come anticipate Miami Vice with me

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A Michael Mann film with a complete disregard for mainstream movie conventions - no romance, no family life, even less closure - might just be the greatest film ever.

Possibly, but not Miami Vice. I suppose the zero chemistry between Gong Li and Colin Farrell qualifies as anti-romance though. Closure it's got: the conclusion's unsentimental shorthand was perfect. But for most of the film's two-hour-plus running time we got an unsmiling "NYPD Blue" episode with little of the original show's splendid vulgarity (Gong and Farrell going to Cuba for mojitos and a few dozen shower-fucks excepted).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 29 July 2006 20:27 (nineteen years ago)

Perhaps reactions differ based on one's reaction to the TV show (me: hives).

― milo z (mlp), Saturday, 29 July 2006 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

As I just told a friend, did it ever occur to Mann to cast Jamie Foxx as Crockett? At least audience empathy would have been assured.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 29 July 2006 20:35 (nineteen years ago)

i always figured if this film were made, matthew mcconaughey would be crockett. i was wrong!

― gear (gear), Saturday, 29 July 2006 20:36 (nineteen years ago)

i always figured if this film were made, matthew mcconaughey would be crockett. i was wrong!

i think i suggested owen wilson upthread.

― gothic Buddhist meets Old Hollywood (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 29 July 2006 22:42 (nineteen years ago)

(he's too goofy-looking though. not that colin farrell isn't goofy-looking, but you know.)

― gothic Buddhist meets Old Hollywood (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 29 July 2006 22:42 (nineteen years ago)

what about brad pitt? he's got the muscles and the suave-redneck thing, but he doesn't read "smart" to me the way don johnson's crockett did. don was perfect for the role because he always looked like his brain was engaged when he was solving cases, and he wasn't JUST delivering cop-show lines.

― gothic Buddhist meets Old Hollywood (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 29 July 2006 22:47 (nineteen years ago)

this was pretty kewl imho, but there was pretty much no way it couldn't be what with colin farrell's crazy facial hair situation and whatnot. gear otm about everything ever

ps. http://www.glumbert.com/media/roast.html

― BUJU DANSON (Adrian Langston), Sunday, 30 July 2006 13:10 (nineteen years ago)

Uh people Don Johnson was TOTALLY goofy looking!

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Sunday, 30 July 2006 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/IMAGES/MMPH/263775.jpg

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Sunday, 30 July 2006 13:16 (nineteen years ago)

a big part of the appeal of his character for me was that yeah, he was tough and smart but you could tell he was also a real cornball cheesy motherfucker if you ever softened him up enough, or if he'd had enough drinks. crockett was a natural romantic underneath, i mean he lives on a boat! there was this big.. jimmy buffett fan lurking away under there or something.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Sunday, 30 July 2006 13:22 (nineteen years ago)

This could've been a great 4-hour HBO miniseries - as it is, it felt like some plot points and incidents were either rushed through or incidental (imagine the expense of creating that casino in Paraguay, when there is hardly a substantial scene there that takes place outside the boss's office).

And too much Audioslave. But it's so fucking gorgeous that I'd be glad to watch it a few more times (and probably will). Funny how the landscape images are equal to the action in Mann's films - how Collateral is as much about just driving around L.A. as it is about people and guns.

― Eazy (Eazy), Sunday, 30 July 2006 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

"I'm a fiend for a mojito."

― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Sunday, 30 July 2006 15:14 (nineteen years ago)

Silliness: A tough-minded businesswoman who lives with a drug lord is *so blinded* by *extreme love and betrayal* that she walks through the middle of a gunfight so she can have a hysterical slap-happy wrestling match with her boyfriend. That's more than words.

― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Sunday, 30 July 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

i was actually quite shocked how dark and grainy, gainy, and generally video-y he let it look.

I liked the result it gave... All the Miami scenes looked like they were filmed by a surveillance camera. Nice offset to the old-world brokendownness of Cuba & Haiti.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Sunday, 30 July 2006 16:37 (nineteen years ago)

yes yes yes

― gothic Buddhist meets Old Hollywood (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 30 July 2006 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

he was a star wide receiver for florida before 'Nam scuttled any shot of a pro career yknow.

