Gary Thompson: Bad-guy action in 'Public Enemies'

THERE'S A NEW Harry Potter ("The Half Blood Prince") out on DVD this week, and Nora Ephron's post-modern riff on Julia Child ("Julie and Julia").

But I'm partial to Michael Mann's stylish "Public Enemies," which is a visual ode to the Tommy Gun, one of the great movie props of all time.

The movie also features Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, the notorious 1930s bank-robber who's positioned by Mann in "Public Enemies" as an antidote not only to greedy bankers, but to over-reaching federal authorities (it implies that J. Edgar Hoover would have loved Homeland Security).

The $34 two-disc special edition DVD has four featurettes - Mann's behind-the-scenes documentary, pieces on the Dillinger's history, his legend, and his other screen treatments.