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Miami Vice Trailer Debuts!
See it now online ... if you're of age.
Universal Pictures has launched the official film site (http://www.miamivice.com/main.html) for the big-screen version of Miami Vice! The site includes downloads, a plot synopsis and a link to the film's new teaser trailer (http://www.bacardilive.com/), which is being hosted by Bacardi Live.
Bacardi might seem like an odd choice to sponsor a film trailer but I like to think of it as helping to put the Vice back in Miami!
The teaser trailer showcases Michael Mann's style. There is a definite visual connection between this film and Heat and Collateral, and to the darker, later seasons of the 1980s TV series as well. There isn't much dialogue in the trailer, which is selling the look, style and guns, boats and music attitude of the movie.
We see detectives Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx, who gets top billing) in action: at clubs, racing boats, cruising the streets of Miami at night (an eagle-eyed buddy of mine says Crockett drives a Ferrari F430) and involved in gunplay. We also get glimpses of Gong Li as Crockett's love interest Isabella and Naomie Harris as Tubbs' colleague and lover Trudy Joplin (yes, it's now Trudy and not Gina as in the screenplay that I reviewed).
"Miami Vice, as a large-scale feature film, liberates what is adult, dangerous and alluring about working deeply undercover ... especially when Crockett and Tubbs go to where their badges don't count," the official site declares.
The trailer will also be attached to King Kong, which bows Wednesday. For fans of the classic Vice, the second season comes out on DVD tomorrow (Dec. 13th).
a mann film aimed at the bacardi crowd. :bravo:
i'm a big fan of the michael mann, last week i saw heat again, it's so good but with the ocassional awkward cool scenes like when hanna is driving fast and it looks like a cheap videogame. too many nice lines in that movie , 'it's like risk versus reward baby' by the lovely ashley judd and some other more. collateral was two awesome thirds of action and a very bad last third.
collin farrel is an idiot...
Quote from: andyk on December 12, 2005, 04:27:46 PM
collin farrel is an idiot...
But he does seem to be attracting some great directors lately. I'm not a Farrell supporter, necessarily, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt at least until The New World and Vice come out.
Quote from: cronopio on December 12, 2005, 04:07:11 PM
a mann film aimed at the bacardi crowd.
As a big fan of Mann and Bacardi, I suppose I am in the target audience.
I'm extremely excited for this. It might be my #1 Most Anticipated Film of 2006. I love Mann and I'm glad to see that he is going to make Miami Vice serious instead of campy.
Quote from: Sunrise on December 12, 2005, 04:33:38 PM
Quote from: andyk on December 12, 2005, 04:27:46 PM
collin farrel is an idiot...
But he does seem to be attracting some great directors lately. I'm not a Farrell supporter, necessarily, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt at least until The New World and Vice come out.
Ever since I saw Tigerland, I've been a fan. Not yet a talent worthy of true acting appreciation, he has a gusto about him that comes off as authentic. The interviews he gives correlates to the type of person you hope he is behind his performances. I find myself a fan because I can identify with him. A Home At the End of the World suggests he can go further. With the New World and the Dylan film, I hope he progresses the way I think he can. I expect just gloss with Miami Vice, but I do look forward to it.
WORKS: Jay Z
FAILS: that crappy band who interrupts his flow.
WINS: facial hair!!!
Quote from: SHAFTR on December 12, 2005, 04:38:00 PM
It might be my #1 Most Anticipated Film of 2006.
you so crazy!
True story: I was in Union Square just yesterday, looking at the Bacardi & Cola giant mural plastered over this one building and I randomly thought to myself, "You know, they ought to sponsor the Miami Vice movie since they're obviously spoofing it." Someone, somewhere, listened.
As for the trailer, it's Manntastic, except for Colin Farrell's hair. And I'm glad Jamie Foxx doesn't appear to be
ACTING as opposed to acting.
Quote from: SHAFTR on December 12, 2005, 04:38:00 PMI love Mann and I'm glad to see that he is going to make Miami Vice serious instead of campy.
It's just a good thing that he got to it before someone else did. That shit could have been another Starsky and Hutch. :doh:
It looks like a lot of fun.
bad boys II on HD?
looks pretty lame to me....
Quote from: Ghostboy on December 12, 2005, 05:52:56 PM
WORKS: Jay Z
FAILS: that crappy band who interrupts his flow.
But his flow is set to that crappy band's music.
At first I wasn't sure if I liked the digital look. But the jury's in, and the verdict is that I fucking like it. Miami Vice is going to be manntabulous.
I don't the look that much. But when watching the trailer on a rather large screen last night... SO much grain/noise on most of the nighttime images.
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Direct Quicktime Trailer link here. (http://progressive.stream.aol.com/aol/us/moviefone/movies/2005/miamivice_021727/miamivice_trlr_01_kjhew_dl.mov)
jesus do i hate linkin park
Quote from: squints on December 16, 2005, 02:33:43 PM
jesus do i hate linkin park
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yes, yes you do.
I dont know, the trailer just reminds me of Cops.
Foxx Confirms Vice Rumors
Plus, new posters now online.
In an interview with The New York Times, Oscar winner Jamie Foxx talks about his upcoming film Miami Vice, and conceded that not all of the rumor-mongering about the film's long, troubled shoot was unfounded.
"I begged Michael Mann to make Miami Vice," Foxx said, claiming he broached the subject while they were making Collateral. "I'd sing the theme song and tell him how to cut the trailer."
