The Michael Mann poll

fuck manhunter haters YOU OWE IT AWE.

other people's unexplored fetishes are really boring

(unless, of course, you agree)

I own new-Miami Vice on dvd! Not the 'director's cut' though, since I heard it sucked so I bought the other one

YOU OWE IT AWE

^^ kudos

The Insider

i don't really care for his style. manhunter and the first 2/3rds of collateral are good too.

Police Story really needs to be in this too

I thought the same thing initially, but the best thing about Crime Story is the Abel Ferrara-directed pilot.

crime story is the best BY FAR but the pilot does stand out stylistically. wasn't the chase through the mall in the pilot?

I'm in sales and the territory I cover happens to be where I grew up. So when I travel to visit my clients I usually visit my parents and sometimes stay the weekend. They don't have any DVDs. Only VHS tapes. And of the VHS tapes they have, get this, Jurassic Park, Braveheart, and The Insider. That's it. Needless to say, there have been many times when I've been bored and will end up popping in The Insider.

And it never gets old. I think it's truly fantastic. ALL the performances are pitch perfect. That scene with Bruce McGill in the courtroom jars me every time. It's maintains the feel of a Michael Mann film but it feels weightier than usual, and not just because of the subject material.

Here's that scene I was talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdGqfhAt6yQ

Might as well post this one too :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIjpP-XngKA&mode=related&search=

I'd say definitely The Insider as well. He puts all of his visual, structural, and storytelling skills to use in something beyond a crime film. Pacino is excellent because, as in Donny Brasco, he plays a guy who basically has to pick a lock and can't raise his voice, and so forget about yelling.

Mann's films are some of the only DVDs I own, and I never get tired of watching them. The HD video on Collateral and Miami Vice is a real step forward.

Zodiac is clearly David Fincher going toe-to-toe Michael Mann.

The ending to Heat is dissatisfying.

Collateral clearly started as a very run-of-the-mill 1990s hit man dom-and-sub-male screenplay that Mann managed to make his own. I'm sure Ruffalo's path in the movie was Mann's rewrite.

There is great potential for a Best Cameo in a Michael Mann Film poll: Rollins, Tone Loc, Bud Cort, the Me and You and Everyone We Know guy.

Eazy, that's the exact thought about Zodiac I had. Visually and stylistically (whatever that means) they're pretty similar. What I just thought about, though, was that they're pretty similar thematically as well. In a way they're both about guys who are working to get a story out there but run up against institutions that are not motivated to tackle it full force. And even in the end the victory in both cases are almost afterthoughts.

hay alex in sf u a fucken faget

anyway here is my fav scene~~ http://youtube.com/watch?v=oa5z77EI8y0

So so hard, but I'm going to have to go with Miami Vice which is without a doubt the best looking film I've ever seen on a big screen, except for In The Mood For Love. Not seen the first two though.

there are people who hate James Caan? This is news to me.

Well, it's usually with a demented form of bad taste. I mean, deep down I can sort of forgive Alex because, well, he's a cool dude and all, but seriously you lack a few braincells when you discard every Mann film.
I picked Heat but after watching Collateral again I had a hard time picking between these two (and Manhunter). I simply adore his style. Miami Vice is grebt as well.

Does everyone remember this?

A Michael Mann moment

Zodiac is clearly David Fincher going toe-to-toe Michael Mann

Sure! If Zodiac had any juice!

there are people who hate James Caan? This is news to me.

Landlords and ex-girlfriends from the mid-1980s.

eh. Who needs em.

i like heat but ffs it's the insider by like a country mile, ppl. michael mann is kind of bad.

yeah i voted for the insider. I liked Heat and parts of Collateral tho.

If you want to appreciate Michael Mann, for the first time or once again, go see The Kingdom when it opens this fall. This could have been a fantastic movie if he'd made it (he produced it), but instead the characters/plot/visuals aren't as sharp, and it really goes off the rails in the last third. But the premise -- total MM territory.

smooth -- that's how we do it.

if i want to appreciate michael mann, i'm going to put on the insider, not go watch a middle movie!

middlING, sorry

Heh! Well, go see another movie at the multiplex in September and sneak into The Kingdom for a bit and see what I'm saying.

now THAT i am ok with

'ali' and 'the insider' are maybe his worst films. i haven't seen 'the keep'.

'crime story' is not the best 'by far', you smokin'. anyway mann directed like one episode. ditto 'miami vice'.

I own new-Miami Vice on dvd! Not the 'director's cut' though, since I heard it sucked so I bought the other one

-- mh, Wednesday, August 29, 2007 3:47 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Link

apart from more herc-from-the-wire at the start, there's no big difference.

What makes The Insider one of his worst? I'm curious.

Keep is my favorite. Not cuz it's great - it isn't - just cuz it's got monsters in it. Mysterious and creepy, too, with entertaining 80s Tangerine Dream score. I'll always take creepy w/ monsters over men w/ guns.

"seriously you lack a few braincells when you discard every Mann film"

Haha I didn't discard them! I've seen them all (except the Keep) and I even gave little reviews above. They just mostly suck.

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/8/8e/200px-BandoftheHandDVD.jpg

In an attempt of resocialisation, five hopeless juvenile criminals are sent away from prison into the Everglades for a survival training under the Indian Joe. When this is successful, they move back to Miami. However this offends the former illegal inhabitants of their house, all loyal customers of drug baron Cream. The conflict leads to armed fights.

The first 10 minutes of Ali are as great as anything he's done. He's (obviously) a director of sequences -- Collateral and Heat didn't end in a satisfying way for me (and Miami Vice too, to some extent), but all the little perfect 10-minute films along the way make these movies some of my favorites.

So I could see how Ali wwork in bits and pieces.

So basically he should make more videos.

I can't what to see what middle-aged hunk actor he puts in a gray wig next. ACTING!

lol u has only seen one michael mann movie, huh?

the trailer for miami vice >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> miami vice >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> any other bit of film released last year

Well, a video, though, is built around a song, and he's putting the other elements on the same high-volume level as the soundtrack. So, ideally, his best sequences are like a music video, a fashion spread, a Gerhardt Richter painting, a Jim Thompson novel, and a Raymond Carver short story all rolled into one.

no schef, I'm talking about Big Russ & Little Tom (using oth ppl's def of hunk).

ja i take it back, i forgot the cruiser had silver hair for no reason in collateral! probably because i completely forgot everything about collateral.

also ppl propping miami vice: u mad?

You-all have probably read already about the troubles on the Miami Vice shoot. It makes sense that the story was supposed to end back in the Triple Frontier.

That sequence in the mall in Paraguay is a perfect example of something I had to watch three or four times to take it all in: between the documentary aspect of shooting in Ciudad del Este, the colors and architecture of that indoor shopping mall, the ethnicities of the characters (who are central to the scene but who we don't know yet - of Chinese descent, South Americans, etc.), the actual action taking place (handing the information on Crockett and Tubbs to the bike courier), and the actions the guys at the table take to hide what they're doing. That's a lot of information to take in in 45 seconds.

I like the insider but my least favorite parts are those really random bits of slo-mo that I have nobody but Mann to blame for.

Eazy is right about the first bit of 'ali', i had forgotten.

What makes The Insider one of his worst? I'm curious.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, August 29, 2007 5:19 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

it's not bad at being dull & worthy, it has more panache than, say, 'erin brockovich', but it doesn't have the main things you want from mann -- which 'miami vice' has in spades.

cranked up moments of melodrama and visual excess and minimalist dialogue, is what i mean.

and again what eazy said -- i was more hooked by the real-world shit in 'miami vice' than the 'oh wow did u know big tobacco r evil?' stuff in 'the insider'.

it's not bad at being dull & worthy, it has more panache than, say, 'erin brockovich', but it doesn't have the main things you want from mann -- which 'miami vice' has in spades.

cranked up moments of melodrama and visual excess and minimalist dialogue, is what i mean.

ok, say again: u mad?

ranked up moments of melodrama and visual excess and minimalist dialogue, is what i mean.

The Insider (and Erin Brockovich) don't have these?

i still think farrell was doing a george w. bush impression in miami vice

the insider is scene after scene of melodrama and someone JUST complained that the visual excess is what they DON'T like about the movie. this thread is insane.

guys, michael mann is tony scott with pretentiousness. i'm not sure why he's treated so seriously while other action directors are regarded so lowly on ilx, but seriously miami vice was a piece of shit.

there's a second season of tokyo vice coming to max next week?
i generally enjoyed s1 despite the elgort factor but i did not think there was much demand for more of it from anyone