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On January 31st, fans of movie gangster Al Pacino can look forward to one of his most iconic films, Scarface, landing on a new streaming platform.

Say hello to Scarface as it arrives on Prime Video on January 31st. While Scarface was recently made available to stream on Netflix, it is not available in all countries. The American crime drama released December 9th, 1983, was technically a remake of a much older film, Scarface (1932). Scarface (1983) is one of Pacino's best-known films and sits at a 79% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Related Scarface Reboot Gets Grim Update From Director Luca Guadagnino

Luca Guadagnino shares an unfortunate update on his Scarface reboot.

Directed by Brian De Palma, also known for his work on Carrie and the first Mission Impossible, Scarface stars Pacino as Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee turned Miami drug lord. After killing one of Fidel Castro’s men in a...

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This January, Hulu is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the highly anticipated release of the mystery crime thriller Paradise to the multiple new comedy shows like Going Dutch and Shifting Gears. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Hulu this month and have an 80% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the eight best movies that are coming to Hulu in January 2025 with an 80% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Paddington (January 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97% Credit – StudioCanal

Paddington is a live-action, animated, feel-good comedy film written and directed by Paul King. The 2014 film follows Paddington, a talking bear who migrates from the jungles of Peru to the Streets of London, where he begins living with the Brown family. Paddington stars Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walter,...

The limitations that come with the TV medium haven't been enough to stop a few made-for-tv action films from holding up well to those released on the big screen. With TV films, audiences often expect a low-quality film as the budget is minimal compared to that of a film released in theaters. However, there are some exceptions. Plenty of made-for-tv horror and sci-fi films have proven to have the same effect on audiences as big Hollywood releases.

The same can be said for the action genre. Of course, a large screen is ideal for the fast pace and high levels of energy expected of the genre. The visual and sound quality of a movie theater prompts a more immersive viewing experience. Still, made-for-tv action films like Duel and L.A. Takedown show the TV medium is not to be underestimated, and a similar experience can be had on a smaller scale.

Real-life crime movies come with even more jeopardy because viewers know the criminals and victims are real. Heist movies often portray criminals as protagonists, making the audience root for them to succeed. Not all heist movies are based on real cases; most of them are works of fantasy.

Crime movies can take on a completely different tone when they are based on real life, and even heist movies often find inspiration from true stories. Films based on real crimes are among the most popular in the genre; Goodfellas, The Untouchables, and Zodiac all have added layers of jeopardy because the viewer knows that the criminals and the victims are true stories. Of course, most bank robbery movies based on a true story don't take inspiration from real life as often as other crime films, as classics like Point Break and Ocean's 11 are pure fiction.

The joy of heist movies...

Bradley Cooper is one of the most accomplished actors working in Hollywood right now. While he gained fame for his comedies such as The Hangover series, he graduated to dramatic roles with films like American Sniper and Silver Linings Playbook. He even turned director with the musical romance A Star Is Born and last year’s Maestro.

Cooper opened up about his struggles as an up-and-coming actor in the business. He mentioned that he had once auditioned for Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. The actor emotionally recounted how despite not getting the role, he cherished the letter that Mann sent him after his rejection which he has preserved to this day.

Bradley Cooper Was Rejected By Michael Mann For Public Enemies Bradley Cooper in Nightmare Alley | Credits: Tsg Entertainment/Double Dare You Productions

Filmmaker Michael Mann is known for his brand of crime films that really explore the criminal underbelly of a city.

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are two of the most prolific veteran actors currently working in Hollywood. The legends have won Oscars and have featured in multiple acclaimed films. They have also worked with legendary directors such as Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Francis Ford Coppola, and more.

De Niro and Pacino have worked together on four films to date, with the last being The Irishman. Though they first featured in the film The Godfather – Part II, they never shared the screen as their roles were set in different periods. The first time they ever shared a screen was in Michael Mann’s cult classic film Heat.