As for Vice, Foxx admits, "It was a tough shoot, and most of the rumors are true: Colin is a great guy, and we were out a lot. But that's what you're supposed to do when you're young and single and a movie star. That's part of the territory. When you have the ability to go out with beautiful women, why shouldn't you go?"
Time for a new 'Vice'
He patented a look and style with the hit TV show in the '80s, but Michael Mann wanted to revisit "Miami Vice" as if it never existed.
Source: Los Angeles Times
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"Look, I'm speaking not as a director, but I think I know what most directors want out of life," says Jamie Foxx when asked about the work of his latest film boss. "They want to be recognized for their style. The minute you see the first frame of a movie that he directs, you go, 'Wow, that is a Michael Mann flick.' That is what he has captured on the biggest stage, and that's what [actors] want to be part of."
But ask Mann whether his films have a Michael Mann style and he bristles: "Not for me there isn't. I make films the way I like. I would imagine that, like with any other working filmmakers, when viewed from the outside, you could say, 'This looks like a Rob Zemeckis film or a Steven Spielberg film. But I don't go, 'This is my style.' It's not about style."
What is it about? "Strong stories and strong conflicts," he says, noting that the ingredients that inspire him have taken forms as varied as the close bond that develops between "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman and tobacco industry whistle-blower Dr. Jeffrey Wigand in Mann's 1999 Oscar-nominated suspense drama "The Insider," or the possibilities that emerge when a sexy Daniel Day-Lewis takes the role of Hawkeye in James Fenimore Cooper's classic "The Last of the Mohicans" (Mann's adaptation came out in 1992).
Another Mann staple is evident in film after film: his knack for eliciting powerful performances from A-list stars like Russell Crowe and Al Pacino in "The Insider," Robert De Niro and Pacino in "Heat," Will Smith in "Ali," Tom Cruise and Foxx in "Collateral" or Foxx and Colin Farrell in "Miami Vice," which Universal Pictures opens July 28.
"I just like working with people who are good at what they do," Mann says. "People who have a strong point of view. Healthy egos. I like that."
Getting the scene right is important, sure, he explains, but it's "how you get to that expression that to me is the most rewarding." He calls it "spontaneous occurrence." And it's resulted in coveted recognition for his actors.
"You know his films are going to be nominated for Oscars," says Foxx, who received an Academy Award nomination for supporting actor in "Collateral" (the same year he won for best actor for Taylor Hackford's biographical drama "Ray"). "It's sort of the Michael Mann School. Some people want to graduate from that university and become better actors."
Foxx should know. He has attended the Michael Mann School three times: first in "Ali," then "Collateral" and now "Miami Vice."
When asked if Mann is a perfectionist, the actor thinks a moment, then replies: "He is definitely meticulous. He wants things perfect. He works toward perfection."
That bent can be quite hands-on. Mann says he often likes to operate the camera himself because "sometimes there are things that you want to capture in a certain way." Knowing what is coming "two lines of dialogue from now," he says he can make "micro adjustments" with the camera.
"On high definition, I never turn the camera off so I can get into a rhythm. I usually do extremely long takes. Instead of breaking up a four-page scene, I'll do the whole four pages and then we'll do takes."
His approach has produced films that have generally managed to interest both critics and mass audiences, and "Collateral," with Cruise playing against stereotype as a steely-eyed assassin, took in $100 million domestically to become his highest-grossing film.
"The Insider" was one of his only box office disappointments, but it received seven Oscar nominations, including recognition for Mann for director and adapted screenplay (with Eric Roth).
Mann's latest film is based on the "MTV-style" cops series "Miami Vice" that he executive produced in the 1980s. But he stresses that his new film won't be a rehash of the Crockett-and-Tubbs buddy series that captivated TV viewers two decades ago. Don't expect pastel cityscapes and undercover cops dressed in Armani jackets over T-shirts. "We wanted to do 'Miami Vice' as if it never existed before, do it for real," he says.
"The way Michael Mann wanted to do it, he made it heavier, darker," Foxx says. "You don't really pay attention to the clothes. Actually, a lot of the movie was shot at night."
When he produced the TV series, Mann recalled, he didn't set out to create a contemporary look for Miami. That look already existed in the American capital of Latin culture. "Before I went there, I thought 'Scarface' was overstated," he said. "Then I realized that 'Scarface' was a marvel of restraint. Miami was a pretty wild place."
This time around, it was even wilder. During shooting last year in Florida, production on "Miami Vice" was halted for six days because of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
"I mean, it was really an adventure. We had very dramatic weather, to say the least," Mann says, adding that the cameras took it all in. "We had a lot of shots of great clouds and thunderstorms and lightning flashes."
The production lost another couple of days down in the Dominican Republic when an off-duty police officer, who was said to be inebriated, pulled a gun and fired his weapon. "A soldier shot him," Mann recalls, noting that the gunman never actually got onto the set.
At 63, the Chicago-born Mann shows no signs of slowing. "I think it's easy for directors to stay fresh more than actors, especially once an actor becomes a star. It's hard for Russell Crowe to walk down a street or take a subway," he says. "I can fly coach."
Mann, who often writes his own scripts, once told the Directors Guild of America's magazine: "Could I have worked under a system where there were Draconian controls on my creativity, meaning budget, time, script choices, etc.? Definitely not. I would have fared poorly under the old studio system that guys like Howard Hawks did so well in. I cannot just make a film and walk away from it. I need that creative intimacy, and quite frankly, the control to execute my visions, on all my projects."
Spoken like a true auteur.
New Trailer here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/miamivice/)
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Sweet. I love New Order.
Our Mann in Miami
Helmer finds Vice "fabulously alluring."
The June issue of Premiere Magazine features interviews with writer-director Michael Mann and the cast of his big-screen version of Miami Vice. Mann advised Premiere that he has wanted to make a movie of Miami Vice ever since he first became involved with the TV series as its executive producer back in the mid-1980s.
"My first reaction was, 'Man, I want to make this a feature film,'" Mann said, adding, "The prose, the vibe, the sense of place – it's fabulously alluring to me."
For the film, starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell, Mann has ditched the series' pastel and Art Deco look for gritty realism. "I wanted to break down the walls and do it without limitations, in terms of true life, true violence, true language, and real relationships."
An infamous perfectionist who meticulously crafts and researches his films, Mann had Farrell and Foxx study with "heavy, heavy-duty undercover guys" from the ATF and DEA in order to properly portray detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs, respectively.
"Crockett and Tubbs are the guys who have to float in between the lines," Foxx told Premiere, "because they know the drugs are never going to go away. Bad guys are never going to go away."
Gong Li, who plays Crockett's love interest Isabella, a key member of the drug organization Crockett and Tubbs are infiltrating, praised her co-star Farrell. "He uses his heart and soul to play his role," she said. "It's not acting anymore – it's real. Viewers will be moved."
'Miami Vice' Film To Flop?
The film version of 1980s TV series Miami Vice is in serious trouble after experiencing budget problems and less-than-stellar reviews, according to press reports in the US. The movie stars Oscar winner Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell and is set for its American release on July 28. The remake cost $125 million to make. A source at Universal Pictures tells Fox News correspondent Roger Friedman, "And that's just what we're admitting to. It's probably more like $150 million." Director Michael Mann has reportedly been furiously editing the film, which apparently fails to capture the spirit of the original hit series. A source adds, "Michael still has time to fix it, but not much. But he would have to pull off a miracle to make it work."
Impossible...the trailer is great!!
Seriously though, I don't buy that a Michael Mann film will "flop". The unnamed source was probably expecting Mann to try and capture the "spirit" of the series and is thus disappointed. Let the man do his thing.
from pitchfork
Mogwai on Miami Vice Soundtrack
Jamie Foxx to Colin Farrell: "This band will change your life."
Usually, when music is described as "cinematic," we imagine it as the soundtrack to some sort of epic film about love during wartime or interstellar space travel or the discovery of some lost civilization. We're certainly not thinking about Miami Vice, the kind of film that itself can barely be called cinematic. Then again, maybe we underestimate the Foxx/Farrell vehicle, because Mogwai have seen something in it. Or at least they're contributing to the soundtrack.
As unbelievable (and kind of awesome) as it seems, Mogwai are indeed contributing two Mr. Beast tracks, "We're No Here" and "Auto Rock", to the Miami Vice soundtrack, where they'll sit next to the likes of Goldfrapp, Moby, and India.Arie. Ah, India.Arie and Mogwai, together at last.
The soundtrack will be released July 25, and also features contributions from Emilio Estefan and John Murphy, who sums up the Mogwai philosophy with the title "Mercado Nuevo".
No rules. No law. No order. Just Mogwai:
01 Nonpoint- "In the Air Tonight"
02 Moby feat. Patti LaBelle - "One of These Mornings"
03 Mogwai - "We're No Here"
04 Nina Simone - "Sinnerman (Felix Da Housecat's Heavenly Remix)"
05 Mogwai - "Auto Rock"
06 Manzanita - "Arranca"
07 India.Arie - "Ready for Love"
08 Goldfrapp - "Strict Machine"
09 Emilio Estefan - "Pennies in My Pocket"
10 King Britt - "New World In My View"
11 Blue Foundation - "Sweep"
12 Moby - "Anthem"
13 Freaky Chakra - "Blacklight Fantasy"
14 John Murphy - "Mercado Nuevo"
15 John Murphy - "Who Are You"
16 King Britt - "Ramblas"
17 Klaus Badelt & Mark Batson - "A-500"
Man, that's awesome. But it would've been cooler if it had been what I thought it said: Emilio Estevez.
'Vice' and virtues of HD
High-definition video exerts its taxing appeal on a film's makers.
By Susan King, Los Angeles Times
"MIAMI VICE" director Michael Mann and his director of photography, Dion Beebe, knew the challenges they'd be facing when they decided to shoot the feature version of the classic 1980s TV series on high-definition video.
Two years ago, Mann and Beebe used high def to shoot "Collateral," which gave the action-thriller set in nighttime Los Angeles a distinctly visceral look. Beebe and co-cinematographer Paul Cameron received an Oscar nomination for their work on that film.
Before the HD cameras rolled in Miami last year, Mann, Beebe and the technical staff spent months in pre-production.
"There's been a lot of debate about high def replacing film and being an easier choice for filmmakers," said the Australian-born cinematographer, who won the Oscar this year for "Memoirs of a Geisha." "But it's definitely not the easy choice."
The high def cameras used in the film weren't made for action-thrillers. "They were designed to be in air-conditioned TV studios mounted on these pedestal tripods run through some sort of control panels," Beebe explained. "The cameras all run off these two recording decks, and you are running cable to recording decks and dealing with heat and moisture. You need a lot of battery power not just to run your cameras, but to run your decks."
Film cameras, he said, are much more robust and can be specifically modified for scenes in speedboats or fast cars. "But these cameras aren't. You have to be determined to see it through. There were often times when we thought it would be easier for us to shoot on film, but we had come down this path and we had done a lot of testing."
