Yeah about Miami Vice. Lately I haven't had much time to write about the film
as I was supposed to, but now I do, so here goes. I just visited imdb and
checked out what people thought about it and well... it was "WORST MOVIE
EVAR!!1!"-show all over again.

Seems like a lot of people were put off by the film. In a way I can understand
this, because many were expecting either a) a 80s comedic warmup ala Starsky &
Hutch, or b) a silly Bad Boys-style actioner with one liners and explosions.

Come on!!! It's Michael fucking Mann here! The guy does his own thing, he
doesn't seem to give a flying beep about studios and whatnot. Who else has the
balls to have no opening credit sequence in a $140m production? No, we the
audience get Mann's forte once again: an intense, no-bullshit crime piece.
This time we're on the side of the police, though, but as usual, it's a thin
red line between cops and crooks in Mann's flicks.

The plot itself is pretty straigthfoward. Our guys Crockett and Tubbs need to
go even deeper undercover to find a mole. Or that's how it starts anyway. The
plot is delivered in a typical Mann fashion: lots of police jargon, talk, more
talk, more police jargon, a nice set action piece, talk, police jargon, even
more talk, and so on. People with short attention span: you're not gonna like
this, watch something else.

The dialogue is mostly good. Some really meaty lines, real gems "It's a
question! You know, question!", the usual badass/macho bullshit talk, a lot of
jargon, a couple of poor lines, more great lines, and so on. Anyway, mostly
very good. In a few cases I was left thinking if Mann was trying a bit
too hard with the dialogue, but there's nothing cringeworthy. Even the couple
of corny lines are saved by the actors' performances.

Yeah the actors... I haven't seen a lot of Colin Farrell's stuff, but the guy
proves here (along with The New World by Malick) that under a talented
director he can ace it. Like with Tom Cruise/Vincent in Collateral, Farrel is
not playing Crockett, he fucking IS Crockett. The way he unloads on agent
Fujima for fucking things up, the empty stare in his eyes in the shower when
Isabella is looking, the sad/tender looks when she IS looking, all the small,
subtle mannerisms like snorting when expecting a fire fight, slight nods to
people, even slighter smiles, everything! There's so much in his performance
if you just pay some attention.

Jamie Foxx (Tubbs) is mostly good. He has some downers, but mostly he's solid.
Nothing absolutely spectacular, but still solid. Some great moments, too, like
his show in the hospital towards the end, VERY convincing. Also loved the way
he gives Alonzo the bad news: "You don't... you don't need to go home any
more". The whole scene is something you just don't get very often, goddamn
moving. And the end of that scene - brilliance! The way Mann abruptly cuts
from the passing truck/blood trail to Crockett&Tubbs crusing down in their
Ferrari to meet Fujima - enter another great scene.


The rest of the cast is absolutely spot on, too. Both the informants, Alonzo
and Nicholas, are played by people I hadn't heard of before but they both fit
their roles absolutely 100%. Crockett&Tubbs' crew is cast well, especially
loved the cold, no-bullshit portrayal of Gina by Elizabeth Rodriguez even if
she isn't given a lot to work with in the film. She also has the most
macho/ultramasculine lines in the whole movie! She delivers them in such a
fashion that you're left with absolutely no doubt she could pull the shit off,
too!


Ciaran Hinds aces agent Fujima. One of the best scenes in the film involves
Fujima getting verbally owned by Castillo (whose "Cool down!" would shut up a
football stadium during the world cup final) and realizing it, he just mumbles
"alright", turns away, completely empty and lost, and leaves. Left me with a
big smile on my face! Another nod goes off to the druglord duo played by a
sleazy John Ortiz and a menacing Luis Tosar. Both fit 100%. There isn't much
humour in the film at all, but whenever Ortiz was on, I couldn't stop smiling.
And I still start to laugh when I just imagine his "I'm a disco guy" feat. :D

So like I said, not much humour in the flick. Some Foxx antics, but mostly
very subtle. A lot of visual cues to make cinephile nerds like me smile. A
couple of way-too-badass lines to either put you off or make you smile, I'm in
the latter group. But yeah, the atmosphere of the film is dark, tense,
no-bullshit.

The cinematography fits this mood down to the last detail, and simply put: is
stunning. Just stunning. I know some people disagree with Mann using HD
instead of film (as it's a bit grainy compared to film), BUT this adds to the
hyper-real feel of the movie. Someone said that Michael Mann is realer than
real, and I gotta agree. The film does not seem like Hollywood film but more
like a documentary, and this is not just because of the cinematography.
Everything, down to the last detail, is spot-on. I don't mind the grain, when
I can fucking see into the night! The clouds in the background, the dimly lit
parking lots, boats in the middle of the ocean at night... man, just gorgeous!
Impossible with film I say.

So there's a lot of talk yeah, but a Mann flick is not a Mann flick without
the action set-pieces. A definite high-light in this film is the trailer park
scene. Our guys storm a trailer park in search of a team member and what
happens is something that left the whole theatre I was in gasping for air.
Everything is perfect in the scene - perfect build up, some hc tension
stand-off and when the shit hits the fan, it really fucking hits the fan. Took
me a while to recover from that scene, I can tell you that.

There are some other set-pieces worth mentioning as well, but I'll just touch
upon the 5-10min long final shoot out here. That fight is pure 100% chaos, but
then again I'd think that's how it tends to be in reality. I loved the sound
in this scene. Loved it to bits. I could just listen to the scene, no image,
just listen, it was so well done. A nice touch was the way the gunfire was
muffled in the ears of Crockett&Tubbs, as if they were so used to that kind of
shit going on it didn't even matter any more. The questions I had about the
fire fight after the first viewing were answered during the second and third,
there's A LOT in the details, you just tend to miss it in the chaos.

The use of music is very important to Mann, and here he once again proves his
ability. His picks set the mood whenever necessary, and once again the ending
is spectacular. He uses Mogwai's Auto Rock while giving us parallel shots of
of Crockett letting Isabelle go and Tubbs sitting beside Trudy in the
hospital, recovering. The ending might be a cliche (the end of a relationship
vs recovery of one), but the way Mann pulls it off just brings a tear in your
eye. AND THE HANDSHAKE IS THERE! That was what finally did it for me, Tubbs
and Trudy holding each others hands while Crockett watches Isabelle go. I've
seen it three times now and despite the cliche my eyes haven't been dry once.
Fucking ace.

There are some downers too, no doubt about that. Some of the lines, some of
the scenes, even some of the music, but they're all minor gripes. I would have
wanted to elaborate on the flaws, but seems like I'm gonna run out of space
(max 150 lines). Anyway, there still so much good stuff in the film, it may be
subtle but it is there. Watch it. Watch it again. Notice more stuff. Notice
even more stuff.

Miami Vice is not Michael Mann's best, but it's still a solid film. It's a
rare treat these days, when most films tend to be advertisements for toys and
other by-products. R-rated film that definitely needs to be R-rated, a crime
piece for the adult audience.

PS. Oh yeah, for you, the MV purists. Miami Vice the TV show was about being
on the edge of what is cool, was it pop music or clothing or setting or crooks
getting away and so on. Miami Vice the film is exactly the same thing: the 80s
is GONE, we have today's music (Mogwai, Audioslave etc), today's setting,
today's realism, today's cutting edge. So here's my official "fuck you" to you
for whining about not having a lame 80s rehash.