i want you to hit me as hard as you can
hey everybody welcome back to another edition of the best movie never saw and this week we're
taking a look at a film that's a bit more recent than some of the other ones that we've talked
about 2006's miami vice here we go now the saga of crockett and tubbs is immediately recognizable
especially as an archive and pop culture piece of the 1980s i mean it was a decade of excess
fluorescent lighting rolled up sports coats and [ __ ] amazing hair and if any any show ever said
amazing hair and all those other things it was miami vice mommy vice ran for five seasons on nbc
about three good ones let's be honest and it drew heavily on the new wave culture and remained a
syndication stalwart for about 30 years it influenced everything from video games like
grand theft auto vice city to the storytelling format of police procedurals like law and order in
fact one of the reasons law order is the way it is is that dick wolf who stepped in in season three
and arguably ruined the show actually adopted a lot of the aspects of the show for law and order
later on down the line but i still think he ruined miami vice i mean he took away the pastels and cut
crockett's hair how could you i digress miami vice returned to the mainstream in the early 2000s with
series creator michael mann behind the camera only this big screen mommy vice is virtually nothing
like the television series it was based on or so they say in fact if you're a real fan of the show
and of the first season in particular you'll know that this whole movie is basically an adaptation
of one of the best episodes smuggler's blues which was written by miguel pinero the famous
playwright that was played by benjamin bratt in a movie that said people i guess were expecting
something light and very fun but that never really was miami vice that was a dark nihilistic show
right from the beginning and i just don't think people were expecting michael mann to actually do
an accurate representation of what the movie was on the big screen just because they really don't
honestly remember what the show was they think of the music they think of the flash but they don't
really think of any of the substance and that's a big problem so the box office was pretty much
a wash it cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 or so million dollars and it only made
about 63.5 million domestically plus another 100 million internationally but the critical and fan
reaction to the movie just wasn't very good and miami vice unfortunately faded pretty quickly
but stories of the troublesome production have abounded you see it was not an easy shoot thank
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to the show starting in the late 1990s a surge of films based on old tv shows flooded movie theaters
by 2005 shows like starsky and hutch and the dukes of azeroth had all been adapted as films albeit
they turned what were initially kind of serious dramas into goofy comedies
that said they were very successful michael mann however began developing the film version
of miami vice when jamie foxx brought up the concept during a party for their 2001 film ali
by the time production rolled around fox had already re-teamed with man on 2004's awesome
tom cruise movie collateral a film that bears many visual similarities to the miami vice movie
filming predominantly with digital something that he employed on ally and collateral and in fact
was quite controversial amongst fans man wanted this new miami vice to be completely distinct
from the 80s series and he succeeded on that level i think with script and hand man's production
of miami vice immediately suffered delays due to hurricanes hitting the caribbean and south
florida shooting locations while wilma and rita were destructive the impact of those storms along
with the devastating hurricane katrina caused the film a week's worth of shooting time the budget
ballooned with estimates putting it somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 to 150 million dollars
which is very very pricey for a down and dirty cop drama parts of that rather fairly
or unfairly can be blamed kind of on jamie foxx sort of you see after signing on to miami vice
jamie foxx won the academy award for his turn in rey which also increased his demands on man's film
fox reportedly insisted on having a salary increase to exceed co-star colin farrell as
well as top billing and fair enough because jamie foxx coming off of his oscar win for rey actually
was the bigger star and probably deserved the bigger paycheck because fact is he was simply the
bigger draw we didn't come down here to audition for business business auditions for us farrell's
pay was reduced slightly to accommodate this but that was only the beginning fox is said to require
that all of his flights be private rather than commercial with universal providing a jet for
the actor again i can't really fault fox for this he was such a huge star at the time people would
have been bothering him and frankly he was a huge movie star they always flew private especially in
that era i can't really fault jamie foxx for that fox also refused to film scenes on boats or planes
both of which are intrinsic to the look and feel of the miami vice television series now
this is where some things start to get a little bit strange eventually fox left the production
entirely to return to the united states after gunshots were fired on the set in the dominican
republic this forced man to scrap the original ending of the movie shifting the conclusion
from paraguay to miami while some sources have said that the original ending was actually far
superior to the one that we got michael mann has since said that he likes the version that actually
ended up in the finished film jamie foxx was far from the only challenge during production and you
know for all they said about jamie foxx i don't think his demands were that crazy mann himself
was criticized for some of his onset behavior which included multiple unexplained script changes
and filming in locations that were not safe for the cast and crew man's aim was to make the film
as realistic as possible this included creating simulated drug raids that he brought colin farrell
on and that were so realistic that many did not learn until later on that they were actually
staged sources on the production also said that during some of the shoots local gang members were
hired to work security for the production man has responded to the stories and rumors about miami
vice's production and simply said this the whole making of the movie was filled with adversity
whatever the crew might have endured it was all in the service of making a great film sometimes folks
are going to join this unit and they may have a tough time guess what they're on the wrong movie
fair enough folks michael mann was an old school guy and he had an old school attitude
towards shooting a film perhaps this is why he hasn't really worked a lot in recent years