So why bother? Several reasons. One is that high-definition cameras allow the image to be manipulated right on the set.
"It's like your television set," Mann said. "You can alter contrast, alter brightness." To be able to adjust those artistic variables while you are shooting "makes it into a much more painterly medium than simply recording on film," he said. "We alter things all the time."
"It's a whole new ballgame for filmmakers to have that ability [to adjust] right in front of you," Beebe agreed.
The high-definition cameras also offer an incredible depth of field, especially at night. One can almost sense the humidity and the highly charged atmosphere of nighttime Miami because the cameras capture the billowy clouds, lightning and the lights of the city.
"You wouldn't be seeing any of those lights beyond [the actors] with a normal focal length lens," Mann said. "It would all be out-of-focus dots."
Lighting with HD can be tricky. "When you light with HD, it's sort of like playing a new instrument for us cinematographers," Beebe said. "You have got to get in tune with it and really work its strengths and weaknesses."
They'd already had experience with the technology on "Collateral," but even so, Mann and Beebe spent 4 1/2 months testing the cameras in Miami in conditions similar to what they expected during production of "Miami Vice."
"We shot tests at night, out at sea with helicopters and big boats and freighters," Beebe said. "They were bigger shoot days than I ever had on a feature in Australia — and it was just a test shoot. But the reason was to put ourselves in these situations and ensure we were going to get the results we wanted — securing cameras, [determining] how we were going to power them and cable them and [experimenting with] the settings we were going to choose for them."
AFTER the test footage was shot, Mann and Beebe took it to digital colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld to help devise a formula "for how we were going to use the high definition — how we are going to light it and shoot it," Mann said.
"Miami Vice" was lighted differently than "Collateral." The latter had a "non-directional light" for a softer look, Beebe said. With "Vice," they wanted more of a chiaroscuro-type lighting. "With the shootout at the end, we used these big, hard lights and set out to create a single hard sidelight for the sequence," the cinematographer said. "The problem is maintaining [the lighting] through the sequence because people are moving around and you are changing directions."
Also daunting to film was a scene in which Miami undercover police detective Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) takes the beautiful, mysterious Isabella (Gong Li) for a high-speed cruise in a motorboat. The vehicle had to be custom-built. "We needed to run cables through the boat to the cameras," Beebe said. And casings for the recording decks were created so that they could be strapped in the hull of the boat and withstand the impact of the waves.
"Once you take the recording deck off the camera, you can break the camera down to a very small camera," Beebe said, "and we were able to fit the camera with an operator, myself and Michael as well as Gong and Colin and head off at 70 mph across the ocean. It was quite a spectacle to see everyone crammed in the boat."
Although he has now made his last two pictures in high definition, Mann says he hasn't abandoned film. "I could very well do a movie I prefer to shoot on film," he said. "Shooting on film is simpler."
This movie was so bad that my head is still spinning from it.
It was nothing but an endless series of crime talk and tough guy banter. The rendering of all that useless jargon was so bland that it felt like a reading from the phone book. The dialogue was nothing short of embarassing. I hid my face when Jamie Foxx referenced Jackson Pollack in an intimidation speech. That scene was topped when a girl stares a guy down with a gun and gives him a Dirty Harry speech before she kills him.
Of course this film also has no bearing to reality. The Miami police department is mega millionaires with extravagant mansions in highly scenic locales. They issue their detectives with pilot licenses so they can fly jets during cases. The detectives also drive cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. They also have professional racing boats around to use at their conveniance. Every extravagance possible is utilized in this movie and endlessly exploited. I know the film was having trouble with an overflowing budget during filming. With the way they advertise the ideal Miami they should have contacted their host city for extra money. The film has more sincerity in advertising Miami than it actually does in being a movie.
There were some memorable moments about seeing this film. 1.) I was carded for the first time in a year and a half when buying my ticket 2.) This was the first movie I saw where I noticed someone sleeping. He was directly behind me and snoring. Everyone else looked at him and the great thing is that no one minded. No one even tried to wake him up. They had no interest in having a pleasant experience because the movie already destroyed that hope. 3.) When the credits hit, the race for the door was priceless. I was in the middle section and sitting next to the aisle and I still beat everyone to the door. Some guys were trying to get out first but I was timing the end and I got the good first jump. It was the first time I ever saw a legimitate attempt by half the audience to run out the door.
What a total disappointment.
Yeah, I really though this would be somewhat good, it sucks that I can't really remember the last good movie I saw at the theater. As far as this movie goes, it was just a nice commercial for the Miami night life. Also plenty of moments where characters just stare off into the distance and ponder their life. Booooring. Trumpet mentioned the run for the door at the end, but for me I was in shock that it was over because the jump to the credits was so abrupt. I sat there thinking "That's It!"
I actually liked that part when the girl cop capped that guy after giving her Dirty Harry speech.
Quote from: edison on July 28, 2006, 07:57:45 PM
Trumpet mentioned the run for the door at the end, but for me I was in shock that it was over because the jump to the credits was so abrupt. I sat there thinking "That's It!"
True, but I sat there thinking, "What can be left but an ode to 'The Amazingly Gay Duo' with Foxx patting Farrel on the ass for a job well done?" So I expected a murky attempt at ambiguilty and as soon as the picture went to black for more than one second I was gone.
Quick Thoughts
* Disappointed...Miami Vice is lesser Mann (read: Child)
* Yet another cop movie that gets bogged down in a convulated drug plot
* Reminded me of 3 things Mann does great:
a) Shooting at night
b) Action scenes
c) killing people
* The women in the movie are a problem only because Mann spends too much time on the relationships.
