The Michael Mann poll

One of these days I'll capitulate and watch Heat. I've resisted it forever because of the Scarface vibes I get from it (i.e. it's deified by people who would turn off any other De Palma movie five minutes in).

170 minutes.

WHAT

watch Heat, you doofus. there are no Scarface vibes in it, afaik

Heat much more comparable to Ronin tbh, take that as you will

yeah heat and scarface kind of sit on opposite poles of the big action movie

I also avoided it because Manhunter aside, I never much liked anything by Mann until Miami Vice, which I loved enough to make me question my takes on all his other movies.

if you took Mann's style from Collateral and Miami Vice, made it of higher quality, and then grafted it on to Ronin you would get Heat? bad movie blending logic here, but it could help to sell it

I also get the impression De Niro plays about the same character in The Score as he did in Heat

Oh yeah, I also skipped Ronin.

throwing up my hands here, Eric

http://emanuellevy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/all_that_jazz_5.jpg

tbh as great as "heat" is i'm tired of hearing about it, in part because mann fandom seems to be running on fumes from it, even though his last two films are horrible.

I have never really been into or even seen all of Mann's political/historical stuff. I am fine sticking with Manhunter, Heat, Miami Vice, watching parts of Collateral if it happens to be on television

rewatched Miami Vice over the weekend because I'm a fiend for mojitos

Heat is way better De Palma's Scarface. There's a good bit in Clive James' Mann essay about De Niro's understated overacting (repeating the same Mamet-esque sentence with different emphasis each time).

I've never been able to sit through Ronin tbh

RONGest poll evah, Thief rules!

I watched the Thief Blu-ray and the movie still looks undernourished. Why couldn't Tuesday Weld play the thief?

the undernourished quality is one of its big conceits, i think -- its pretensions to genre purity mean it sweeps a lot of things aside. for better and for worse.

Finished a rewatch of "Miami Vice," and there is so much in it that "Blackhat" tries to replicate with far, far worse results. If "Miami Vice" views like some action epic cut down so much it hints and nudges itself along, subliminally, even radically,"Blackhat" is as if he took an even slighter story and cut so much out of it that it starts to lose bone along with all the flesh. It's barely a skeleton.

I have never really been into or even seen all of Mann's political/historical stuff. I am fine sticking with Manhunter, Heat, Miami Vice, watching parts of Collateral if it happens to be on television

Replace Manhunter with Thief and we're 100% on the same page.

fair enough

Manhunter is beautifully shot and tense as hell but once it goes baroque with the Iron Butterfly it gets unforgivably cheesy.

Miami Vice has scenes whose details are pretty inscrutable until after multiple viewings. Blackhat had potential for this, but is either too rushed or preposterous throughout. The restaurant scene actually gives background to the Hemsworth character's physical strength ("gladiator school" and the rest), but it also has both a ridiculous setup and concluding fight.

The structure of the whole thing and where it ends up -- with characters without passports, a country, or any belonging but to their skills -- are both potentially compelling, but mostly after seeing it twice was left looking at what it could have been.

CitizenFour is a far better Hong Kong-based international techno-thriller.

The first two thirds of Blackhat left a lot to be desired, but I really really liked the last act.

I have never really been into or even seen all of Mann's political/historical stuff. I am fine sticking with Manhunter, Heat, Miami Vice, watching parts of Collateral if it happens to be on television

Mostly agree but Ali has its moments.

Man, Collateral is fucking gorgeous. Wish the script was a few shades less dumb.

Paramount will release Academy Award-nominated director Michael Mann’s (HEAT, THE INSIDER, COLLATERAL) ENZO FERRARI, starring Academy Award-winner Christian Bale (DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY, THE FIGHTER, AMERICAN HUSTLE) as Ferrari. It takes place in one pivotal year, 1957. It is the personal story of a passionate man and his sprawling world, at times hilarious and at the next moment devastating, as he faces a brutal challenge to his survival.

Vendian Entertainment and YooZoo Bliss Film Fund have come on to finance the heavily-anticipated project, which will shoot next summer in Italy. Mann will produce along with Vendian and YooZoo Bliss. YooZoo Pictures also will distribute ENZO FERRARI in China. Vincent Maraval’s Insiders will commence international sales on selected territories at next month’s American Film Market.

ENZO FERRARI was written by Troy Kennedy-Martin (THE ITALIAN JOB, KELLY’S HEROES, EDGE OF DARKNESS), revised by David Rayfiel (THE FIRM, SABRINA) and Michael Mann and based on the Brock Yates book, “Enzo Ferrari, The Man, the Cars, the Races.”

Hmm. I guess I'm ready for Mann to do another one outside his wheelhouse.

written by guys who wrote bad remakes

Kennedy-Martin wrote the original Italian Job, Kelly's Heroes and Edge of Darkness screenplays

huh! how is he still alive?

He's not! Died in 2009.

oopsy

Entourage predicting the future again

Is the diner meeting the most written-about scene in the past few decades? Any other contenders?

In any case, some new angles and details here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/blackhat/pacino-deniro-making-of-heat/

Including this, which is actually easy to imagine working well:
At one stage, Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte were considered as a backup plan.

NYC February retro includes "an evening with"

http://www.bam.org/film/2016/michael-mann

I totally spaced that he did Last of the Mohicans.

preceded the self-indulgent dross.

Mohicans is like if Barry Lyndon Kubrick directed a Hollywood action movie.

xpost The Insider is ace, and far from self-indulgent. Sometimes it's my favorite of his.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPlUxN3y4dw

Lots of good rants in that one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNKmmA6_oTQ

so labored....

You say labored, I say well-crafted.

i'm not inclined to invest much in a fantasy about "TV news ethics" from the get-go.

as much a fantasy as The Last of the Mohicans and as watchable.

http://deadline.com/2016/03/michael-mann-heat-prequel-novel-michael-mann-books-publishing-imprint-1201721330/

Blackhat doesn't really get massively stupid until the second hour, esp the last 30 minutes.

That's for sure. It never seemed terrible to me until I realized it was not only not getting better, but quickly getting worse.

I like the idea of where Blackhat ends up -- as with Miami Vice, you have characters who are truly alone, having lost their citizenship, their honest relationship to their employer, their family. But then there's the reality of Hemsworth on a hilltop rattling off the top industries of Indonesia...