MetaChat - Why do I love Michael Mann movies and hate Miami Vice?

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

05 December 2006

Why do I love Michael Mann movies and hate Miami Vice? →[More:]I'm a big fan of Michael Mann's movies. I love Collateral and Heat, and really like Thief, Manhunter, Last of the Mohicans, and The Insider. Yet I hated Miami Vice. I have three possible explanations:

1. Heat was really good at showing the relationship between group members. Collateral was really good at an in-depth examination of the relationship between two characters. Miami Vice wasn't good at either. Sometimes I couldn't tell if people were good guys or bad guys. A woman got shot and ended up in the hospital, and I didn't know who she was. The Jamie Foxx/Colin Farrell relationship wasn't very dynamic.

2. Lazy, cliched screenwriting. For example, one scene where an actor's taking a shower and a woman comes in to the shower, maneuvers him to the bed, and starts the whoopie machine would be cliched enough, but they do it twice, once for each lead actor.

3. Crap acting. Jamie Foxx was awesome in Collateral, but pretty flat in this. Colin Farrell was crappy, and unfortunately most of the story focused on his boring predictable relationship with Li Gong.

Am I missing something? By the way, I saw the movie with two other people, both Michael Mann fans, and they hated it, too.

post by: kirkaracha at: 16:38 | 8 comments

Because Miami Vice without Phillip Michael Thomas as Tubbs is like Tubbs with no Jheri Curl...DRY!

posted by Joe Famous 05 December | 16:49

I'd say mostly because Miami Vice was a terrible and stupid movie with almost no redeeming factors at all.

I like Mann, but mostly he gets away with what he gets away with because he can play things very cool and low key, so the atmosphere, the composition of the shots, the editing and the acting (when good or at least interesting) covers up for the fairly simplistic story, which is usually somehow within at least a few miles of plausibility (heat moreso than collateral).

When you have a Tony Scott type script and the most preposterous concept for how cops might actually be allowed to behave and you try to play it straight - with no irony and no intended absurdity- then you get the gallon of dog vomit that was Miami Vice.

The old TV show was ok, sometimes for some people (I get it at least, why people like it) but strip away the nostalgia and goodnight nurse.

I only watched half the movie and the only two things I took away from it were a strong urge to wash my hair and the notion that I should try to use hand grenades more often when trying to negotiate in my regular life.

Also yeah, no PMT, no Jheri curl, no way Jose.

posted by Divine_Wino 05 December | 17:32

Heh. Frienda mine's innit.

posted by Hugh Janus 05 December | 17:44

I heard they're doing a remake of The Jericho Mile, an early TV movie of Mann's set in San Quentin. Could be good, but the down-at-the-heels, national malaise atmosphere of the 1970's is a big part of what made that picture good.

(also, my old buddy George from my bookstore days was a dead ringer for a shorter Phillip Michael Thomas, right down to the Jheri curl (he's since shaved it) We used to love teasing him about it, 'Hey, where's Crockett??')

posted by jonmc 05 December | 18:47

I like Mann's films, too. MV's problem is, he refused to embrace the silliness -- he shifted the action forward in time, and that's understandable, you don't want to make a copycat of the TV show, but he discarded the fun (Elvis!). he made it too gloomy, he tried to make something like "Scarface", the material required some lightness.

he made the opposite mistake of the Starsky & Hutch people, they remade it way to silly, as lowbrow comedy, losing that weird, fun touch of the original (and the massive gay subtext)

the MV film? I'd much rather watch CSI Miami, Caruso and all.

posted by matteo 05 December | 19:09

I never actually saw Miami Vice. How was the bad guy?

posted by Hugh Janus 05 December | 19:33

Miami Vice was the worst movie I've seen in a theater this year, and I love Michael Mann. The film as I saw it in its theatrical release didn't even seem finished to me. It was as if, with scant days before the release, Mann cut together whatever footage he had lying around to get as close to an actual story as he could.

Defenders of that movie (and they can be found--you can find defenders of anything on the Internet) generally claim that Mann's editing and direction don't "coddle" the viewer, and force the viewer to "work to appreciate his vision," etc. I remember reading an article in Film Comment to that effect, I think.

posted by Prospero 06 December | 08:47

Oh, and what about the FBI mole? It was the whole reason they infiltrated the mob in the first place, and they forgot about 1/3 of the way into the movie.

How was the bad guy?

John Ortiz (the guy on the left in the photo you linked to) was pretty good, but Luis Tosar (the guy on the right) was the uber-bad guy. He was supposed to be super-scary, but he was about as menacing as Lazlo in Real Genius.

posted by kirkaracha 06 December | 11:11

← First draft done! || Apocalypto →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN