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Mann's MIAMI VICE Screens While Lloyd Dobler Kicks Ass!!
is frightened by pink flamingos...
Lloyd Dobler Kicks Ass (one of the more awkward pseudonyms we’ve seen in a while) sent in this review from a recent test screening of Michael Mann’s MIAMI VICE (trailer here).
Needless to say, this film is not a literal port of Mann’s pastel-laden, design-conscious 1980s television series – it’s more like VICE by way of HEAT, or COLLATERAL. VICE is even photographed using some of the night-photography tech that made COLLATERAL look (and feel) so distinctive.
Interestingly enough, nearly all feedback I’ve gotten from this test screening has been remarkably consistent: MIAMI VICE is well on the way to greatness, but needs some serious trimming and tweaking to get there. Many sequences are said to be redundant or repetitive, some need to be punched-up, and it's said to be a bit “too long” (pushing 2 ½ hours). In other words, there’s apparently little here that can’t be fixed editorially. Which is good, and totally fair, as this screening was presented as a rough cut…there’s still time for fine tuning.
I love Michael Mann. I adore his artistry…his profound understanding of how strongly music can impact a narrative (an art that seems to be lost to all but a few these days). As uneven as LAST OF THE MOHICANS can be, Nathaniel Poe charging through the forest to Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman’s soaring score can really get the adrenaline going. Does anyone out there remember THE KEEP, a brooding Mann film that starred Scott Glen and the captain from DAS BOOT? Nazis in a citadel inhabited by a freaky creature – and a score by Tangerine Dream. Crazy stuff.
Wonder how VICE will work out? Will Sonny Crockett still have a pet alligator? Probably not. Will any visage of Jan Hammer’s bizarre score remain in tact (this isn’t a slam…I own nearly all of Hammer’s available MIAMI VICE music) by the time the movie hits theaters? I’m guessing it won’t, and perhaps it shouldn’t. How will this VICE feel without Admiral Adama bossing around the good guys?
So many questions…here’s Lloyd Dobler Kicks Ass with a few answers…
Miami Vice was easily the film I'd been looking forward to most this year. Fuck Da Vinci Code, or X3, or T.J. Mackey's latest spank-fest/Scientology brainwashing device. Hell, I'm even going to go ahead and say "Fuck" to the remake of All the King's Men. Not because it looks like a bad movie or anything, but really just to throw a "classier" pic in with all the summer tripe. I don't know why I put Miami Vice at the head of the class. I didn't really care for the TV show that much; I thought it was cheesy and leagues behind Mann's far superior Crime Story and Robbery Homicide Division. But what do I know- those both flopped, and Vice became this cultural phenomenon.
Maybe it had to do with Mann's work. I think he is easily one of the three best directors working today. His scripts (especially dialogue) can be a little stale, but the man (Mann?) is a true visual genius, kinda like a more street Terrence Malick. And with the exception of Ali and the dreadful The Keep, he's got a pretty impressive body of work, full of films that get better and better on repeat viewings (The Insider, Manhunter, and Collateral being the best examples). Couple all that with a shooting style that promised to push his HD work on Collateral even further, and a cast headlined by two media whores but supported by a galaxy of awesome character actors (Barry Shabaka Henley, Gong Li, the modern-day gods known to us mortals as Justin Theroux and Ciaran Hinds, and my future wife, Naomie Harris), and it's safe to say that I was strongly showing my anticipation for this one (and by "strongly showing" I mean "walking around with an erection all day"). Oh yeah, and the trailer kicked fucking ass. So when I got the chance to see it, well...it's safe to say I didn't say "No."
And the verdict?
It's...okay. Potentially really pretty great (but more on that in a little bit) but just "okay" right now.
The plot seems to be straight out of the TV show: Miami Vice Detectives Crockett and Tubbs go deep undercover to infiltrate an international drug trafficking ring, only to have their personal lives come crashing head-on into the mix. I'm not being vague on purpose, that's really the whole kit and caboodle of it all. First off, though, let me tell you that for good or ill, the film is really nothing like the TV show. They're both called Miami Vice, and some of the character names are the same, but that's about it. I got a feeling that a lot of the criticism that we're gonna see for this film could be quelled by renaming it and the characters (a la what some proposed for the Dawn of the Dead remake), but unfortunately, that ain't gonna happen.
First and foremost, this film is another testament to Mann's skill as a filmmaker. I think that, visually, this is the most accomplished of all his films, despite the roughness of it at this stage (more on this later, again). He's captured Miami in a way that's hard to describe; he doesn't go the Scarface or Any Given Sunday path of playing up the glitz and lights to an extreme degree, but he really doesn't de-emphasize it either. And to make things more confusing, he's not playing for a middle ground either. He, and maybe it's the HD cameras, gives everything an ethereal quality that makes Miami feel alien, like he did to LA in Collateral but to an even greater degree here. I'd equate it to the feeling you get driving through orange lit streets at night.
A lot of people have commented on how foreboding the film itself seems from the trailer, and that’s due, in no small part, to the cinematography. Shit, I blow at conveying it here, so just go see it. A lot of people were bitching about the constant use of handheld cameras, but I actually thought it gave the film a real immediacy and was never overdone like in The Bourne Supremacy (a film many were unfavorably comparing the camerawork to).
And that immediacy is easily the best thing about the film. There's a real visceral charge in every scene of the film, from Crockett and Tubbs driving through Miami or moving through a club or racing speedboats (an awesome scene, and shot with such skill and intensity you forget that the speedboat chases were the cheesiest parts of the show) or flying dope over Colombia. Mann puts you right in the thick of things, even in scenes when there’s not a lot of action. To be honest, I see many people griping about that too. This isn’t an “action film,” per say. It’s a police procedural, like so many of Mann’s work. But when he does need to bring the noise, you get the funk.
Like in a shootout that rivals the heist scene shootout in Heat.
Oh my god, this scene rocks so fucking goddamn hard it’s not even funny. I mean it. Again, a simple setup. A sting/surveillance goes horribly awry, and Crockett and Tubbs (and the cops) are pitted against the drug dealers. Simple. Yeah, right. This scene is a small masterpiece of sound and violence and kinetic charge. Mann’s use of space and geography is unparalleled here, as even though all hell is breaking loose, we never get confused about the particulars of who’s shooting and where. Plus, it’s all taking place at night! I guarantee you, THIS scene is the reason Mann decided to do this film (other than the dump truck of money delivered to his house), if only for the chance to stage a complex, intense, and exciting gunfight in (at times) near-total darkness (at times it was reminiscent of the first gunfight from Equilibrium. I’d like to think Mann was referencing it on purpose, but I doubt it). HD rocks, man, and this gunfight is proof positive. The biggest complaint here was that Crockett and Tubbs move more like trained Navy Seals than like Miami cops, but honestly, they’re eons more believable than Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in those “other” Miami Cop movies.
For the most part, the acting’s quite solid. Ever since he decided that “Unpredictable” was the best thing to happen to R&B since Teddy Pendergrass (it’s not. John Legend, however, is. His album’s so good it’s not even funny, but I digress), Foxx and his ego have been annoying the shit out of me, but he’s good here. He’s not “Ray” good, and despite his top-billing he’s really playing second banana to Farrell’s Crockett, but he provides good support, tough and charming and all that jazz, but all in that underplayed Michael Mann way. As for Colin Farrell, well, I’m of two minds. On one hand, his tortured and intense work as Crockett works far better than the smug airlessness Don Johnson brought to the role, and he’s certainly very physically persuasive. Yet I was always aware of Farrell working overtime to seem “tortured and intense.” He was good, don’t get me wrong, and maybe some of that work might have been representative of the stress his character was going through, but I wonder how an actor like Josh Holloway or Mark Ruffalo would have been in the part. Concerning the chemistry between the two- it’s definitely there, but it’s more akin to the DeNiro/Kilmer relationship in Heat, i.e. gestures, shorthand, and body language to show closeness rather than one-liners.
The rest of the cast is solid, with only Naomie Harris as the weakest link. She’s gorgeous, but as Tubbs’ kidnapped long-suffering girlfriend, she really doesn’t have much to do. As Castillo, Henley basically redoes his work on Robbery Homicide Division, but he’s skilled at it, and it’s nice to see a police lieutenant in a cop movie that isn’t gunning for the hero’s badge. Hinds plays an FBI agent whose name I missed, and he’s always a treat to see, but frankly, he’s a little wasted- he’s just doing the standard tight-ass Bureau official. He does it well enough, I guess, but after Munich and Rome, I expect a lot from him. Taking over from John Diehl as Larry Zito, Theroux was really good. His Zito’s kind of an adrenaline junkie who genuinely enjoys his work (unlike Crockett), and while he’s a little too subdued to steal the movie, his energy is fun during his limited screentime. Gong Li is terrific, though. Much like her work in Memoirs of a Geisha, she takes a clichéd role (here it’s the “bad girl” currently involved with Crockett who had a previous history with the main baddie) and brings this raw intensity and sexuality to it. And a certain tenderness too; one scene in particular, where Crockett and her lie in bed during a romantic “time-out” in Cuba and just talk about how they ended up where they did in this stage of their lives, Li brings a real warmth and sensuality that’s quite disarming, especially in the middle of this epic police drama. You almost wish the movie could center on the relationship between these two.
Now, I called this an “okay” movie that could be great. Right now, it is in no way ready to be released. Some of its problems are technical-there were some unfinished effects shots (mostly bullet hits that needed to be CGI’ed in, and a dodgy explosion), some unprocessed camera work, and a temp score (that was well-done- Lotta electronica, some salsa-esque stuff, and some good rap, but, alas, no Jay-Z and Linkin Park), but I’m sure that stuff will be fixed by the July release date. It’s the length of the movie that worries me the most. The cut I saw was 2.5 hours long, and it felt longer than Heat was. This is a movie that cries out to be a lean and mean 2 hours long. Like Collateral- that was two hours long, and it hustled along.
I think cutting Miami Vice down is doable; the first half is incredibly repetitive. Basically, this chain of events is repeated over and over: Crockett and Tubbs meet a group of drug dealers, convince them they’re not cops, and infiltrate deeper into the criminal network. It may be realistic police procedure, but it gets boring after a while. I’d keep half of what’s there now and the speedboat race, and ditch the rest.
Also, the big shootout happens just after the halfway point, and it’s so good that nothing after it really reaches the same level of intensity. The shootout at the end is good, but it’s just not as good, so as a result, the second half of the film suffers a bit. But hey, that’s what they pay editors to figure out. I just work in a bread store.
I really think this one has the potential to be a winner, provided Mann and Co. do some judicious cutting. As it stands, it’s good but flawed, but I’d be really surprised if it premiered in theaters as is. Still, just don’t go expecting Miami Vice the TV show, and you should be fine.
Thanks for the write-up, Lloyd. Appreciated.
Ready...set...TALKBACK!
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d to this year"...BOOM. i'm out.
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Yes, i'm a retard but I would like Jan Hammer's theme to be integrated somehow to the movie.
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Im not feeling the handheld thing
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thats my response to this review.
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Karl Roden as Vulture?
Robert Patrick as Ironman? -
http://tinyurl.com/jfsbj On topic, though, I have absolutely no desire to see this movie. It seems like Mann is taking this way too seriously. And Farrell looks like a total tool as Crockett. If they had to make the movie at all, they should have gone the Brady Bunch and done a tongue-in-cheek homage/parody. Otherwise it's just more overheated buddy cop nonsense. Sure, it'll look good, it's Mann afterall, but it'll be too long and too serious. Bring on the pastels and the gator, or don't bring it on at all.
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Someone should re-make the Keep.
as a balls to the wall fx extravaganza. And big feck off biblical Hebrew angels warring with demons. -
I stopped reading after that, fucko. And you call yourself a Mann fann. Shame on you. Congrats on printing more rubbish, AICN..
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Popcorn munching, brain exploding, visceral fun. I couldn't give a shit about the story, just wanna have fun and Mann delivers. 'Nuff said.
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but to say this movie-- this TV show that doesn't stand up in any other way than nostalgia--starring Colin (i have yet to prove why i'm famous) Farrel and Oscar-Winner Jamie Foxx is the film you're looking forward to the MOST this year? it just showed me where the reviewer's hea is.
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OK, I don't *hate* Mann, but 'one of the top three directors working today'? No. The only good film he's turned out is Manhunter and Collateral was just about OK. Heat was SO overated, patchy and a waste of the 'stars' envolved. Mohicans was nice to look at with some good acting but patchy too. I think as a director his best work is ahead of him and I'll hold judgement on Vice until I see it.