* Shorten the movie by 25 minutes and tweak the script and it could have been great, instead it is just an ok movie with some moments of great promise.
damn. I've been looking forward to this film because I usually really like Mann's movies. I haven't seen it yet, but will anyway.
But someone mentioned the running time, and that's a great point. It seems filmmakers are pressured to keep a movie short so they can run it more times during the day and more people will want to see it. But I've noticed that the big blockbusters are getting longer and longer. Pirates was over 2 and half hours for no good reason!!
Superman was nearly 3 hours long!! (I liked Superman, but it's another example).
Why in the world do airheaded action films need to be racing to Godfather or Gone with the Wind running times?
Quote from: jigzaw on July 29, 2006, 10:55:23 AMBut someone mentioned the running time, and that's a great point. It seems filmmakers are pressured to keep a movie short so they can run it more times during the day and more people will want to see it. But I've noticed that the big blockbusters are getting longer and longer. Pirates was over 2 and half hours for no good reason!!
Superman was nearly 3 hours long!! (I liked Superman, but it's another example).
Why in the world do airheaded action films need to be racing to Godfather or Gone with the Wind running times?
It's like The Los Angeles Times heard you:
Why Are Movies So Long?Blockbuster runtimes have grown to epic proportions. Here's how come.Storming out of "Superman Returns" in early July, I was all sorts of annoyed about all sorts of things. How could Bryan Singer cast the incredibly bland, totally unendearing Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane? And what possessed him to give the 23-year-old actress a 5-year-old son? Why did that person one row behind me have to rustle his movie candy so loudly during the one quiet scene? And why the heck was that movie so long?
"Are they allowed to make movies this long?" I asked myself (and my husband, and my friends) after seeing the film. "Isn't there some sort of common-sense law about keeping movies at or under two hours?"
As the weeks went by, the question about movie length continued to plague me. When will I have four hours to spare to watch the second installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean"? Would I have liked "King Kong" if I hadn't been scared off by the three-hour-plus runtime? Is it just me?
After much searching on the Internet and a few phone calls to acquaintances, I finally found a man who could help answer my question: Stuart Fischoff, professor emeritus of Cal State L.A., whose expertise is in all aspects of media psychology, especially film and television.
Fischoff, now living in Southern Illinois, says if there has ever been a study of how long human beings can sit in front of a movie screen and not get bored, he hasn't heard of it.
"But it's an interesting question," he says. "The length of the movie is a subjective experience. Time itself has no objective value, so it depends on whether you like the movie or not. If it engages you for three hours than three hours is not too long."
Fischoff says I can blame the early success of two-hour films like "Star Wars" and "Jaws" with giving movies license to be longer. "Because they got such incredibly high box office returns it became common for blockbusters to be two hours," he says.
He also says the rise of multiplex theaters have contributed to an increasing film runtime. "If I'm an exhibitor and I have one screen at a theater and I show a movie that is three hours long, over the course of the day I'm depriving myself of something like three screenings," he says. "But if I have a multiplex, I can show the same movie on two different screens and catch people at different times."
Among other factors that movie exhibitors and distributors have to take into consideration are the appetites of the customer; bathroom breaks for women ("Women pee more," he says); and how long parents can afford to pay a baby sitter.
"The ideal movie length is different for different age groups and why you are going to the movies," he said. "Each group has a different sense of what is the right length for the movie.
"There is no truth," he added. "There are only multiple truths."
Isn't that always the way?
didn't siskel say something like "no good movie is too long, all bad movies are too long"?
Why are attention spans so Short?
Quote from: pete on July 29, 2006, 12:30:57 PM
didn't siskel say something like "no good movie is too long, all bad movies are too long"?
Roger Ebert. "No good movie is ever too long and no bad movie is ever too short."
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on July 29, 2006, 12:59:19 PM
Quote from: pete on July 29, 2006, 12:30:57 PM
didn't siskel say something like "no good movie is too long, all bad movies are too long"?
Roger Ebert. "No good movie is ever too long and no bad movie is ever too short."
Third time's the charm. Here's the exact quote:
"No good movie is too long, just as no bad movie is short enough." He said it in reference to "The Best of Youth", for obvious reasons.
he's been saying that way before The Best of Youth came out though.
This film is a contradiction. I found it to be an astonishing visual achievement. Some, perhaps most, will only see the negatives of the dv. But it worked for me and especially in the action scenes. The grain and deep focus certainly set the mood in what is an almost completely nocturnal movie. Vice is all a testament to what Michael Mann does best: bringing the audience into the action, breathtaking visuals, and an obsessive-compulsive attention to detail. While I love all of those strengths, the latter does not allow Vice to reach a level with his greatest works. There is waaaaay too much expositional dialog in the film and Colin Farrell gets stuck with most of it. Some of you have already discussed that (with much more negative bravado).
Similarly, plot has never been a recurring positive for Mann. Collateral and Vice both suffer from "that could never happen" syndrome. All that said, it is just a movie and one that exists to draw out the conflict between the characters and establish a specific mood and visual style. I think it succeeds to those ends.
Oh, and the Mogwai tracks are great.
I pretty much agree with GT on this one. Overall, the movie was really boring. Or unintentionally hilarious. The dialogue was pretty hilarious at times - especially those manly one-liners. The testosterone was pushed so far that I just about grew a third testicle. Colin Farrell has done great American accents before, but he kept losing it this time.
On the plus side:
It did look really beautiful, though, and the last half hour was pretty good. If that had been the first half hour, maybe the film would have been better.
