"Vice" Again
My second exposure to Miami Vice (Universal, 7.28) last night was no less pleasurable than the first -- this is a great adult popcorn movie that's about heightened realism and also about life on another planet -- a planet I'd like to live on.
Viewing #2 was actually better in a sense because I was able to digest the first-act complexities with a bit more ease. Director Michael Mann throws you right into a very dense and layered situation at the very start, and it may take you ten or fifteen minutes to sort it through. (A movie that makes you work a bit is a good thing.)
A guy I spoke to after the screening said that a woman sitting next to him was having issues with the violence. Which seems silly to me since Vice's shootings and sluggings aren't the least bit gratuitous -- it's just honest, and it has nothing as cruel as the Brandon Routh-getting-half-kicked-to-death sequence in Superman Returns.
A very smart, somewhat snooty industry woman derided the final 10 minutes of the romantic arc between Colin Farrell and Gong Li as "a Sydney Pollack ending". (I answered that Sydney Pollack endings work for me just fine. )
Another woman I spoke to didn't care for the Thomson Viper photography -- i.e., the sometimes grainy, sometimes-not texture.
So it wasn't all happy camping at the Arclight, but the after-vibe was, I felt, one of general satisfaction.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 14, 2006 at 1:44 PM
comment #1
oddDuck says ...
Seems silly to me for a person to complain about violence in a Michael Mann crime movie. There better be violence!
Posted by oddDuck at July 14, 2006 2:40 PM
comment #2
Nicol D says ...
To be honest, I rarely allow myself to get excited over films nowadays. Too many disappointments over recent years.
For Miami Vice...I feel like a kid again.
I am more psyched for this film than I have been for a film since Last Crusade.
Miami Vice is one of the few times in film history where the style of a TV show influenced the medium of film through the use of location, colour, light, editing and music.
I have no doubt Mann will not disappoint.
And the age restricted web site is amazing!
Posted by Nicol D at July 14, 2006 2:49 PM
comment #3
Rob says ...
At my screening last night in Lincoln Square, about 6 women (and 2 men) total walked out during the film's last 30 minutes-- no idea why, I guessed violence. Most of the crowd who stayed applauded when the 'Miami Vice' title card came up at the beginning of the closing credits.
Posted by Rob at July 14, 2006 2:49 PM
comment #4
Ian says ...
It's funny -- there a group of male critics of a certain age -- Jeff included -- who have checked in loving the movie. That's cool. But I know a number of younger, female viewers who say the screening the other night who HATED it. They didn't just dislike it. They HATED it. I think this movie is going to have some critical support behind it, but I'd bet on a so-so opening and then a drop of between 55 and 60 percent as word-of-mouth spreads.
Posted by Ian at July 14, 2006 3:30 PM
comment #5
oddDuck says ...
Ian you may be right but have any of Mann's films been huge B.O. successes? This may have been complete spin, but in that Slate piece that Wells linked to today, the studio guy argued that Mann's films have a much longer shelf life after their theatrical runs -- a longer tail I think he said. So the studio probably isn't looking for monster numbers opening weekend.
Posted by oddDuck at July 14, 2006 3:48 PM
comment #6
Edward says ...
Besides being directed by Michael Mann, I'm really interested in seeing the cinematography. Digital cinema is the wave of the future and to see the film on the big screen excites me.
For those interested, the latest issue of "Millimeter" magazine has a couple of interesting articles about the making of two other digital films, "Prairie Home Companion" and "Superman Returns." I'm including the URL's below.
http://digitalcontentproducer.com/mil/features/video_filmic_hd/
http://digitalcontentproducer.com/mil/features/video_hd_heroes/
Posted by Edward at July 14, 2006 3:56 PM
comment #7
Alexander says ...
You know, Ian, I think that's a point about Michael Mann that hasn't been written about enough--the fact that, for as much as men seem to absolutely love his films, women are very cold on him. Every female I know except one strongly disliked or just felt lukewarm about Collateral. Every time I've shown Heat to females of any type/age, etc., they get bored by it or just dislike it or find it pointless.
It seems that Michael Mann is truly a Mann-centric director.
Posted by Alexander at July 14, 2006 4:38 PM
comment #8
Edward says ...
Interesting comment Alexander. My wife tends to like mainstream films, but she really liked "Collateral," of course she loves Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox. I won't get into the Tom Cruise issues or the Jamie Fox, ego issue; it'd be too easy.
Posted by Edward at July 14, 2006 4:58 PM
comment #9
Eric says ...
My favorite quote so far is from Marc Schmuger, who acknowledges that Mann is not a box office draw, but praises his skill and the shelf life of his movies on video due to their quality. That's the kind of studio boss I want greenlighting films.
Posted by Eric at July 14, 2006 7:10 PM
comment #10
Josh Ehrnwald says ...
"Things get emotional, moves get messy. Moves get messy, and the wrong people die!"
On their own, out of context, there's a ton of lines in "Heat" that might have sounded a bit goofy before we saw the film:
"You know for me, the action is the juice."
"Because she's got a great ass! And you've got your head, all the way up it!"
"You sift through the detritus, for the scent of your prey, and then you hunt them down. That's the only thing you're committed to."
"You can ball my wife, if she wants you to. But you do NOT get to watch my fucking television set."
Just a couple classics that might sound a bit..."off"...if you haven't seen the movie and been immersed in its world. And if there's one thing Michael Mann does perfectly, it's immersing you in the world he's created down to the finest detail. Mann's dialogue often goes right up to the edge of overly-scripted, but refuses to plunge into that Woody Allen abyss.
(But Jeezus H. Huckleberry Christ in smoking birchbark canoe...just found out that the awesomely mediocre Klaus Badelt contributed at least one musical track to the movie. Usually, though, The Mann has a gift for picking source music..."God Moving Over the Face of the Water" from Moby made for one of my favorite endings in recent years.)
Posted by Josh Ehrnwald at July 15, 2006 12:12 AM