Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice in Wonderland. Check ‘em out.

Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter

Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen

Anne Hathaway as The White Queen

Mia Wasikowska as Alice

To see a few more photos, go here.

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Johnny Depp, who will play the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's next film, played a different type of mad hatter in Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Alice in Wonderland, the next collaboration between director Tim Burton and star Johnny Depp, will debut on March 5, 2010, not only in regular moviehouses but also ones equipped with the IMAX 3-D format currently enjoying success thanks to the release of Monsters vs. Aliens. Depp, who will play the Mad Hatter, heads a cast that also includes Anne Hathaway and Alan Rickman. For the complete scoop, read this.

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Shiver me timbers!

Today is  International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

So, have at it, you scallywags.

After the Jump: Top Ten Pickup lines for use on International Talk Like a Pirate Day…

For men:

10 . Avast, me proud beauty! Wanna know why my Roger is so Jolly?

9. Have ya ever met a man with a real yardarm?

8. Come on up and see me urchins.

7. Yes, that is a hornpipe in my pocket and I am happy to see you.

6. I’d love to drop anchor in your lagoon.

5. Pardon me, but would ya mind if fired me cannon through your porthole?

4. How’d you like to scrape the barnacles off of me rudder?

3. Ya know, darlin’, I’m 97 percent chum free.

2. Well blow me down?

1. Prepare to be boarded

For women:

10. What are YOU doing here?

9. Is that a belayin’ pin in yer britches, or are ye … (this one is never completed)

8. Come show me how ye bury yer treasure, lad!

7. So, tell me, why do they call ye, “Cap’n Feathersword?”

6. That’s quite a cutlass ye got thar, what ye need is a good scabbard!

5. Aye, I guarantee ye, I’ve had a twenty percent decrease in me “lice ratio!”

4. I’ve crushed seventeen men’s skulls between me thighs!

3. C’mon, lad, shiver me timbers!

2. RAMMING SPEED!

1. You. Pants off. Now!

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I would have to say that Denzel Washington is definitely not the sexiest man alive as stated in a previous post. He’s definitely got talent, and the photo of him on Askmen.com is especially scrumptious … but he really doesn’t compare to Johnny Depp. I’m sorry, but come on. If you can wear eyeliner, have a rough pirate accent and still turn women on, you’re hot. Here’s what was written under the women magnetism section on Askmen.com for Johnny Depp.

He’s mysterious, brooding and a movie star. He once played guitar in a band (quite well, apparently), and he owned the infamous Viper Room, a club in Los Angeles. Is it a wonder that women flock to him? Heck, he’s had more ex-fiancées than most guys have had girlfriends.

The fact that he’s attached and has two children does not seem to deter the legions of adoring females that want to get deep with Depp.

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