Miami Vice (2006) (1 Viewer)

[JediFonger]

regarding how realistic the dialogue is or not, here's a REAL story about undercover cops and their REAL dialogues (from transcripts):
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/cit...deo_shows.html

 

[Patrick.C]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this already, but then maybe I'm a bigger fan of the original tv series than most - the movie was basically a retelling of the episode "Smugglers Blues". One of the best of the first two seasons. The plot is almost identical - right down to Trudy being held captive in a trailer and rigged with explosives. (I actually preferred that scene in the original episode - it was very tense). The only two main differences in plot between the episode and the movie were the Gong Li character and the fact that the mole is discovered/killed at the end of the episode.

I noticed at least one set/location that was identical to one used in the TV series.

Yes - the hotel room (if you could call it that) from Smugglers Blues. Almost identical, right down to the ragged louvered doors. Even the scene itself was very similar as Crockett and Tubbs enter the room and immediately scan around the room, look out the window, etc. to get their bearings. That is the room where Glenn Frey holed up in the original episode. I can't wait to get my hands on the DVD of the movie and do some side by side comparisons of that scene. The shipyard shootout was also a nod to the original series as several episodes had similar scenes in shipyards.

 

[Chris Atkins]

I'm glad you noticed that too, Patrick. Thanks for telling us which TV episode that hotel room was in.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

A second viewing yielded plenty of instances of characterization, along with many of Mann's usual trademarks. As pointed out earlier, Mann's characters are often defined by specific actions, not a lot of banter. That makes every discussion more important, including the one Crockett and Tubbs share in the hangar, awaiting the dock showdown. It's a bookend to the earlier scene when Tubbs backed Crockett 100% on staying under, even without being briefed earlier. He simply agrees with his partner. The second scene involved a discussion about "the woman", and is Crockett ready to say goodbye to that? Crockett says no, but backs his partner 100% anyway.
It's a densely layered film, very economical, very direct, and very "keep up". I understand the material isn't Oscar-worthy, but the direction is leaps and bounds over plenty of previous winners.
The only downside to Mann is the reiteration of themes through his films (loneliness, professionalism, water, isloation). And considering the quality of films, that is negligible to me
By the by, the soundtrack (can't call it a score) is quite good.

 

[Patrick.C]

Here's a little write up with photos of how they shot the scene at the beginning when the two guys get shot up in the Chrysler 300 and one gets their arm blown off with a .50 cal
.
http://www.miami-vice.org/forum/foru...s.asp?TID=8485
Scroll down to the bottom of the thread and you'll see a picture of the actual gun used (more like a cannon) and the guy that did the shooting.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

The sniper rifles are the .50 cal version used by military snipers. I've held one, and it's a monster. It's a real gun, over 10 years old.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m107.htm
Bullet size:

Make a fist, except for your thumb and pinky (surf's up ), stretch them out...and the bullet is a little longer than that. Big mofos...

 

[Brett_M]

The sniper rifles are the .50 cal version used by military snipers. I've held one, and it's a monster. It's a real gun, over 10 years old.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m107.htm
Bullet size:

Make a fist, except for your thumb and pinky (surf's up ), stretch them out...and the bullet is a little longer than that. Big mofos...

So awesome -- in the best sense of the word. Leave it to Mann to use it for effect.
In Navy Seals, Bill Paxton used one from the "God Spot." But hardly anyone remembers that. Mann put it out there and we'll never forget. That's a filmmaker.

 

[Brett_M]

Double post -- sorry.

 

[mylan]

Mann also used one in "Heat" in the drive-in scene. He must really appreciate this weapon. They still make the Barrett Lite 50 in Kennesaw, GA. about 70 miles from the house.

 

[Brett_M]

Mann also used one in "Heat" in the drive-in scene. He must really appreciate this weapon. They still make the Barrett Lite 50 in Kennesaw, GA. about 70 miles from the house.

I beg to differ. No M107 used in Heat:
In the deserted drive-in theater, "Chris Shiherlis" (Val Kilmer) had a Heckler & Koch 91 in 7.62 NATO, a semi-auto version of HK's G3 battle rifle.
Also in that drive-in shoot-out, Sizemore's Cheritto takes out the driver of the Dodge pickup with a 12 gauge Benelli M3 Super 90 in its "pump," or manual, mode. The other assassin, would-be back-shooter, is carrying a Steyr TMP 9 X 19mm "buzz gun" as he attempts to sneak up on the waiting Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro).
From: http://www.thegunzone.com/fff.html

 

[mylan]

I am no match for www.thegunzone.com, i'll go back to lurking now.....

 

[ChrisWiggles]

From: http://www.thegunzone.com/fff.html

Correct.

 

[Tim Glover]

Good movie. As some have pointed out, not as good as Collateral, but still an effective film on it's own right. I like Mann's style and so I tend to forgive some parts etc...that might not work as well.
Not a GREAT film, but a good one. Worth seeing in the theater for sure.
8/10

 

[JediFonger]

i've been listening to the soundtrack near nonstop. if you've bought the jay-z song from itunes you can back the CD up and create your own mix by adding the jay-z song into the soundtrack. it's very cool =).

 

[Paul Case]

I was FINALLY able to catch this movie recently. Mann is one of my favorite filmmakers and he did not disappoint. This wasn't his best work by any means, but it certainly maintains the level of quality I've come to expect of his films. The cinematography was top notch, the action was superb, and the heightened sense of realism really gave the movie an edge. The acting was acceptable, though I think the two leads did have one or two rough moments. Overall, I loved the movie and will definitely be buying it on dvd.

By the way, I was surprised at the way I got so emotionally tied up in Crocket's romance. I hadn't expected that and it was a nice surprise.

9/10

 

[Dome Vongvises]

In Navy Seals, Bill Paxton used one from the "God Spot." But hardly anyone remembers that. Mann put it out there and we'll never forget. That's a filmmaker.

I'm one of the few that does remember.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

I was FINALLY able to catch this movie recently. Mann is one of my favorite filmmakers and he did not disappoint. This wasn't his best work by any means, but it certainly maintains the level of quality I've come to expect of his films. The cinematography was top notch, the action was superb, and the heightened sense of realism really gave the movie an edge. The acting was acceptable, though I think the two leads did have one or two rough moments. Overall, I loved the movie and will definitely be buying it on dvd.
By the way, I was surprised at the way I got so emotionally tied up in Crocket's romance. I hadn't expected that and it was a nice surprise.
9/10

I finally made it back to the states, and was able to catch this movie last night. I had very high expectations because I am quite the Mann fan, and I think it came pretty close to meeting my expectations. I really enjoyed the film, though I am very much baffled by some of the reviews it got. It seems many people thought it was confusing, and boring, and I thought it was neither of those things. I actually wanted it to slow down more in the second half, and I'd love to see a longer cut of this film, as it's my understanding that Mann cut a good deal out of the film close to the last minute. Where I felt the film didn't work as well was a little bit of clumsiness in the first half, where I think it needed to move slower and have much more space for the secondary characters. Foxx and Farrell were excellent, and I thought their characters were surprisingly well developed and their relationship was absolutely fabulous, but I felt that the secondary characters, especially Foxx's girl, got too little screen time. I get the feeling that there was a lot of footage left out, and I'd like to have seen more of them especially.
I had pretty high expectations for Gong Li, and she was a bit dissappointing for me. I can deal with accents no problem, but she just felt clumsy to me, and her confidence felt forced and a bit unnatural. While Foxx and Farrell had a great deal of confidence, to the point that it's flashy and brash, it never felt too fictitious either, even though the film isn't really the most realistic crime drama, and certainly not Mann's most realistic film, I never felt that it ever got "fake." But Li's character did feel a bit forced in some scenes, and though we did get to see her a good deal in the film, I feel like I wanted to see her more as well.
I think what I love most about Mann is the way his films always have good pace, and he can MOVE a film better and faster than almost anyone, yet those bursts of action and energy aren't the focal point of the film. Sure, everyone remembers the shoot-out in heat, or the action sequences in collateral, or even in a film like the Insider folks remember the most dramatic moments in the film, but what I like so much about Mann is that there is so much space between these bursts, and he takes the time to STOP the film and let the audience, the characters, and the film itself just relax and reflect on itself. It creates all this space for the audience to enter the film, and to recover from the intense parts. In Miami Vice, there were some glimpses of this, but I wanted more of those moments where the film really did just stop completely, and then sort of re-start again. I felt like this was probably something that got cut out, unfortunately, because there were definitely parts like foxx's sex scene, or li's dancing etc where the film kind of left the whole crime plot and JUST focused on the characters in that moment, but then very quickly we moved to another scene and were back in the main plot. In this sense, I think this was one of Mann's most plot-driven film, and I wanted a little bit more of the side relationships, and more space for the characters. Not so much that I the relationships were not developed or the characters were not developed, they were extremely good characters, I just wanted them and also the audience, to have more space, something that Foxx and Cruise had a lot of in Collateral for instance, or the main character in Manhunter had too.
The action was pretty shocking too, I think more shocking than the flaming wheelchair in Manhunter, but never overboard and very appropriate. I love how Mann never stops to accentuate the violence like so many stupid action films do, where the action and the violence is the whole point of the scene so we get all kinds of slow-motion crap. The violence is part of the scene, but the scene itself is not ABOUT the violence, the violence is just part of what's going on, and it's real, it's fast, and it doesn't get dragged out like action flicks do so often. We're so used to this long dragged out presentation of violence and action, and the delay of characters, that moments like the gunshot in the trailer park are shocking because we are so trained for moments like that to be dragged out and stupid, and just as the audience is trained to think "just shoot! what he waiting for?" BAM there's the shot with no delay at all. It's this kind of intelligence that Mann demands from his audience that makes his films so superb, and makes his films have so much re-play value as well.
Though his cinematography here was, as usual, excellent, I don't think it's his best, and I thought the use of digital cameras was used much better in Collateral than here in Miami Vice. There were some noisy shots that didn't fit with the rest of the film by and large, and that felt a bit clumsy. There were many shots where the nighttime filming in digital was superb in making the film have that real kind of feeling that was so excellent in Collateral, but there were definitely some shots that I felt were not necessary to do in digital, and the grainyness on the faces was very distracting. In collateral, much of the grain was more in the background, the skies etc, and here the grain in a few shots was so pronounced that it sort of got in the way of the image. I am not one who dislikes grain either, but I felt the grain in teh film was not as consistent as in Collateral, and at a couple points a tad distracting. Something I would be curious to read about perhaps in the future, is if they used any noise reduction techniques. There were a few of the grainier shots where I saw very minor vertical striping (appears similar to vertical banding on LCD displays) on some of the surfaces which I've seen before with noise reduction processing in the home, and it makes me curious what that was, and if that was at all related to noise reduction in a couple of those shots.
As a film overall, it's superb, as a Mann film my expectations are extremely high, and it's solid, but not his greatest. Usually, I have the desire to watch a Mann film again (especially with Collateral) and the more I see the films the more I see in them and the more I like them. I'm not sure if I will grow to like Miami Vice more, it's likely, but on the other hand my immediate desire is not so much to see the film a second time, but to see a longer cut of the film which is not something I usually feel with Mann films. In that sense, I don't think the film works quite as well as I think it could have if it were longer and had more room to breathe, but I don't know. I'm curious to see how I like the film with a second viewing. I remember with Collateral especially, for instance, after seeing the film the first time I was really ambivalent, mainly because it wasn't what I was expecting to see, and I immediately wanted to see it a second time. After seeing it twice I LOVED the film, because I went in the second time paying attention more to the characters and the drama of the film (it's really more of a character film) than the plot which was somewhat forced, but the plot wasn't the point of the film or the main motivator really. Here, I feel like Miami Vice should be almost like that, where the the film is moved along by the plot, but it's not really DRIVEN by the plot, but really by the characters, and thhe focus on the characters. But Miami Vice really is the most plot-driven of his films, IMO, and it does work well, but I think not as well as I think it might with more space for the characters and the moments the characters have in his films which is what Mann does SO marvelously.
In any case, I'm very surprised so many people didn't like the film or were confused, and I think it's unfortunate. I hope it's box office failure doesn't limit Mann's future, because he is, in my opinion, probably THE premier 'mainstream' director around, and very consistent in making solid to excellent films whether he's doing a drama, or a crime/action type film.

 

[Seth Paxton]

The only downside to Mann is the reiteration of themes through his films (loneliness, professionalism, water, isloation). And considering the quality of films, that is negligible to me
By the by, the soundtrack (can't call it a score) is quite good.

Completely agree Chuck. I loved how tight the scripting and editing were, no wasted time and the film never pauses to say "now did you get that, do you understand what is going to happen next, let me repeat it just for you".
Great tone to the film, and yes it certainly does follow Mann's classic themes. If you flip the Cruise character in Collateral into a cop, or at least the professional criminal that DeNiro was in Heat, then you have that character, all the primaries in Heat, the William Peterson character in Manhunter, and the leads in Miami Vice (TV and film) all suffering the same isolation and relationship problems brought on by the needs of their crime based profession.
For me it adds depth to these stories, and even if he is repeating that theme he is doing it well, perhaps better than anyone else in the biz. Oh, and he makes it look great along the way. Is there a director that creates a stronger sense of ambience than Mann?

 

[nickGreenwood]

One of the driving forces for me with Mann is how realistic everything is. While that's not what I want all the time when I go to the movies, I do like to invest in something that seems like its actually happening somewhere and we're being let in. Especially now with his use of the HD camera's, he can leave things looking very weird and disorienting because it's how our eyes would perceive it in real life. The ocean shots alone make me want to see this movie in HD (so I can get some cool backgrounds for my laptop).
It seems to me that Heat, Collateral and Miami Vice are sort of a trilogy, they all look some what similar and have similar feels to them, and that is the main reason why I love all three films. I remember seeing Collateral in the theaters and thinking it was just so beautifully shot, then when I found out that Mann was the director I've been going back and trying to see everything he's done.
Gah, I'm such a fanboy!
Anyway I can't wait for this movie to be out on DVD, any news, I assume it's left all theaters at this point.

 

[JediFonger]

copys+robbers baby =). it's mann's strongest attributes.