Miami Vice
I went into this one as neutral as I get before entering a cinema. I had no idea what the series of Miami Vice was all about, beyond cops who wore white suits, or something. I'm over this remake of seventies things, but was allowing to ignore that here because of the involvement of Michael Mann, who executive produced (produced executively?) the original series, making it more than just a quick lazy cash in. And while I do like Michael Mann, I don't regard him as highly as a lot of people seem to. Keep this quiet, too, but I think Heat was overrated. So, it was not a complete clean slate I went in with, but the positives and the negatives in my mind mostly balanced each other.
Miami Vice
Miami Vice presents us with these two cops, one of whom is played by Jamie Foxx, and the other by Colin Farrell. They're undercover, but don't do accents or wigs or fake beards or anything like that, at least not while we're watching. They do things. There's drugs involved, mostly, that's what they're trying to stop, and there are guns too, and money, and sex, and white supremacists. I really don't know, though, because I stopped following the whole affair.
There is nothing inherently wrong with Miami Vice. Acting isn't stunning, but it's not awful, so it does the job. There are a couple of pretty funny one-liners, but they don't undercut what is an almost overly serious film. Similar films have felt like the plot is there just to take us from one action sequence to another, but I didn't get that impression here. It was advertised as an action movie, which it isn't, but a few sequences, particularly the one at the trailer park, were suspensful enough.
Miami Vice was shot on HD, making it feel very realistic. This is one of the least slick hugely budgeted films I've seen, and that's the point. There's no running away from explosions in slow motion. For a while it seemed like it would, in fact, be explosion-free. And while it's gritty, that's not to say it's without gorgeous moments. There are some stunning visuals, the one that stood out most being a huge waterfall that cascades beside the main bad guy's villa.
This sums up the main problem of the film, though. Firstly, the fact that my favourite thing about the film was a few of the beautiful locations (and some Naomie Harris side-on nudity), and secondly, the fact that I just called the main bad guy "the main bad guy". I cannot remember a single character's name, not even the leads. I do remember the main woman was played by Gong Li, because her first name is Gong, and that amuses me. The plot was rather obscenely difficult to follow, but the fact that I didn't care about the fates of any of the characters, or what they were fighting for, made me just give up on attempting to figure out what was going on.
So, I cannot say that writer/director Michael Mann dropped the ball. Maybe the film just wasn't a fit with me, which is not something I can exactly fault it for. A second viewing would probably clear up a lot of the plot issues, and perhaps a clearer plot makes for an increased interest in the characters within it. But, really, I could not be bothered.
5/10
The next movie I see will probably be Brick. I saw it at the Sydney International Film Festival, and loved it there, and am very much looking forward to loving it again.
Miami Vice
Miami Vice presents us with these two cops, one of whom is played by Jamie Foxx, and the other by Colin Farrell. They're undercover, but don't do accents or wigs or fake beards or anything like that, at least not while we're watching. They do things. There's drugs involved, mostly, that's what they're trying to stop, and there are guns too, and money, and sex, and white supremacists. I really don't know, though, because I stopped following the whole affair.
There is nothing inherently wrong with Miami Vice. Acting isn't stunning, but it's not awful, so it does the job. There are a couple of pretty funny one-liners, but they don't undercut what is an almost overly serious film. Similar films have felt like the plot is there just to take us from one action sequence to another, but I didn't get that impression here. It was advertised as an action movie, which it isn't, but a few sequences, particularly the one at the trailer park, were suspensful enough.
Miami Vice was shot on HD, making it feel very realistic. This is one of the least slick hugely budgeted films I've seen, and that's the point. There's no running away from explosions in slow motion. For a while it seemed like it would, in fact, be explosion-free. And while it's gritty, that's not to say it's without gorgeous moments. There are some stunning visuals, the one that stood out most being a huge waterfall that cascades beside the main bad guy's villa.
This sums up the main problem of the film, though. Firstly, the fact that my favourite thing about the film was a few of the beautiful locations (and some Naomie Harris side-on nudity), and secondly, the fact that I just called the main bad guy "the main bad guy". I cannot remember a single character's name, not even the leads. I do remember the main woman was played by Gong Li, because her first name is Gong, and that amuses me. The plot was rather obscenely difficult to follow, but the fact that I didn't care about the fates of any of the characters, or what they were fighting for, made me just give up on attempting to figure out what was going on.
So, I cannot say that writer/director Michael Mann dropped the ball. Maybe the film just wasn't a fit with me, which is not something I can exactly fault it for. A second viewing would probably clear up a lot of the plot issues, and perhaps a clearer plot makes for an increased interest in the characters within it. But, really, I could not be bothered.
5/10
The next movie I see will probably be Brick. I saw it at the Sydney International Film Festival, and loved it there, and am very much looking forward to loving it again.
posted by Simon A at 7:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home