I loved the non-event that was the last shot. Good abrupt beginning and ending.
Justin Theroux's rolling shoot out bit was pretty awesome.
what a bunch of haters.
aside from being a bit dry (but there was always nice pictures to look at) I really enjoyed it. I had fun following their tactics and how michael mann was trying to depict all these aspects of an action movie with more realism--how a club operates, how an informant stays alive, how operations a run, how to dance salsa, how to kill a dude with a knife, what a druglord turf looks like...etc. Mann seems to have a fetish for methods and in this one everything is detailed almost pornographically. the romance was really weak. aside from the hot/coldness of gong li, the love wasn't all that explosive or convincing. But the police aspect of it, it seemed like Mann really wanted to justify the glamour and thrill of undercover policing on film by detailing the methods, to make a convincing portrait. I guess he failed to convince a bunch of haters on this board though.
I'm jumping on the bandwagon on this one.
I think I let some of the AICN hype get to me. They made it seem like it was going to be a pretty awesome ride. Yet, I came out all meh. If the whole movie had the heart of the last 3/4 it would have been ohh so much better. I did love seeing so many actors from HBO in various parts. And some, some of the photography looked rather great. I'm still not totally sold on this look Mann seems to cherish. I really liked what they did with Collateral, and now having spent the past year in LA I understand how it really does show what nighttime in LA looks like. But it's certainly a look and at night it looks good so whatever. What ever happened to the leak?
Exclusive Profile: MICHAEL MANN PAYS HOMAGE TO THE ORIGINAL BUT CREATES HIS OWN MIAMI VICE
The writer-director talks about music, the series, and the DVD cut
It's rare for a film director to return to his TV roots, but Michael Mann has done that with MIAMI VICE. An executive producer on the original 1980's TV series, he's now returned to the world of Crockett and Tubbs on the big screen, but he wasn't interested until the idea was broached to him by Jamie Foxx at a birthday party for a mutual friend.
"First of all, it's all Jamie's [Foxx] fault, because he talked me into this starting in 2002 at [Muhammad] Ali's birthday party," recalls Mann. "But the proposition that really became really exciting for myself and then for all of us, was the idea of really getting into undercover work, and what it does to you, what you do to it, and the whole idea of living a fabricated identity that's actually just an extension of yourself, and doing it in 2006, doing it for real, and doing it right now."
While the title and character names remain, Mann wanted to avoid any direct references to the original series -- preferring to keep the setting and situations as real as possible.
"You're not gonna have crocodiles or alligators, you're not gonna have sailboats, you're not gonna have nostalgia," says Mann. "And you're gonna do it for real as a big picture, and it's gonna be R rated, because you do dangerous work in difficult places, where bad things happen. You have relations with women, there's sexuality, there's language, and that became an exciting proposition. But it started with the real function, for actors and directors, myself as well; of what is undercover work for real, what is that stuff. And then all these folks, went and did a lot of that work themselves."
Of course there were questions as to what to keep from the original series. Music is always a key part of any Michael Mann movie, and he was extremely adamant about the kinds of music used in the film.
"The music's always key to me, whether it's MIAMI VICE or not MIAMI VICE, and it's kind of dictated by the story about what Crockett and Tubbs and Isabella and Trudy are doing," says the director. "Since the movie tries to get into the lives and locate audiences into the lives of these folks, as intensely as possible, I wanted music that had the power to do that."
Most importantly, Mann didn't want the movie to be a direct remake of the series, though many of the essential elements remain.
"We never conceived of it as a derivative," he admits. "It's 2006, it's MIAMI VICE for real, right now, and it has in its core, kind of an emotional, overt way of telling its story, and it takes place in the alluring kind of perfumed reality of Miami, in which you've got this layer of things which are very sensuous and beautiful, and underneath it there's stuff that's very, very dangerous. So in that sense, it has an independent kind of origin. I don't think people are sitting there and comparing it. The two are co-equal. The series occupies its place and kind of cultural history for better and for worse, you know."
Conjointly with his belief that the new movie would not be a derivative of the old series, Mann did feel that the essence of the characters and places would remain the same, but just be updated.
"That's exactly right, it's the spirit of it, it's the core of it, it's the way the characters in MIAMI VICE the way those stories worked, it's who these people are," he says. "So at the core of Crockett is Crockett, at the core of Tubbs is Tubbs, but they're re-imagined in 2006 in a different world and a different place and a different Miami."
Mann is also a very selective director when it comes to what material should stay in the final cut of the film, and what ends up on the cutting room floor and he admits that the opening sequence had a 10-minute sequence that was cut to shorten up the beginning.
"I always felt the story should be tight," he says. "You should be dropped into their lives, and just taken away from it. And I think audiences are really smart, and they're really intelligent, and I think that you can place an audience kind of almost like they're right on Jamie and Colin's shoulder, and you don't have to explain, 'well now we're going to go into this club, and maybe this pimp Neptune is gonna show up.' You don't have to go through all that, and you can bring all that hopefully into a much more immediate experience, of what these guys do and how they do it, you don't have to be inside the joke, you can be kind of a participant in the joke, and so the movie tells its story that way, and I wanted it to have an intensity, and a drive, where bang, you're in it, and when that movie ends, it goes to black, and that's as much of this story as we're telling right now."
But of course, Mann does admit that fans wanting to see the cut footage have to look no further than the DVD release of MIAMI VICE to see all that was missed in the theater.