i think his kind of gritty you know take on doing these types of movies just isn't quite the same
as what we would think nowadays the production also took a heavy toll on co-star colin farrell
who dealt with major addiction issues while filming miami vice to the point that he
apparently recalls nothing of making the movie i'm a fiend for mojitos
as soon as production wrap farrell actually checked into a rehab facility while the rest
of the casting crew attended the wrap party the demand for realism something seen in man's
acclaimed films like heat and collateral meant issuing all the pop culture elements of the
1980s series namely the music the miami vice movie does not employ the classic john hammer theme song
nor was hammer invited to score the film hammer responded to this by saying
i was completely surprised that they didn't have a remake of the theme i think it's a matter of being
too cool for school mann however did include the phil collins song in the air tonight which was a
pivotal inclusion in the tv series plot but in the movie the song is covered by the band non-point a
miami-based rock group the soundtrack is populated by john murphy's more subdued and contemporary
score as well as some really cool tracks by moby mogwai auto rock it's an amazing song gold frapp
strict machine again super cool song nina simone center man great song and patty labelle when it
finally premiered miami vice presented something completely unlike the action-oriented police
procedural that was a hit on the small screens or again so they said miami vice was a feature film
that divided critics with entertainment weekly newsweek empire rolling stone and critic richard
roper all lotting it while the washington post and the los angeles times gave it complete [ __ ] so
why is a film with only a 46 on rotten tomatoes also making it onto multiple lists of the best
movies of 2006 you see the film that michael mann set out to make with miami vice is not a crime
thriller in the traditional sense no critics had anything negative to say about the visuals
on display in the movie which are among some of the more gorgeous frames in michael mann's career
miami vice represents the next evolution in the story that man began in 1995's heat believe it
or not there is a vocal minority that does not appreciate that film for the masterpiece
that it is miami vice is another meditation on the nature of masculinity in the primal
opposing forces of police and criminals this is very cuban the protective military
it's the talk of a man that may sound a bit over the top when discussing a movie whose
main characters are crocodile tubs but it's true michael mann's movies are very rich thematically
and he took miami vice very seriously and in fact he even took the show somewhat seriously which is
why i suppose he stepped down after season two to direct manhunter miami vice begins and ends
very abruptly in the middle of an undercover case crockett and tub start the film off with
an action sequence involving an informant played by john hawks this quickly leads the pair of
miami-dade detectives being deputized into an organized crime drug enforcement task force
there they go undercover to infiltrate colombian drug cartel this leads to run-ins with the
russians cubans and the aryan brotherhood in a complicated transnational drug operation
we got meth ice glass ease k's x mitsu's ames colombian h crockett also meets isabella played
by the sultry gong lee and falls head over heels in love with her something that crockett was
always doing on the tv shows too this miami vice definitely ups the sexiness compared to the 80s
series with the romantic pairings of colin farrell and gong lee and naomi harris and jamie foxx
they all share multiple sensual and steamy moments we also have an excellent supporting
cast naomi harris again she plays trudy who is a famous character on the tv show and kieran hines
is aboard as fbi agent john fujima respectively everyone involved this project came on board to
work with michael mann regardless of their size of role heinz especially brings gravitas to his
performance which makes it a highlight of the film there is definitely a glossiness to this movie
that is reminiscent of the original series but the use of high definition video gives the production
a more immediate feel one that almost puts the viewer right into the action man's attention
to detail in every scene highlighted by the nightclub sequence which starts the movie off in
the theatrical version but in the director's cut there's a cigarette boat chase this all showcases
attention to detail in composition and framing of every sequence in the film clocking in at 2 hours
and 15 minutes this is a long movie that has few standout action sequences but opts to focus more
on lingering and meditative character-driven sequences michael mann makes miami vice feel
less about excess and more about the pitfalls of testosterone in some ways it almost kind of feels
like michael bay by way of terence malik which i suppose is a good way to discuss michael mann's
films it balances lyrical shots of cars highways and landscapes with the intense action which
appears in staccato bursts of gunfire the closing shootout sequence feels like the nighttime sibling
to the more famous street standoff from heat in so many ways miami vice is fundamentally different
from its predecessor but also ends up kind of being the perfect big screen updating of it
it's kind of the movie that michael mann has been building towards making his entire career and is
kind of an interesting button on his career if you consider it in some ways his last truly great film
black hat was a fun movie but i don't think any of us would actually consider it a great movie
the legacy of this movie has grown in the decade and a half since it premiered on the big screen
with contemporary reviews much kinder now than they were in 2006 had miami advice been made today
it almost most absurdly would have been better received but its impact remained substantial
filmmaker harmony karine cited the movie as a main influence on spring breakers
saying i could feel the pace when i watch that film i don't even pay attention to what they're
saying or the storyline i love the colors and i love the texture miami vice is the thinking
person's action movie and an excellent alternative for action aficionados looking for their bloodshed
with a little bit of class fun factoid i interviewed colin farrell several years ago
for seven psychopaths and the entire time i could not stop gushing over how much i love miami vice
i think i even said to him at one point colin man that movie's so [ __ ] kick-ass
and colin farrell actually agreed with me and said that he was really happy that people were
re-examining the movie and finding it despite the fact that it wasn't hit when it came out
so colin farrell appreciates miami vice you know what i appreciate miami vice 2.
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