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 30 July 2006 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

Did one of the hookers at the beginning look like Nelly Furtado to anyone else?

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, 30 July 2006 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

did they just drop teh whole "inside job at the fbi" subplot or is it me?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 30 July 2006 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

It got dropped completely. The EW with Foxx and the leprechaun on the cover says that this was an alternate ending Mann had to go to because of the studio and Foxx refusing to go back to Latin America/the Dominican.

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, 30 July 2006 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

I always like the Slate spoiler mp3.

http://media.slate.com/podcast/Slate_Spoiler_Vice.mp3

― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

I've read a lot of critics say that the movie doesn't have a lot in common with the TV series, but I don't think that's quite true. It's ridiculously stylized, but all Mann is. More importantly, its plot is thick, its exposition almost nonexistant, its themes heavy but a little ill-presented, and its characterizations very, very thin. This is true of even (perhaps especially) the best episodes of the TV show. It's all sex and violence and macho fantasy (did I see Gong Li crying during sex?) and, well, I kinda loved it. I won't remember anything about it in a month except for the way it looked, but hey.

― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:27 (nineteen years ago)

Haha I noticed the crying! I was like "is fucking Colin Farrell really that awful?" (Yes, probably.)

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:30 (nineteen years ago)

And oh yeah, the violence. Wow.

― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:32 (nineteen years ago)

The Slate reviewer and editor should try actually watching the movie.

SPOILER SPOILER

.
.

..
.

Trudi gets jacked on behalf of the cartel's intel guy who wants to kill them. GONG LI SAYS THIS if you're too dumb to notice on your own..

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:34 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, he was using them as henchmen, obv.

Whispered comment during the movie: "Why are all white supremacists so ugly?"

― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:36 (nineteen years ago)

did they just drop teh whole "inside job at the fbi" subplot or is it me?

SPOILER

i know!! that's why i said it felt like 2/3rds of a movie. you'd think at some point you'd, y'know, find out who the mole was

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:37 (nineteen years ago)

Just want to reiterate my love for the medulla oblongata moment. It's a cop/action-movie cliche, but it ALWAYS works. No matter how many times you've seen the money shot, it always satisfies the audience, I guess.

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:39 (nineteen years ago)

i love how a.o. scott decsribes colin ferrell, as "the gephardt of modern hollywood"

xpost i remember very clearly an episode of miami vice where the director/editor/mann/whoever cross-cut a hott sex-scene filmed almost in the dark, with a red gel over everything, the participants gnashing their teeh and moaning, with some gangland torture and execution. i was watching with my parents and my mom rolled her eyes and is like "he's trying to equate sex with violence. i just think that is so... LAME."

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:39 (nineteen years ago)

i also remember another friday night, some time between 10 and 11pm, in front of the television, again watching miami vice, hearing my father use a phrase i'd never heard before - "production values" - "what's that?" - "when they spend a shitload of money making everything look good"

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:42 (nineteen years ago)

Just want to reiterate my love for the medulla oblongata moment.

Oh yes. And when Foxx finally takes out the intel guy, it's a real mess. That time you don't just get the splatter, you get a quick shot afterwards of the gory body with a huge hole in it and a nasty flap of skin somewhere it shouldn't be. Pure gun porn.

― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:43 (nineteen years ago)

(Oh noes I just equated sex and violence, didn't i?)

― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

Results 1 - 50 of about 89,000 for "Miami Vice" pornographic

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:45 (nineteen years ago)

It's all sex and violence and macho fantasy

And the finest in men's clothes, modern weaponry, cars, watches and gadgets.

I really loved the final, final shot, in part because it was as mundane as security-camera feed but moving as well.

― Eazy (Eazy), Monday, 31 July 2006 01:08 (nineteen years ago)

I've always loved Tubbs's suits - the double-breasted Hugo Boss numbers and black shirts on the series, the three-button iridescent brown suit in the movie.