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this is fact. But perhaps Mann could make it tolerable.
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just kidding... I'm sold for the summer, always loved the show... although i'm a bit worried that it may end up like a Bad Boy 3
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Miami Vice is definately at the top of my must sees. The tv series is the coolest ever. My next vacation is in Miami just because of the series.
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Nice review, this is one of my most anticipated films too, don't know why, I've never even watched the TV show but there is something about the potential here that just floats my boat, glad to hear my anticipation hasn't been in vain.
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a new look for Miami Vice is good. If we got a pastiche...the same pastels'n'loafers original, it would be boring. Mann is wise to update it to present day L.A. Also the MUSIC should be great, I love soundtracks to his films. Thief had Tangerine Dream, a great soundtrack. Heat was just STUNNING - kronos quartet and others got the feeling just right. But back to Miami Vice...looks great. I think this and The Departed will be good.
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That made me laugh out loud. After all that critique... hilarious. I think every movie critic should end every review with that line.
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Patchy? WTF does that even mean? Mann CERTAINLY is one of the top 3 directors working today with a consistency that is nearly unmatched. I didn't hear 'The Insider' in your unjustified and unsubstantiated tirade.
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Thanks God.
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I'm hoping.
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Patchy means that it was good in parts. For example in Heat you have the jaw dropping heist shootout. It leaves me breathless, but other parts drag e.g the set up and then waiting for the final showdown. I also thought it was a mistake to have De Niro and Pacino dance around each other some much and Val Kilmer is only OK. I know it's not a popular opinion, but hey, that's all it is. My opinion. I didn't see The Insider hence, why I don't have an opinion on it. If I did, that certainly would have been unjustified and unsubstantiated. Just because you have a boner for him doesn't mean I have. Like I said I think his best work is ahead of him and that is what I'm waiting for.
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Although uneven at times, some of the visuals and that Tangerine Dream score are amazing. One of the most "gothic" looking films ever made. The Keep is begging for a remake (or director's cut as I heard the studio fucked with it after it left Mann's hands).
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as the reviewer above states. Big shootout around the middle, and then it's slightly down hill from there. Where have I heard that before? PATCHY!
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If you ever saw Tigerland, the guy is a very gifted actor (I hear he is excellent in Far Side Of The World as well). He has starred in some uneven films since then, but is an interesting character both on and off-screen. I like Farrell. I like that he just doesn't give a fuck about the Hollywood "system". He's in it for the money and girls, not the fame or glamour.
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What the fuck for? Just release the fucker on DVD...now. Its an awesome film.
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...actually remember Miami Vice?
Right now it's being rerun on Sleuth TV and I've been blown away by how nihilistic the show is.
I think a lot of people unfairly lump it up with other fare like A-Team and Knight Rider. Every episode of A-Team ended with Hannibal saying "I love it when a plan comes together!" with that big grin of his.
Most people remember the pastel colored clothes, the fancy cars, and the pop music. But all of that was a stark counterpoint to its dark storylines. I'd be hard pressed to count on my hand the number of episodes with happy endings. In fact, I don't think there were ever any.
If this movie has half the guts of the original television show we'll be in for a treat. Especially with Mann at the helm, this is my most anticipated film of this year. -
is pretty spot-on. During the final scene in "Heat", as DeNiro is dying, I believe Mann used "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters" by Moby. Interestingly enough, "Syriana" used the same piece for their ad campaign. It's a very beautiful, moving piece of music.
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I was at the same screening last week (It was in Phoenix) Michael Mann was actually present and a friend of mine shook his hand and told him he liked Heat because he didn't want to tell him he wasn't keen on Vice. I on the other hand had similar feelings to this review here. Here is a excert from my review at www.movietack.net- "Yes, there were technical flaws, but underneath all that there is a great deal of potential for the new Michael Mann film. Perhaps the first thing that jumps out the most is the movie
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...was the one where the lady cop gets abducted by aliens, and James Brown's face is in the clouds and it opens up like a door. nice.
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...by the way?
