Every few years or so good gangster movie comes along. The kind of movie that once made kids run around with imaginary tommy guns and pretend to be g-men or bank robbers. The kind of movie that that combine coolness and cruelty in a world where living to excess is the aim. Public Enemies is just such a movie. It’s not a new story and it’s not revolutionary but it is the best gangster movie since American Gangster (2007).

Every actor came with their a-game. Johnny Depp received top billing but he was not the only star. I really don’t know who the star was. Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, or Billie Holiday (the script could have been written around the sound track). The characters are so deep and multidimensional that Public Enemies could be as easily be billed as a love story as a gangster movie, or as a documentary on the origins of the FBI. Its so classic that for a minute or two I forgot it wasn't one the old black and white movies of which I'm so fond.

This is as much a guy movie as The Godfather yet romantic enough for a date night.