Michael Mann Brought Together Al Pacino And Robert De Niro On Screen Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in The Irishman | Credits: Tribeca Productions/Sikelia Productions/Winkler Films/Netflix

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro have been featured together in four films to date.

Michael Mann's made plenty of iconic films throughout his career, but the standout is Heat. Unmatched in its scope and ambition, the crime epic pits Robert De Niro and Al Pacino against each other in a battle of wits while also exploring the cost that their characters' careers have wrought upon them. Mann even returned to the scene of the crime, so to speak, when he co-wrote Heat 2 – a novel that acts as both a sequel and a prequel to the original film. While Heat's impact can't be denied, it wasn't the first time Mann tried to tackle this story. In fact, not many people know that Heat is technically a remake of another Mann film. That film, L.A. Takedown, shares quite a bit in common with Heat but sharply diverges when it comes to one crucial aspect.

Heat had a long journey to the big screen. Director Michael Mann wrote the first draft as far back as 1979, after which it languished in development hell for much of the next decade while Mann worked his way through the competitive world of film and television. By the late 1980s, he had served as producer on two of the decade’s most successful shows, Miami Vice and Crime Story, and NBC was eager to repeat that magic once again. Mann felt Heat would make a good first episode for his new show, and after removing 110 pages of his 180-page screenplay, he cobbled together a pilot under the title L. A. Takedown. However, the studio was unhappy with Scott Plank in the lead role of Detective Vincent Hanna, and after Mann refused to recast the part, the episode was reworked as a television film. While this could have condemned its brilliant potential to an early grave,...

Clockwise from top right: Robert De Niro in Heat, Colin Farrell in Miami Vice, Chris Hemsworth in Blackhat, James Caan in Thief, Tom Cruise in Collateral, Will Smith in Ali.Screenshot: YouTube

There have been several reasons for cinephiles to rejoice in 2023, but few are more exciting than the return of Michael Mann.

Michael Mann wants to bring his sequel to 1995's Heat to the big screen very soon.

During a panel discussion for Deadline Hollywood for the upcoming release of the director's biopic Ferrari, Mann revealed that Heat 2 will be his next project to shoot. Mann confirmed that elements of his 2022 novel Heat 2 will serve as the basis for the story set in the past and present. "Meg Gardiner and myself wrote the novel Heat 2, which came out right when we were shooting Ferrari," Mann said. "It did very well. I plan to shoot that next."

Related: Director Michael Mann Denies Claim He Crossed WGA Strike Picket Line

Heat was loosely based on the true story of real-life criminal Neil McCauley and his Chicago police pursuer Detective Chuck Adamson. Initially shot as an unsold NBC pilot called L.A. Takedown in 1989, Mann reconceived his original concept into the 1995 crime thriller...

It’s always an interesting prospect when a director remakes their own film. Of course, remakes themselves are nothing unusual, but taking it upon yourself to retell a story you’ve already told is bound to elicit curiosity. The reason for such endeavors varies wildly, ranging from trying to unleash an idea’s true potential after it had previously been squandered or as a means of reframing the themes of the original to make them even more profound. Either way, it’s an experiment that is never boring – especially when it’s being conducted by none other than the “Master of Suspense” himself, Alfred Hitchcock. Enter, The Man Who Knew Too Much, a pair of suspense thrillers released twenty-two years apart that marked the only time when the revered director would recycle a premise across his illustrious six decades in the business.

Heat's iconic diner meeting between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro's characters was a special moment for the two actors. Pacino and De Niro rose to prominence around the same time during the early '70s. De Niro became a star thanks to his work in Mean Streets and Taxi Driver and would go on to deliver incredible work in everything from Once Upon A Time In America to Jackie Brown. Pacino's breakout was The Godfather, and he has amassed an extraordinary run of classic performances from Serpico to Scarface and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

Michael Mann's movie Heat had been simmering for a long time, with the filmmaker first conceiving of the idea in the late '70s. He even shot a prototype (of sorts) with TV movie L.A. Takedown, which adapted his Heat screenplay into a TV show pilot. Heat was weirdly snubbed for any major award,...