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"I like that he just doesn't give a fuck about the Hollywood "system""--- i disagree. he is a perfect product of the Hollywood system. His PR people and agents were hyping him as the next big thing with no track record to speak of. now, it very well may be that he is gifted. it's his job to STFU and show us. i'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. just not with this TV movie. so far all i've seen is that a UK accent buys credibility.
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Anyone who thinks Heat is "Overrated", doesn't know their asshole from their elbow and shouldn't be allowed to watch movies EVER AGAIN.
Mann IS one of the top 3 directors working today. End o' fuckin' Story. -
Yes, Mann makes films that look good, he has a great eye, he usually gets good performances from his actors and music, editing and production values are all good. In my opinion is he one of the top 3 directors working today? No. In fact if you really want to know he doesn't even make my top 25. That's right, I went there. Does anyone out there agree (I'll take top ten) or does everone on this site always follow the crowd?
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Great article but Mohicans is astonishingly underated.I will keep my opinion as quiet as the critique.Why?Ooooooooh...I'm disgruntled.Anything with Gong Li is usually great anyway.
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Mann has to be considered one of the best filmmakers working today... name another filmmaker who has a four-film run like Mohicans, Heat, Insider, and Ali. All masterpieces. I was disappointed in Collateral because it wasn't challenging the status quo like his films usually do, but there's an obvious reason: HE DIDN'T WRITE THE DAMN THING. With the reports of Vice being 2 1/2 hours, and it being his first solo script since Heat, one can only hope that he's back doing things his way. I'm not sure that talking about individual films makes him one of the contemporary greats, but put the last decade and a half of his work together and few, if any, measure up.
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Mann is doing so well. Seriously his films are getting better and better. Compare L.A. Takedown to heat. Look at the camera work and sense of reality in Collateral. Compare the original Miami Vice to the look of the trailer. Sure he has a few problems, which a good editor could sort out for him. But I cant think of another director who's work is just getting better and better. He's the 1999 version of Fincher.
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we have debated your Mann love (hur hur) before. I agree he is getting better but I would rank Lynch; Coens; Soderbergh; Cronenberg; Tarantino;P T Anderson; Wes Anderson; Linklater; Fincher and Miike, above him. That's not to say I like all their movies better than all Mann's. Again, I don't expect most people to agree with me, but there you go. Isn't it great we all don't like the same things otherwise Speilberg would be the best director and Hanks best actor every year. Oh wait. Shit...
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Anyone else agree that Bana would have been great here instead of Farrell?
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..personally the shit-fest that was Man onb Fire was the watersheds for me.I found it unwatchable,whjeras I found the Bourne sequel to be irritating but enjoyable.MOF was the worst experience of fimgoing in my life.Awful.Then again,there was always ...oh christ,caught myself.Theres loads.....
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I'm sorry for the spelling.A friend mentioned tibet on the phone recently and was cut off every time.I type and send this shit perfectly typed and it comes out like the above.F-in' chinese BB.Sorry.
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We all know that you REALLY LOVE BSG!!!
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...or was the film made to help sell the show DVD's? I heard the music royalties were outrageously expensive and hard to obtain.
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Especially the trapezius... What was up with that?
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I found the box set of this here and had avoided it for a while.Relented.Thought frsat season was cool but got terribly bored of that guy in the rain with the twin Grace Park.The 2nd season is okay so far(sorry,the ripoffs here only got to part 1 of Ensign Ro on another BS).I like it,weird camera 'artistry' n'all.This and Dr Who are cool.Fucking hell,we've put up with so many years of fucking god awful Star Trek,at least theres a choice now.Christ,I even watched an episode of Kristen Bell is hot or whatever its called.P.S.Why call it Miami Vice,which is obviously to attract old fans,and not use the music or 'world'?Money?Well....at least Gong Li is in it.Taste.Farrel can be good but is definately a twat.
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is virtually unwatchable.The kind ogf impenetrable piece of arse that wankers try to make out is a classic but when asked what the story is are clueless.Rubbish,its crap.Stop mastabating.
