Can a whole lot of Johnny Depp turn 'Public Enemies' into a hit?

Movies for grown-ups, even when they have megastars in them, can't seem to get much traction in this era of Transformers and X-Men. Just ask Julia Roberts (Duplicity), Russell Crowe (State of Play), John Travolta and Denzel Washington (The Taking of Pelham 123). Universal Pictures, home to two of those box-office duds, is trying to break the streak with Public Enemies, a period flick starring Johnny Depp about bank robber extraordinaire John Dillinger. There's been a heavy TV ad campaign running for weeks, and Depp has been working the PR circuit on Letterman and elsewhere. Because he's one of the biggest fan magnets in the world, Universal has made Depp the centerpiece of the campaign. (Christian Bale is in the movie, too, but where is he in the ads? Mostly absent.) The latest TV salvo for Public Enemies is a link to USA Network and its slogan, "Characters Wanted," showing Depp up close and personal talking about how he got under the skin of the famous criminal. The vignettes are airing 40 times on the channel, the most-watched cable network (and sister to Universal). The book-based thriller needs all the exposure it can get, judging from early reviews. The Hollywood Reporter's critique is fairly tepid, saying Public Enemies "is slow to heat up and never quite comes to a boil." Whether it can cook at the multiplex remains to be seen.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley