Nick Spinelli Welcome to The Signal's very first (of what I hope will be many) movie review column. Each week, I'll take a look at the movies playing on post, discussing what works and what doesn't. However, what you won't read here are hatchet jobs. If that's what you're looking for, there are plenty of movie web sites out there that exist only to tear stuff apart. Movies are a subjective experience. What one person loves another person hates. By that argument, there is no such thing as a bad movie, just movies that don't connect with a particular audience (the audience in this instance would be me.)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen would be one of those movies that didn't connect. Confession time: I was always more of a GI Joe fan. I never really got into the Transformers. In fact, if I had to choose between giant robots that turn into vehicles, Go-Bots would win every time. So I don't have that sense of nostalgia most people my age have when it comes to this particular property.

The first film was certainly enjoyable in that big, summerpopcorn movie kind of way. A built in fan-base, big explosions, lots of action, and enough of a story to drive the plot between set pieces did a decent job of setting up a franchise. Plus, the movie made a gazillion dollars so a sequel was pretty much guaranteed. T:RotF delivers more of the same, just not as well.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Starring: Megan Fox and Shia Lebeouf Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, crude and sexual material, brief drug material) 152 minutes Showing 2 p.m. August 8. The biggest flaw in the movie is it doesn't seem to know who its audience is. While the ad campaign certainly sold it as a Family-friendly action flick, some of the dialogue, situations, and humor is a little too adult-oriented.

The story itself is essentially a rehash of the first film. Shia Lebouf and Megan Fox run around the world with giant robots who are either chasing or escaping from other giant robots. Like most sequels, it's the same as the first movie, only bigger and louder.

What's most frustrating is that the opening set piece hints at a much better story idea. The Autobots (the good robots) are working with a team of special forces Soldiers (Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson, returning from the first movie) to hunt rogue Decepticons (the bad robots). Unfortunately, this potentially great storyline is dropped in favor of a quest to stop the ultimate Decepticon (the tititular Fallen) from being awoken and, I don't know, eating the Earth or something. Look, it's robots fighting. I kind of zoned out during the story parts.

Public Enemies Starring: Johnny Depp and Christian Bale Rated R (gangster violence, language) 140 minutes Showing 6:30 p.m. August 7 and 9. And that's the problem. I shouldn't have zoned out. Maybe it's asking too much but I want to be just as engaged by the plot as I am by the mayhem. This, more than the original, is truly indicative of the cartoon. It's loud, exciting, and fast-paced, but the overly simplified and underdeveloped story just doesn't have much to say.

On the other hand, Public Enemies has plenty to say. This depression era gangster flick stars Johnny Depp as the legendary John Dillinger, who is just as interested in giving interviews as he is in robbing banks.

Director Michael Mann knows how to make a "cops and robbers" film. In fact, Heat proved that he does it better than most. So the question is, why do another one? Well, like Heat, this is more than just a heist flick. That movie had a theme of duality, the idea that Pacino's cop and DeNiro's crook were cut from the same cloth and under different circumstances, could have easily found themselves in each other's position. The relationship between Depp's John Dillinger and Christian Bale's Melvin Purvis is similar.

The film is an adaptation of the book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933- 34 by Bryan Burrough. Christian Bale plays FBI agent Melvin Purvis who was instrumental in tracking down (and in most case killing) some of America's most legendary criminals. While Dillinger (the primary gangster in the story) relishes the excitement and infamy that comes with his life, Bale plays Purvis as a man becoming more and more obsessed with catching his prey, in the process allowing himself to become just as corrupted.

There's not much that can be said about Depp or Bale as performers that hasn't been said before. They're great in the way they are always great. The supporting cast (Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover, Giovanni Ribisi as gangster Alvin Karpis, Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd) hit all the right notes but are easily overshadowed by the two leads.

In the end, if you like Michael Mann, you'll like Public Enemies. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but offers all the excitement and introspection necessary to make a film like this work.

Disagree with this opinion? Have one of your own? Let us know. Send comments, suggestions or even your own reviews to the critic at nick.spinelli@us.army.mil.