Heat had a long journey to the big screen. Director Michael Mann wrote the first draft as far back as 1979, after which it languished in development hell for much of the next decade while Mann worked his way through the competitive world of film and television. By the late 1980s, he had served as producer on two of the decade’s most successful shows, Miami Vice and Crime Story, and NBC was eager to repeat that magic once again. Mann felt Heat would make a good first episode for his new show, and after removing 110 pages of his 180-page screenplay, he cobbled together a pilot under the title L. A. Takedown. However, the studio was unhappy with Scott Plank in the lead role of Detective Vincent Hanna, and after Mann refused to recast the part, the episode was reworked as a television film. While this could have condemned its brilliant potential to an early grave,...

Everyone wishes they had a second chance, and that goes double for Hollywood execs who hold movie rights to TV movies sitting on the shelf, gathering dust. Sometimes, directors and writers get the chance, reinterpreting their old idea that the world has moved on from. Scripts that, for all intents and purposes, are the same as their much less famous derivatives.

Which might prompt you to ask: do we really need another Elvis Presley, Napoleon, or Liberace biopic? For all the talk of Stanley Kubrick abandoning his Napoleon movie, we kinda forget the obvious reason he never actually made that film: the market was already saturated with Napoleon flicks. Well, it turns out, it doesn’t matter. Recycling ideas (often the same exact script) has shown to be a viable strategy for movie studios terrified of taking a chance.

For years, TV has been the testing ground for the scripts of tomorrow,...

There are plenty of iconic action movies that have shaped the genre, but many of them are actually remakes. Remakes happen for a variety of reasons: as a language remake to introduce popular movies to the global audience, to create a live-action version of an animated movie, which Disney in particular are keen on, or simply to recreate an old movie for new audiences to enjoy. Remakes can be a sore topic among audiences, especially when a beloved movie is butchered. Many view them as an easy cash-grab for productions, especially as audiences are intrigued by the remake - whether they approve or not.

However, remakes can be a great way to reinvent forgotten movies and plenty of iconic movies nowadays are remakes from the early 1900s. Even Disney’s live-action remakes perform surprisingly well at the box office, especially those of the older movies, because of the new audiences they introduce.

Writer and director Michael Mann's Heat 2 is nearing development with Star Wars star Adam Driver set to star. Originally developed as the television movie L.A. Takedown, Mann later remade the script for 1995's critically-acclaimed crime film, Heat. Starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, the action-thriller became a critical and commercial success, earning over $187 million at the box office.

Per Deadline, Heat 2 is close to starting development, with Driver attached to star as a younger version of De Niro's original character. The film will be an adaptation of Mann's original follow-up novel Heat 2, which tells both a prequel and sequel story. Written with co-author Meg Gardiner, the book hit the market last August and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. Mann plans to tackle Heat 2 following the release of his biopic Ferrari later this year.

What Will Heat 2 Be About

Since his theatrical debut with 1981's Thief starring James Caan,...

Writer and director Michael Mann's Heat 2 is nearing development with Star Wars star Adam Driver set to star. Originally developed as the television movie L.A. Takedown, Mann later remade the script for 1995's critically-acclaimed crime film, Heat. Starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, the action-thriller became a critical and commercial success, earning over $187 million at the box office.

Per Deadline, Heat 2 is close to starting development, with Driver attached to star as a younger version of Pacino's original character. The film will be an adaptation of Mann's original follow-up novel Heat 2, which tells both a prequel and sequel story. Written with co-author Meg Gardiner, the book hit the market last August and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. Mann plans to tackle Heat 2 following the release of his biopic Ferrari later this year.

What Will Heat 2 Be About

Since his theatrical debut with 1981's Thief starring James Caan,...

Movies That Made Me veteran guest and screenwriter Dan Waters discusses his favorite year of cinema (1989) with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Phantom Carriage (1921)

Love At First Bite (1979)

Hudson Hawk (1991)

Demolition Man (1993)

Heathers (1989)

Warlock (1989)

The Matrix (1999)

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Jaws (1975)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Nashville (1975)

Born On The Fourth Of July (1989)

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

Field Of Dreams (1989)

My Left Foot (1989)

Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989)

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Drugstore Cowboy (1989)

Sex Lies And Videotape (1989)

Easy Rider (1969)

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

All That Jazz (1979)

Hair (1979)

Alien (1979)

Fight Club (1999)

Office Space (1999)

Magnolia (1999)

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

American Pie (1999)

The Iron Giant (1999)

All About My Mother (1999)

Being John Malkovich (1999)

The Breakfast Club (1985)

Pretty In Pink (1986)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Say Anything… (1989)

Miracle Mile (1989)

True Love (1989)

Powwow Highway (1989)

Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)

Southside With You...

Michael Mann is having quite a week. In addition to beginning production on his star-studded film “Ferrari” this week in Italy, the director’s first novel, “Heat 2,” a sequel to his epic 1995 crime epic, is topping bestseller lists.

Written alongside veteran thriller writer Meg Gardiner, the book reprises the complex characters featured in the original film, namely the professional thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). Although the film ends with Hanna’s murder of McCauley at the end of his years-long investigation, the pair had created an inexplicable bond through their catch-and-kill dynamic that’s further explored in the book’s prequel scenes. One of the most revelatory plot points is the revelation that Hanna and McCauley unknowingly crossed paths in a previous major heist before they met each other.

The 466-page tome, which serves as both a sequel and prequel, also delves...

Michael Mann's "Heat" is a modern classic — a sprawling, violent, engrossing crime epic that fans have obsessed over for years (example: Blake Howards has an incredible podcast called One Heat Minute that breaks down the entire film minute by minute). It's arguably Mann's most popular movie — the one we return to, again and again, despite (or perhaps because of) its overwhelming runtime. The overstuffed nature of the film hooks us, and makes us feel as if we're part of the world Mann is creating.

Mann's 1995 film, inspired by true events and a reworking of his TV movie "L.A. Takedown,"...

The post Heat 2 Review: An Action-Packed Page-Turner That Feels Just Like a Michael Mann Movie appeared first on /Film.

Michael Mann spent over a decade trying to get the script that would become his magnum opus, "Heat," made. All along the way, he fine-tuned it; he even shot a beta run of the story as a TV pilot, titled "L.A. Takedown." A notorious perfectionist, Mann's determination to get every detail right meant that casting hadn't even wrapped yet once the cameras were rolling. According to "Heat" casting director Bonnie Timmermann:

"The casting process didn't even, it didn't finish – he was shooting the movie and we were still casting. As a matter of fact, it went on for a long time, in a...

The post The Casting Process For Heat Was Too Important To Cut Short appeared first on /Film.

Sam Raimi has directed some of the most popular movies of all time, from "The Evil Dead" to "Spider-Man." The Coen Brothers are known for classics like "The Big Lebowski" and "Inside Llewyn Davis." They worked together on a script for a film, and it's very likely you've never seen it.

That film is 1985's "Crimewave," which was a dreadful failure, only bringing in $3,571 in its opening weekend domestic box office and $5,101 worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. The movie is a slapstick horror comedy about a man working at an alarm company who accidentally finds out that hitmen...

The post The Coen Brothers Wrote a Movie Directed By Sam Raimi...And You Probably Haven't Seen It appeared first on /Film.

Horror icon Bruce Campbell is playing a much different role this holiday season: a retired rock star.

