Columbus resident Rod Melotte is so excited to see "Public Enemies" that he may levitate from his seat in the theater during the film.

"Public Enemies" opens on more than 3,200 screens nationwide Wednesday.

Since last winter, Melotte, 55, has carefully detailed "Public Enemies" on his blog, offering a fan's eye view of one of the summer's expected blockbusters. Using numerous Wisconsin sites to film, "Public Enemies" created statewide hoopla last spring and Melotte kept readers informed about each detail with the rapid-fire style of a Dillinger shootout.

Melotte's "Public Enemies" blog reached more than 400,000 hits recently, earned kudos from Vanity Fair's site as it offered countless details months before the film's spring shooting began through private screenings last week.

"I'll be very easy to please," Melotte said. "And I'll see it again. Then I'll buy the DVD."

Here are other tales from the front:

Stunt hostage

Madison stuntman Jason Huett, owner of martial arts studio Kicks Unlimited, spent five days in a "Public Enemies" hostage scene filmed in Oshkosh.

"I was a hostage coming out of the bank," Huett says. Depp, who plays charismatic robber Dillinger, was safe from the mayhem.

"Any time there's contact for an actor that's physical and there's a risk of injury, they'll use stunt people," Huett says.

During a benefit screening at Point Cinema tonight (see www.filmwisconsin.net for ticket details), Huett will watch his scene closely. He's already been paid, but he gets slight residual pay depending on his screen time.

Death mask

The John Dillinger Traveling Exhibit comes to Portage Theatres, 322 W. Wisconsin St., all day Sunday. Arizona's Mark Love, who inherited the Dillinger collection from his father, has one of the rare copies of the Dillinger death mask molds, original wanted posters and a leather case left behind during a Chicago-area bank heist. Of the latter, Love says, "They were in a major hurry to leave."

The exhibit is the only traveling one endorsed by the Dillinger family. Jeff Scalf - the son of Dillinger's nephew and the caretaker of Dillinger's estate - gave the nod and has become Love's friend.

Love saw "Public Enemies" at an advance screening last week and said, "I knew this wasn't a documentary, but I think they did a very, very good job. It's about 80 percent correct. It's a Hollywood version of John Dillinger."

Through Oct. 18, the Oshkosh Public Museum presents the exhibit "The Era of Public Enemies: A Wave of Crime in a Troubled Time." The interactive exhibit features props to rob a bank and an Airsoft Tommy Gun shooting gallery.

Depp contributed a signed photo to the museum, and a Fox Valley-area boy lent the museum Depp's vintage fedora. The boy asked Depp for the hat during filming in Oshkosh and Depp promised, "It's yours when I'm done." Depp delivered on the promise.

Delirious for Depp

Melotte's blog - at www.publicenemiescolumbus.blogspot.com - notes that one key scene, a bank robbery escape filmed in Columbus, did not make it into the movie, his sources say. He adds that Columbus will be represented in other scenes.

A computer technician, Melotte started the blog after he found no details online about scheduled filming in Columbus. He watched the film's mania in Columbus and served as an extra in Oshkosh. His blog mentioned that many fans waited up to 12 hours for a glimpse of Depp.

"Any time an official-looking SUV drove by, (fans) would start screaming, thinking he might in it," Melotte said. "He did greet people. It was amazing. When he came up to you, he would stare right at you and talk to you. It was a moment of one on one. Then he moved on to the next person. As he went along, the girls would gush, 'OhmyGod! OhmyGod! OhmyGod!' He had such an aura about him. He made people feel comfortable."

Not for kids?

"Public Enemies" received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. The two-hour, 20-minute film received the rating - preventing anyone younger than age 17 from seeing it without an accompanying parent or legal guardian - for "gangster violence and some language."

Love it or hate it

Advance reviews lean toward favorable. Those critics who liked it, really liked it. Those critics who didn't were equally forceful. Time magazine called it "gigantic, meticulous but finally perfunctory." Show business trade publication Variety wrote its "overall impact is muted." Rolling Stone magazine raved as did the New York Observer's Rex Reed. Orlando Sentinel critic Roger Moore described it as "an old-fashioned gangster picture built on simple star power."