"I have to make a lot of really difficult, hard, heart breaking decisions sometimes, about material that is really great, that I really love, and people do fabulous work in, and unfortunately, you have to serve the greater good of that experience, of the picture, so this stuff will absolutely be on DVD's, is the answer," he concludes.
I fell asleep in this one too. I think it might have cured my insomnia, so I have that to thank it for.
Crocket and Tubbs only ever spoke to each other for about 3 minutes in the entire film. What a double act. Anyway, unbelievably boring film. Just absolutely awful.
"Probability is like gravity. You cannot negotiate with gravity."
Ahahah
Quote from: pete on July 31, 2006, 10:00:07 AM
michael mann was trying to depict all these aspects of an action movie with more realism
Like Crocket shooting the bald guy in the head with that ridiculously large gun and it only leaving two little red marks?
you mean "bullet holes"?
I mean the little tentacle suckers that represented bullet holes. A gun that size from that distance would've annihilated his face.
it's true. most of that guys head would be gone. maybe the lower jaw would be in tact, but all the teeth would likely have propelled themselves out of their sockets as soon as the bullets hit.
thumbs down for me. at least i didn't have to pay for it. i had two free passes for a horrible screening of 3 Burials.
anywho, it did feel extremely long. i was kinda confused at what exactly was going on at times.
am i dreaming or did i hear some more Chris Cornell/Audioslave songs?
jamie foxx's joke during the sex scene did get some laughs though.
*spoiler*
when i saw that black booty i told myself, "something's going to happen to her."
i guess this time me and alexandro are gonna be the only ones really loving this movie.
ahem me too.
Quote from: pete on August 05, 2006, 10:04:15 PM
ahem me too.
After rereading my last post, I did seem a little lukewarm. Should have emphasized the positives to a greater extent, which far outweigh any drawbacks.
Quote from: cronopio on August 05, 2006, 09:38:04 PM
i guess this time me and alexandro are gonna be the only ones really loving this movie.
Totally, my friend...
I gotta start anyway by mentioning the things that did bothered me about Miami Vice:
I felt Farrell and Foxx (and I don't know if this is completely Mann's or their's fault) failed to put on the screen two actual characters. I understand they are dealing with a very limited exposition, like just showing you "the mission" and not their personal lives, somewhat the same thing that Mann did with Collateral and the opposite of what he did in Heat. Last week I rened The Last of the Mohicans and noticed this too. He likes to play around with the idea of not really knowing these characters, of not exposing them too much. They are who they are with not a lot of explanations. The thing is, and I'm saying this only on basis of a first viewing of Miami Vice, that for a long period of time during the film, Farrell and Foxx felt like they were the same fucking guy!!! Even if they weren't showing their personal lifes in detail, when you saw Cruise and Foxx in Collateral, almost from scene one, you kinda knew what kind of guys these were. For some reason I didn't felt that here, but maybe on second viewing I'll get another perspective.
And I noticed the emotional current is not as high on this one, I mean the ending is not Pacino holding De Niro's hand, or Tom Cruise wondering if anyone's gonna notice his presence on the train...but hey...I gotta rewatch this.
On the other hand, Mann does A LOT of great things here and I'm kind of bummed by the hatred this is getting around here.
For once, after all the truly crappy action films around this summer, whata relief to see something with some substance. It's pure Mann.
I love it that in Mann's movies, every character is a person of honor, everyone is smart, everyone is a perfectionist. You never see a traitor in one of these, and when you do, every other character just treats that person as some sort of nothing...Mann don't even give these characters som tragic touch to redeem them.
I love the attention to detail, the "fetish for methods" wich someone else pointed out. I have no clue if what Mann portraits here has any resemblance to reality, but he shows everything with such detail that at least he convinced me that this is the way it is. This is th way druglords behave, this is the stuff vice agents do, this is the kind of dangerously glamorous lifes they live.
In other words, he creates a parallel reality with acting, cinematography and specific framing, pop music and pure style. It looks gritty and real, even though it isn't.
Mann is a smart guy (anyone who's seen the Collateral commetary can verify that he has a pretty extense and organized database flowing through his brain) and trusts audiences to follow this convoluted plot, to be able to just get in the lives of these guys and get out withouth much explanation...this is so anti-hollywood, specially right now, where EVERY LITTLE THING is fleshed out and explained three times so audience can understand.
The big pleasure to me, actually, is that boldness of making a summer action flick for adults, in which the plot can get complicated to follow, and situations evolve without constant explanation. The notion of no real villains, or at least not moreally reprehensible villains (everyone has their own code and they all respect it and follow it)...I dont know...It seems to me this is a very rich MOVIE compared to everything else out right now. It's avery personal, modern type of film noir if you may...
I think around here people have been too quick to dismiss it...In fact, Xixax has become kind of boring in that sense. No movie is good enough except for one a year, and then we give every award we can to that one. I think we should celebrate movies more, it's more interesting.
And of course, the dv cinematography was beautiful.
I liked the movie too. I didn't think it was boring at all, and the story wasn't too confusing, I knew what was going on all the time.
I loved the mood of the whole thing, and that they didn't make too many jokes and didn't talk too much when it was not necessary.
the video look and the action scenes were great
Liked, but didn't love it. Being a huge Michael Mann fan, I was actually kind of shocked at how lame the use of music was in a couple of scenes (not only badly used, but simply bad music used) and how it felt extremely long and at the same time not long enough (some uninteresting things take a lot of time and some character development takes very few, unlike the best films from the mann). Hi-def video looks damn cool, especially in achieving the almost documentary-like style keeping us really close to the action, although did he really need to keep on moving the camera like crazy (even when characters are standing still talking) and changing focus all the time? Sometimes it felt perfect, others simply forced. Anyway, nobody does action like him, and nobody makes bullets sound like they sound on his movies, where to me, violence is never pretty but simply... violent.