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...not his visual style. That's generally left to his DP, although I'm sure he plays a huge role in the overall look of his characters. What makes Mann such a stand-out filmmaker is the way his protagonists and antagonists function together. All the way back to old Miami Vice episodes, through Manhunter, on through Heat, The Insider, and up to Collateral, those characters have always been very closely associated in some way, or had broken ice as enemies and mutually found that common ground, which made their conflict so much more interesting than just a normal "goodguy-badguy" thing. That extra tension and the fact that you care so much about BOTH sides by the climax is what makes Mann so great, IMO. By now it's probably a bit formulaic, but it's still makes for a great popcorn movie!
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The Keep is based on a great book so theres your fucking story...the incoherence in the film is due to... yes. you've gueesed it, the studio execs who butchered Mann's cut of the film.
The Keep: astonishing photography, that amzing tilt down the forest to the german trucks at the start, the music as Glenn is summoned to the keep. the production design by John Box of Lawrence of Arabia/Dr Zhivago fame.
If you don't like this moody cult classic you can fuck off. And you can quite me on that. -
damn spelling mistakes....
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...huh?So,I guess I should like it cos it aint Manns fault it was butchered and the book was good?Are you fucking kiddi...oh I give up.The Keep Mastabating.
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With a handle like that you ought to practice on that laptop ;-)
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In case you were not informed, you are no longer the President of the Colonies. Although you did manage a respectable job for someone who was 42nd in the line of succession. And remember, it was me that saved your life.
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One of the great character actors working today, and a Mann veteran.
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And Wilford Brimley too just to round out the gruff eighties breakfast cereal dudes.
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Anyone who thinks that Miami Vice should have been parodied is out of their mind. This wasn't some Brady Bunch/Scooby Doo/Charlie Angel/Starsky and Hutch piece of mire. This WAS the show on Friday Nights. Yes, it is dated. But the show was a trendsetter in so many aspects. Soundtrack, camera shots, lighting, editing...and the show was great too. And the movie, in the hands of the master, will be great as well.
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Clearly the most unintentionally gay subject heading of the week.
I always thought boys liked Spider-Man and men dug Jessica Alba, but whatever. -
Was that supposed to be a joke? What else, "does anyone remember 2001, the Space Odyssey?"
By the way, until the delayed DVD comes out:
http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3464810
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i've never heard of "The Keep" until now.
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Easy to obtain a laserdisc-to-dvd transfer on Ebay. I bought one a year ago fpr 12 bucks and it looks and sound fantastic. It's widescreen 2.35:1. I doubt an official dvd will ever be released as I hear Michael Mann hates The Keep. Bootlegs are a necessary part of life sometimes.
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Ala Stanley Kubrick. Release a set with Thief, The Keep, Manhunter, Last Of The Mohicans, Heat & Collateral. I just put The Keep dvd in as all this chat made me crave some demonic Nazi killings set to Tangerine Dream.
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Although I am aware of the fact that author F. Paul Wilson vehemently disliked Michael Mann's adaption of his brilliant novel THE KEEP, I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I absolutely loved the book when I first read it, and Michael Mann's version manages to remain surprisingly faithful to the book (despite the author's complaints). It is basically the story of a Nazi army detachment that is sent into the Transylvanian Alps to secure the Dinu Pass against a possible attack from the Russians. Once there, the Nazis station themselves within a remote castle located in a tiny Romanian village. The castle is abandonned, but its caretaker warns the occupying German force not to touch any of the sixteen thousand eight hundred and seven brass and nickel crosses which line the keep's walls. Two German guards stumble upon one of the crosses they believe to be made of silver, and promptly succeed in removing it. Needless to say, all hell breaks loose. An ancient evil that has been imprisoned there for centuries has been released, and begins to kill the germans that have invaded its home. The Germans enlist the aid of a frail, Jewish professor of history and his daughter to help them solve the mystery of what is killing their men. In another part of Europe, a mysterious man is awoken at the exact moment of the evil entity's release. He charters a boat, and sets out in direction of the keep for a rendevous with an age old adversary. This was essentially the story, and it was certainly captured in Michael Mann's film. true, there were subtle differences such as the Professor's daughter's name (Magda in the book/Eva in the film), and the fact that the entity in the book is mistaken for a vampire (but, may in fact be the basis for the legend), while the movie version is clearly not (the main complaint of the movie is the appearance of the creature itself in all of its various incarnations). The one thing I do miss from the book is the creature (Molasar/Rasalom) succeeding in making the Professor question his faith (by pretending to fear the cross - a symbol of Christianity), but I suspect that much of that was left on the cutting room floor (since there is a scene where Glenn/Glaeken, the mysterious stranger, asks the Professor why a creature that fears the cross would choose to decorate his home with them). This movies BEGS for a Director's Cut since you can clearly see the choppy editing. I was lucky enough to be able to fill in the blanks because I was familiar with the book, but I can certainly understand people's confusion. Anyway, if you want to see what the original author, F. Paul Wilson intended, I highly recommend you pick up the 5 issue comic book adaption by IDW which was written by him. Remarkably, the two versions are very similar. But please be sure to check out the film! It has wonderful performances by Jurgen Prochnow, Scott Glenn, and Gabriel Byrne (and there is the beautiful Alberta Watson as well).