In the upcoming Hallmark Christmas film “One December Night,” premiering on the network on Nov. 13 at 10:01 p.m. Et, Campbell portrays Steve Bedford, a former member of the legendary rock duo Bedford & Sullivan. The band had a hit song, titled “One December Night,” but broke up when Mike Sullivan (Peter Gallagher) showed up unable to play a sold-out show 10 years ago. But when Mike’s estranged daughter Quinn (Eloise Mumford) and Steve’s son Jason (Brett Dalton) are tasked with putting together a televised reunion just in time for the holidays, the two rock stars must work to mend their complicated history — and Quinn and Jason must come to terms with their blossoming romance.

In this exclusive clip, Quinn and Steve see each other again for the first time since the band...

Sam Raimi hasn’t directed a movie since 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful, focusing more on producing in the interim, but the filmmaker will be remaining in both the blockbuster and Disney business after ending his self-imposed hiatus by stepping in for the departed Scott Derrickson on Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The Sorcerer Supreme seems like a great fit for Raimi’s sensibilities, and maybe he even feels like he has something to prove after having unfinished business with the comic book genre following the abandonment of his proposed Spider-Man 4 a decade ago. Having recently been pushed back as part of Marvel Studios’ reshuffled Phase Four release schedule, there’s also more time now to come up with the sort of trippy visuals that fans are no doubt expecting from the movie.

There’s also the small matter of casting, with...

Glass Distortion has compiled a fascinating video essay showcasing the influence the work of Michael Mann had on Christopher Nolan when making 'The Dark Knight.'

Mann's L.A. Takedown (1989), Heat (1995), The Insider (1999), and Collateral (2004) are the films used as references and cues used by The Dark Knight director and 'Heat' was one of the films cast and crew was made watch during pre-production .

Nolan once said “I always felt ‘Heat’ to be a remarkable demonstration of how you can create a vast universe within one city and balance a very large number of characters and their emotional journeys in an effective manner”

Check out the video below:...

The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan has long cited Michael Mann's 1995 crime epic Heat as an inspiration for his best-loved Batman film. 

For casual viewers, the opening heist scene in which The Joker (Heath Ledger) steals from the mob has the most easily recognizable callbacks (and even features Heat star William Fichtner in the key role as the bank employee who takes a stand against the Joker's men). 

Now, an excellently crafted video from Glass Distortion delves into the visual cues The Dark Knight takes from Heat, as well as other films in Mann's catalogue: L.A. Takedown, The Insider, and Collateral.

...

If you'd seen any of Michael Mann's filmography beforehand, it should have been pretty obvious back in 2008 that the director had a major influence on Christopher Nolan's modern superhero masterpiece The Dark Knight. Nolan took a lot of his visuals from Heat, Mann's bank robbery classic, as well as L.A. Takedown (Mann's made-for-tv precursor to Heat), and the two clearly have a mutual respect since Nolan hosted a Q&A about Heat with Mann and stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Joey had a chance to attend that Q&A, and you can read all about it and see videos from it right here.

Now Glass Distortion (via /Film) has put together a cool video essay showing Nolan's The Dark Knight side-by-side with the moments from Mann's films that inspired it. You'll see some clear parallels between the movies' bank heists, as well as similarities between the...

Michael Mann’s magnum opus “Heat” celebrated its 20th anniversary in December 2015, but The Academy finally marked the occasion last night with a star-studded celebration that included a screening of the new 4K restoration of the crime drama and a once-in-a-lifetime reunion between Mann, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, moderated by none other than Christopher Nolan. As Variety reports, the packed audience was also treated to surprise special guests, including actors Val Kilmer and Amy Brenneman, cinematographer Dante Spinotti, film editor William Goldenberg and others.

Read More: Watch: Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ Is an Excellent Story Wrapped in Grander Technique

Nolan recalled being skeptical about the film when he had heard critics calling it a new American Classic, citing how tired the cops and robbers genre had become on the big screen. Fortunately, Mann’s crime film delivered on the promise. “I’ve drawn inspiration from it in my own work,...

"Heat" is arguably everyone's favorite Michael Mann movie.

It's the source of a rare Robert De Niro/Al Pacino summit, one of the most gripping cops-and-robbers thrillers ever made, and a quintessential Los Angeles movie. Yet, when it opened 20 years ago (on December 15, 1995), it went unheralded by the Angelenos in the Academy.

Despite being snubbed for Oscar nominations, it went on to be considered a classic, one imitated not only by filmmakers (ahem Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight") but also by real-life crooks. Still, for all the obsessive viewings and re-viewings, there's a lot you may not know about "Heat." Here are 11 things you need to know.

1. The inspiration for De Niro's Neil McCauley was a real-life Chicago thief of the same name. The real-life Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino's character) was Chicago cop Chuck Adamson, a technical adviser on Mann's TV police dramas "Miami Vice" and "Crime Story."

2. As in the film,...

Michael Mann has been a driving creative force behind plenty of groundbreaking cops-and-robbers tales over the past 40 years, from TV’s "MTV cops" show Miami Vice to this year's bleeding-edge cybercrime thriller Blackhat. And while the 72-year-old writer/producer/director has done his share of tense true-story recreations and tough-guy classics, it's a certain steely crime drama starring two Seventies-cinema icons for which he might be best known.

Released 20 years ago today, Heat originated from the story of an obsessive detective's quest to take down a disciplined career criminal in the early 1980s,...

Sound on Sight undertook a massive project, compiling ranked lists of the most influential, unforgettable, and exciting action scenes in all of cinema. There were hundreds of nominees spread across ten different categories and a multi-week voting process from 11 of our writers. The results: 100 essential set pieces, sequences, and scenes from blockbusters to cult classics to arthouse obscurities.

Hollywood has had a long love affair with the heist sub-genre. Dating as far back as the silent film era with 1928’s Alias Jimmy Valentine, and transcending various genres like westerns (The War Wagon), war (Kelly’s Heroes) and even animation (Toy Story 3), the heist has tantalized our fantasies and outsmarted our wits for decades. Whether it’s for the very last time before retirement, gathering the gang back together for a big payday or for the thrill of pulling off the perfect robbery, all heist films share one key element: commitment to a plan.

Villains have always been and will always be some of the most fascinating and memorable characters in the world of genre film. Here we will take a look at the greatest villains of cinema from the 1990’s.

The criteria for this article is the same as in my previous articles Cinema’s Greatest Villains: The 1970’s and Cinema’s Greatest Villains: The 1980’s: the villains must be from live-action films-no animated features-and must pose some type of direct of indirect lethal threat. The villains can either be individuals or small groups that act as one unit.

The villains must be human or human in appearance. Also, individuals that are the central protagonists/antiheroes of their respective films were excluded.

Brad Dourif as The Gemini Killer in The Exorcist III (William Peter Blatty, 1990): Veteran actor Dourif is intense and unforgettable as an executed murderer inhabiting someone else’s body in...

Following are some supplemental sections featuring notable director & actor teams that did not meet the criteria for the main body of the article. Some will argue that a number of these should have been included in the primary section but keep in mind that film writing on any level, from the casual to the academic, is a game of knowledge and perception filtered through personal taste.

****

Other Notable Director & Actor Teams

This section is devoted to pairings where the duo worked together at least 3 times with the actor in a major role in each feature film, resulting in 1 must-see film.

Terence Young & Sean Connery

Must-See Collaboration: From Russia with Love (1962).

Other Collaborations: Action of the Tiger (1957), Dr. No (1962), Thunderball (1965).

Director Young and actor Connery teamed up to create one of the very best Connery-era James Bond films with From Russia with Love which features a great villainous performance by Robert Shaw...

Top Ten TV to Film Adaptations This weekend 21 Jump Street scored the top spot at the weekend box-office and Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall are busy preparing a sequel and after posting my review someone on Twitter told me one of the reasons they liked it was because it was a huge improvement compared to most TV-to-film adaptations. While I enjoyed it, I wasn't as excited over it as some people seem to be and I never even thought to compare it to other TV-to-film adaptations, especially considering a film needs to stand on its own, whether it's simply better than other films that tried to make the leap from the small screen to the silver screen is irrelevant. But it did get me to thinking... what are the best TV-to-film adaptations? So I started the process of compiling a list and while 21 Jump Street is a good flick, it...

Like the double-wide premiere for HBO's Boardwalk Empire, the pilot for the network's new horse-racing series Luck—first broadcast December 11th, and then re-run this past Sunday—represents a meeting of two distinctive authorial voices. In the case of the Boardwalk Empire pilot—a high-water mark of style and efficiency that the frequently-frustrating series has never managed to live up to, aside from a couple of episodes neatly directed by Carpenterite horror specialist Brad Anderson—it was episode director / series executive producer Martin Scorsese and episode writer / series creator Terrence Winter; in the case of Luck, it's episode director / series executive producer Michael Mann and episode writer / series creator David Milch.

The interplay of low-lifes and big spenders in Luck's pilot is distinctly Milch's. It's clear from the episode's structure alone—a lot of jargony horse-racing intrigue spinning around a story about four track regulars who finally win it...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a little post about Movies That Nobody Seems To Like But You, and it was an awful lot of fun for you (over 100 comments) and me -- so today I thought we could flip it around because I happen to know for a fact that there are movies that everyone seems to love but you ... because for me, that movie is Heat.

Released in 1995, Michael Mann's crime drama was an unofficial remake of his made-for-tv film, L.A. Takedown, and is still considered one of the greatest crime films of all time. The story centered on an Lapd homicide detective and a career criminal (played by 'Method heavies' Al Pacino and Robert De Niro) in a battle of wits with Mann's trademark themes of masculine identity and how our work can define us as people. But, no matter how many times I have...

"The only thing important is where somebody's going." That bit of existential wisdom comes from none other than John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), the soft-spoken, bank-jacking antihero of "Public Enemies," Michael Mann's latest epic about unhappy tough guys doing what they do best. It's offered by way of flirtation, as part of Dillinger's out-of-nowhere and all-out attempt to impress a gorgeous hat-check girl named Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) -- a pitch of woo so intense, and so divorced from what Billie considers realistic feeling, that it both unsettles and amuses her. "I'm catching up, meeting someone like you," he tells her. "Boy, you're in a hurry," she deadpans. "If you were looking at what I'm looking at," "Public Enemy" Number One informs her, "you'd be in a hurry, too."

On first viewing, I was inclined to call "Public Enemies" minor Mann, a characterization meant not as a putdown, but a simple summary.

Yahoo! Movies has just unleashed the first clip from Michael Mann's Public Enemies titled "Assault." In the clip FBI Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) leads a raid on the house where John Dillenger (Johnny Depp) and his gang are hiding. Check it out below

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.

Public Enemies comes to theaters July 1 from Universal Pictures

Also, the official website for the brand new Michael Mann film, Public Enemies, has just gone online. Inside you can take a deeper look into director Michael Mann's...

Universal Pictures has launched the official new website for director Michael Mann's Public Enemies , opening on July 1st and starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. The film tells 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. New site features include "Michael Mann's Insights & Images," "Crimewave: The Life of John Dillinger," and "Gangsters and G-men." The site also includes an interactive map that pinpoints all of John Dillinger's bank heists and escapades, as well as images, videos and...

Images from Michael Mann's (L.A. Takedown, Heat, Ali, Miami Vice) Public Enemies.

The Feds led by Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) try to take down notorious American gangsters John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) during a booming crime wave in the 1930s. Marion Cotillard stars as John Dillinge's girl Billie Frechette.

www.publicenemies.net

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tags: channing tatum, christian bale, crime cinema, film stills, johnny depp, marion cotillard, michael mann...