I caught the 10 p.m. show of Public Enemies last night at my local Carmike, and I'm kind of relieved to say that it played much better the second time around. The problem is that mainstream moviegoers won't be so willing to give it a second chance if they aren't entertained the first time.

I first saw the film at last Thursday's all-media screening in Manhattan, and I wasn't totally sold on it. Something didn't click. I enjoyed Johnny Depp's performance and some of the sequences really blew me away, but the entire experience left be a bit underwhelmed.

Now I'm convinced that Michael Mann has really made an excellent film. I still have my reservations though, which include Billy Crudup's distracting performance as well as the way that the digital cinematography looks in certain daytime scenes. These are small complaints though, and as a whole I feel much more enthusiastic.

Enemies reportedly grabbed $8 million on Wednesday. That's a respectable debut. Since it skews older, it would have been unfair to expect Enemies to have a blockbuster opening day. As it stands now, the Universal release is still heading for a strong opening weekend.