SPOILERS!
By the way, who cares how big those holes in the head of the guy are? In most movies you don't even see the effects of the damn bullet fests. It'a all shooting and the bad guys falling and absolutely no blood at all. How about the scene in the house when they're rescuing Jamie Foxx's girl? Bada-bing, they blew his barins all over that nice little white wall.
Is it one of Mann's best? Most certainly not.
Is it better than most summer actioners? Of course, it's a Mann film.
Most everything has been touched on here at some point, but I'll offer my concise two cents anyway:
The cinematography was really uneven to me. I understand that he was attempting to show the grit vs. glamor but it made the visuals seem strikingly inconsistent (one minute it's handheld with lots of HD grain, which isn't as nice as film grain, the next it's all dolly and chopper shots. Clearly it was intentional (because as we know, nothing in a Mann film is unintentional) but it still took me out of the film.
The violence was perfect. No complaints there. But the dialog could have been better. Sex scenes were silly at best (although that girl did have a heavenly ass).
Loved the stark opening and closing. Hated the excessive use of audioslave (yeah, the ONE song in Collateral was great but the 4 or 5 here were all pretty stupid).
Colin Farrel's Batman voice made me want to puke. The undercover jargon was cool and appropriate.
The trailer park scene was the best in the film. Perfection.
This movie is the equivalent of a magazine ad from GQ.
The plot, character arcs, etc...don't matter. This is just an exercise in cool and attitude, which is fine by me.
It's pretty interesting how Mann, who is in his sixties, is setting the standard on what is cool.
A very disappointing film. Fairly decent action sequences are the only thing of interest.
It's pap, don't waste your money.
Miami Vice 2 on the way?
LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx want to make a sequel to 'Miami Vice'.
The Hollywood actors - who played undercover detectives Crockett and Tubbs in the movie remake of the cult 80s TV show - are keen to work together again, and are urging director Michael Mann to make a sequel.
A source is quoted as saying: "Colin and Jamie really hit it off on 'Miami Vice' but they were disappointed the film didn't do better.
"They very much want to work together again and they both want another 'Vice'. They feel there is scope for another story."
However, the two actors may have their work cut out persuading Mann to agree to make a follow-up.
The director has refused to commit to a sequel and said he will only consider it if he can come up with a brilliant plot first.
At the London premiere of the film in July, Mann said: "If I have an idea for a story that I think I want to do then we'll see what happens."
yeah I loved the first one and all, but unless there is a brilliant plot, I can't wait another brewing hour and 45 minutes just to see 3 awesome brutal killshots.
Miami Vice Cracks Down
Mann's big-screen action adaptation arrives in Dec.
On December 5, 2006, Universal Studios Home Entertainment will release Miami Vice (Unrated Director's Edition) on DVD. The motion picture based on the '80s television series as helmed by Michael Mann stars Jamie Foxx, and will feature tons of bonus materials and extra features. It will be available for the MSRP of $29.98.
The Miami Vice (Unrated Director's Edition) DVD will feature the following bonus materials:
Miami Vice Undercover Making-Of Featurette
Miami and Beyond: Shooting on Location
Visualizing Miami Vice Featurette
Feature Commentary with writer-director-producer Michael Mann
Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdvdmedia.ign.com%2Fdvd%2Fimage%2Farticle%2F743%2F743527%2Fmiami-vice-unrated-directors-edition-20061102110432429-000.jpg&hash=bab83ba6dec2e8874c6367af3191b9d873b0055d)
Source: Hollywod Elsewhere
For those who had issues with Michael Mann's Miami Vice, or who so loved the fumes of it (like me) that it felt like perfectly calibrated adult escapism by way of a bad-ass drug-dealing movie, there's an Unrated Director's Cut coming on 12.5 that's definitely a different deal than what played last summer in theatres.
How is it different exactly? I talked about it with a couple of Univeral Home Video publicists today and it's a little hard to describe, but I'll give it a shot. What it boils down to is that 7 minutes of never-before-seen extra footage have been added. Or maybe 9 minutes. It depends how you define the word "minutes." But a lot of stuff has also been re-edited and/or shortened or recalculated -- about 19 minutes worth, the publicists said. So if you add it up it's got about 28 and 1/2 minutes of fresh stuff...in a sense. Or, if you want to be a hard-ass about it, 7 minutes worth with some editorial reshuffling thrown in.
Put it this way: Mann obviously knew that the theatrical version didn't work all that well with Average Joes, or not well enough, so he gave it another shot and what came out is a different movie, to some extent. It starts with a boat chase instead of a nightclub scene, for one thing. I was hoping there'd be more footage of Gong Li naked, but the publicists disabused me of that dream. Thanks, Michael...thanks a lot.
NOTE: I watched the Unrated Director's Edition
The first thing I have to mention is how greatly miscast Gong Li was. She just did not fit into the character she was playing, and that also completely threw off the chemistry between her and Crockett. But despite that, which stuck out like a sore thumb (along with the horrible In The Air Tonight remake), I enjoyed the film. It was a healthy translation to the big screen, keeping some of the key elements that made the tv show great. Hell, I'm just thankful Mann took it on and played it straight instead of it being turned into a Starsky & Hutch buddy comedy. Mann does the best he can, but when you've made the masterpiece that Heat is, it's hard to match that level of cop/criminal level again.