― Eazy (Eazy), Monday, 31 July 2006 01:09 (nineteen years ago)

this was GREAT. the relationship subplot was unnecessary and dragged on forever, but everything else was really solid entertainment.

i wished that gong li had stuck to the "hard-headed businesswoman" persona she was projecting in the beginning, and not turned into a vulnerable ho-bag. my favorite character was the female backup who shot the kidnapper.

― gothic Buddhist meets Old Hollywood (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 31 July 2006 01:42 (nineteen years ago)

the tubbs relationship subplot was handled well though -- we get just enough of it in the establishing scenes and again towards the end, where it comes across as a nice monkeywrench. and there's no cheap sentimentality in the hospital scenes, either.

― gothic Buddhist meets Old Hollywood (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 31 July 2006 01:48 (nineteen years ago)

this was GREAT.

The more I think about it, the more I agree with you. I was charged walking out of the theater, thoughtful by the time I got around to posting on ILE, and now reverent of Mann, as all film geeks should be. Ain't his masterpiece or anything, but damnit if he can't make a good goddamn movie.

― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Monday, 31 July 2006 02:38 (nineteen years ago)

I remember leaving Heat and Collateral with mixed feelings, but I've watched them both many times since and found new story elements and subtext on the third or fourth viewing.

― Eazy (Eazy), Monday, 31 July 2006 03:08 (nineteen years ago)

the abel ferrara episode of "miami vice" is pretty freaky, if anyone wants to hunt it down...

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 31 July 2006 03:18 (nineteen years ago)

the violence reminded me a little of the opening assault in saving pvt ryan--a little too eager to prove it was real. hyperreal, more like it. actually this sort of goes for the whole film. i think it's funny when mann talks endlessly in interviews about verisimilitude when his movies are such obvious fantasies.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 31 July 2006 03:20 (nineteen years ago)

also the closing firefight had some really remarkable aspects... the SOUND above all, and the way the DV picked up the muzzle flashes. however was it just me who couldn't tell who was being shot and where? and didn't recognize all except for three of the "good guys"--the rest having spent almost all the film in the characterizationless background.

i feel odd saying this, because i'm ambivalence about cronenberg's movies while i've been a mann booster in the past, but the scenes of violence in "history of violence" (admittedly much less protracted than the ones here) were models of clarity compared to what was going on in "miami vice."

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 31 July 2006 03:23 (nineteen years ago)

i have that same problem with big, highly choreographed multi-character death/fight/chase scenes. often they're supposed to be intense and high-energy, but they come off as extremely muddled, confusing, and visually boring.

― gothic Buddhist meets Old Hollywood (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 31 July 2006 03:29 (nineteen years ago)

I got a bit confused about how Dom was taking cover lined up next to all the bad guys.

― milo z (mlp), Monday, 31 July 2006 03:33 (nineteen years ago)

yeah very few people can pull those off. thank god for brian depalma

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 31 July 2006 04:59 (nineteen years ago)

john woo is a pimp @ it as well imho.

― BUJU DANSON (Adrian Langston), Monday, 31 July 2006 07:25 (nineteen years ago)

The guy who did the Bourne Supremacy and Mr. & Mrs. Smith is surprisingly good at fight choreography.

― milo z (mlp), Monday, 31 July 2006 18:02 (nineteen years ago)

i loved this.

good action. stylish. a little convoluted maybe, but i found it gripping for the most part. some great shots and very intense scenes.

― M@tt He1geson: Real Name, No Gimmicks (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 31 July 2006 18:09 (nineteen years ago)

The guy who did the Bourne Supremacy and Mr. & Mrs. Smith is surprisingly good at fight choreography.

that'd be Doug Liman, who first showed up with Swingers and the Tiger Woods golf-ball-juggling advert.

Nice guy in person, but I haven't seen any of his action flicks yet.

― kingfish cyclopean ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 31 July 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

milo z. OTM. Are the slate movie reviewers usually this dense? Apparently they missed the entire part where the overlord's henchman (Jose?) set up the abduction with the white supremacists because he's an ass. And he shows up at the drop! WTF.

― mike h. (mike h.), Monday, 31 July 2006 19:21 (nineteen years ago)

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