Miami Vice

One of my perennial go-to Summer movies, and one of the flicks that I think is most effective in almost every area is Michael Mann's remake (remix, really) of a cinematic-length episode of the 80's series Miami Vice.For Miami Vice purists, it's cool...I'm not bashing the original flavor, but like most things from the 80's, nostalgia for what is remembered is very different than the reality of what it is (was). When Mann approached the remix, he wanted to essentially distance himself from the cheesy, neon-and-pastel glow of 80's Miami, to the reality of today's South Florida. Reality is actually a good term to use here.Everything in Miami Vice is ramped up, like Spinal Tap, to 11. However, if you've been to Miami, you know this is not too far off from the reality of the uber-rich in South Florida. Shows like CSI-Miami paint a picture that is not entirely inaccurate (regarding the culture of Miami...not so much the realities of police work, especially crime scene investigation). This challenge for Mann, who deals in the visceral, was succesful to a high level, and the movie plays with a gritty tangilibity throughout. Sure, its slick, but its also not airbrushed, and I believe successful in its duality of the shiny veneer of Dade County, and the much darker underbelly of the money that comes with it.Mann has several techniques that build tension, and he's used this playbook on most of his movies. Directorial style is something that is conspicuously missing in Hollywood today, and is seems many reinvent themselves each picture, so I appreciate the consistency, especially when its solid tool kit. Use of grainy imagery, jittery first-person camera techniques, very, very fitting music (music is immensely important in Mann's films), a certain color palette that projects an ambiance, and off-the-rails gun play are certainly some of the main mastery that Mann relies on, and they work. He also continues to use the Hitchcockian "what is not seen is more effective than what is" camera-work with great success, and in this day in age of every thematic element being spelled out to the dumbed-down acceptance of the masses, its refreshingly identifiable.As said before, music, from the score to the mainstream songs used in various scenes, is placed with virtuosity. This is one area where Mann relates the new Miami Vice with the old, as the synthesizer-infused score has that very famliar Jan Hammer vibe. The track "A500" is everything you loved about the old series music, updated to 2006 (YouTube it...I'm not wrong) From the cuban music in Havana, to the mixed techno in club Mansion, to the remake of the synonymous Phil Collins' tune "In the Air Tonight" by Miami natives Non-Point, to the once again effective use of Michael Mann favorites Moby and Audioslave (he must be on a first name basis with these guys) conveys a soundtrack that is much more well contemplated, accurate, and effective than most movies these days bother to even attempt.This movie is also a Wikipedia-Geeks dream - to the vehicles they drive (the Ferrari F430 spouting unburnt fuel on upshifts is memorable), the planes they fly (the aforementioned A500 is a rare and unique bird), the boats they race (MTI's near 2000 horsepower cigarette boat is the stuff of legend), and the guns they shoot (bad guys with Barrett big-50's is plausible...Miami-Dade vice detectives with H&K G36's, not so much) begs movie geeks to look a little further. Investigation of the filming of the movie has its own mythos as well, and many of the out-of-country urban areas they filmed in were every bit as dangerous as they appear. Method acting, indeed.Overall, yes, the sum is greater than the parts of this film, but they add up to, what I feel, is Mann's most successful project, and one of my favorite movies of the last ten years. He has created a "feeling" with this movie, a world that is tactile and believeable, despite its ostentatious nature...and that is no small feat.

Miami Vice, I think, is a very good film. I saw the movie in the theater, but bought the DVD of the "Unrated" version because I liked the film, even more than some other people who have criticized it. Overall, I find Michael Mann to be a very engaging director, his films very competent and compelling, and I like listening to his video commentaries. He's directed a lot of excellent films. Incidentally, and this is an argument defending the films mentioned here, some people thought "Heat" was too long. I try to understand people's arguments about these things, and I'm always willing to listen, but somehow I just figured these criticisms as much more inferior than the Miami Vice movie, an extremely intelligent actioner in the mode of Director Mann's Heat with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, but with the visual extravagance in photography, in props, in script, and in the streamlined plot. Miami Vice, especially the preferred Unrated Director's Edition available on home video, is a genuine interpretation of the original and popular television series from the late 1980s.The director, Michael Mann, was propelled into theatrical film making because of his work on that show. He went on to create the truly-first film in the series of Hannibal Lechter movies: Manhunter. The more recent Red Dragon movie is actually a remake of Manhunter. Mann directed Heat with Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, and a hoard of other famous names. He directed The Insider with Al Pacino, and Russell Crowe in his best performance. He directed Ali, the Muhammad Ali boxing movie starring Will Smith and Jamie Foxx, a film also enduring lackluster reviews despite its competence. He directed Collateral with Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise, a widely well-received film, for which Foxx received a supporting-role Oscar nomination, but instead received the Best Actor Oscar for Ray of that same year. And now, he stars in this Mann film, at least their third director-actor collaboration, and this film has been panned by the public as "too much talk," "not like the show," or "more violent," criticisms all of which have been completely off.Perhaps the masses are too finicky about artistic treatments to semi-mainstream products. Such is the case with Miami Vice, a very-good-if-not-great actioner worthy of no less than a four-star rating. What this film needs and deserves is critical support; but, don't depend on some writers to change their views from the mainstream here. This reminds me of the early reviews on Ridley Scott's film, Blade Runner, which only a few critics supported originally, meaning they completely disliked it, and yet since have canted their opinions to make that film become widely accepted as a five-star classic holding the reputation of the then-minority. I only wish I knew what the people who spoke negatively about the Miami Vice movie were thinking when they watched it. Their attentions have been ignorant at best.