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You mean, like chris tucker/jackie chan cheesefests? or those will smith/martin lawrence handjobs called 'movies'? Vice city will be THE defining cop movie, not standard! Mann is one of the most passionate filmmakers of our age. one of the great things about watching Mann flicks is watching how the characters develop, as if watching a slice of real life of some person going through some stress on planet EARTH (earth to michael bay...). And as for Farrel, hes a good actor (Tiger Land is undoubtedly his best movie to date, and a GREAT coen movie). If hes not high all the time maybe he can pick some better roles.
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Oh hell yes I remember that one! After that I started buying movies just because Tangerine Dream did the music. Anyone remember James Caan in Thief?
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Spoilers. You like to ruin BSG, so don't cry to me for ruining this crappy movie. The movie was HORRIBLE. I loved the TV show. This movie would have made a great two hour episode somewhere in the 5th season of the show. You know, after they get a new car, start dressing differently, have the 8th episode with Valerie or Ricco's kid or Calderone's daughter that gave birth to Ricco's kid. You know, right when the show started to suck. The lead actress, Gong Li, was horrible! You couldn't understand a word she said. Also, how did a Chinese girl from Cuba (her aunt lived in Cuba, her mom was a surgeon in Cuba) become involved in this drug cartel? I doubt that the script was written for a Chinese actress, they must have just hired her for the heck of it. The story makes no sense, unless they have a sequel to it. The firt 30 minutes of the movie end up meaning absolutely nothing. The final gun battle sucked! It reminded me of the Police Academy movies where people were five feet away from each other and couldn't shoot each other. The ending sucked. I guess it sets up a sequel. However, I don't care to see Gong Li in another movie for the rest of my life, and the person that played her boss/lover wasn't that great of an actor. Speaking of crappy actors, which except for Jamie Fox, the actress who plays his wife (he's married to Trudy in this movie), and the actress that portrays Gina (I can't remember if she is even called Gina in the movie), the rest of the cast SUCKS. Colin Farell sucks in the movie. Why? How many different accents do you need? No, they were used for different undercover roles, they were used for his main character. As I stated above, Gong Li was horrible. You can't understand a single word that she said. I didn't need to see her and Sonny having sex three times. It just slowed the plot. Did I mention how I can't figure out how she is from Cuba? Again, the script probably called for a cuban actress, they decided to get Gong Li instead. I know I'm all over the place. But hey, at least I'm not one of those fake reviewers that are used here at ainitcool to bolster a movie before it comes out. You guys know what I'm talking about. At least I'm not trying to review a movie based on the poster! Just like what happened to the last Cameron Crowe film, you know, The rip off of the Zach Braff film. Ok, sorry.... Miami Vice sucked. First 1/3 of the movie- useless because they never came back to it. Action at the end sucked. There is even a scene where a guy blows up a house in Florida, even though he is somewhere in South America. He can do this because of all of the surveillance that he has on this house. However, he doesn't start using the surveillance until after the cops have rescued the girl. Why the hell isn't he paying attention to the house when he knows that there are important things going on in the house? If he had, he would have known that Sonny and Tubbs were cops. I still don't know why he didn't figure out that they were cops after that though, since the police showed up rather quickly. Ok, Ok... I'm just trying to save you a lot of money on this movie. Just wait until you can get it from piratebay or some other torrent system. Peace Out, F-Jackie, WHRDA sucks, Yankees Suck, but Red Sox suck more. I was at games 1, 2, and 7, of the 2001 World Series, awesome games!
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