Runtime: I saw the 132 minute theatrical cut
Directed by: Michael Mann
Starring: Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li, Naomie Haris, Ciaran Hinds
From: Universal
According to some, proclaiming this as your favorite movie is a “straight man” move… uh, what? So, this became a controversy on Twitter this weekend when a film critic (who I don’t care for anyhow but that’s beside the point) said he was going to show his favorite movie to his girlfriend for the first time, and it was Miami Vice.
A curator at the Guggenheim Museum-a Black lady, not that this really matters except that I treaded lightly into reading the responses, for obvious reasons-scoffed at this film opinion and even after hundreds clapped back at her, this fool’s course of action was not to take the L & concede defeat but rather melt down for HOURS—as she is literally attempting to doxx dissenters today, this lunatic is still melting down like the Chernobyl core reactor! Why her opinion was that Michael Mann’s film was as aggro as American Sniper or truly wretched like Cats: baffling.
By the way, there was another dumb Twitter moment in that world where someone praised Ayo Edebiri for her spotlighting the 60’s movie Charade when they were part of the Criterion Collection’s Closet Picks feature, then someone tried to dunk on the commenter for his admiration of Ayo’s selection because this fool thought that CHARADE was “an obscure, pretentious-ass movie” when it’s a light and silly heist picture starring two iconic actors and because it’s public domain, anyone can view it instantly. What a bizarre decision to dunk on someone for admiring an actor’s movie taste—and in doing so you show your entire ass by telling film fans that you are obliviously clueless! But back to Miami Vice…
As it’s a Mann movie, it’s natural that there are multiple cuts out there; as the picture was viewed on Netflix, the theatrical version was what I experienced. Why I didn’t view this until last night despite the director and cast: the mixed reception it has had the past 18 years. As you can see from my rating, my opinion was that this film was just fine and nothing more.
It took me visiting The Bowels of the Internet to discover the Director’s Cut; like I suspected, the opening there not only had actual opening credits, there was an entire scene before there was a hard cut to the nightclub scene. The theatrical version cutting IMMEDIATELY to the nightclub and that Jay-Z/Linkin Park mashup was so incredibly jarring, it hurt the entire picture. Then again, it’s more accurate for me to say that the plot not thrilling me was a bigger issue in my not loving the film.
It has little to do with the cast (what a tremendous hair/mustache combo Colin Farrell had; it’s also neat that Gong Li and Naomie Haris had prominent roles), the settings, the direction and the musical score. The digital photography look does not always look great but it’s the story of Crocket & Tubbs going undercover and its lack of thrilling me which is why I can’t rate the movie as better than “fine.” Afterwards, I read that it was a troubled shoot-among other things, the intended ending wasn’t filmed & instead they had to use one that was earlier discarded.
It seems that there is about as many people who are ambivalent or worse towards the movie that love it to pieces, whether on Letterboxd or elsewhere. Personally, I’d much rather revisit Heat, Manhunter or Thief rather than experience any cut of Miami Vice again—in addition, I prefer the iconic 80’s show.
No comments:
Post a Comment