Miami Vice...

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  • Miami Vice...

    I caught it on cable last night.

    I kept my mouth shut when Jennifer Lopez played an Italian in Angel Eyes.

    I tolerated New York accented Staten Island white girl loud mouth Jennifer Esposito as a Hispanic Los Angeles cop in Crash.

    But Gong Li playing a Cuban drug trafficker is going too damn far. What the hell? She LOOKS Asian, and even worse, she has an Asian accent during her speaking parts. To me, it was VERY distracting from a movie that was already having a hard time vying for my attention.

    At first I thought it was a clever character. Asian crime lord woman teaming up with Columbian drug cartels.... sounds cool. But once I realized she was supposed to be of Cuban heritage I fell over in disbelief.

    Suck.

    Eddie

  • #2
    Re: Miami Vice...

    Spoilers (?) ahead.

    The movie did suck. Part of my problem with it, though, wasn't the casting as much as the inane "love" story. Nothing like love at first sight and 20 dull minutes spent on "deepening" the relationship to elevate it to major plot point status.

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    • #3
      Re: Miami Vice...

      One of the reasons "Miami Vice" was not well received was because it was marketed like "Bad Boys III" which is 180 degrees from Mann's vision.

      Also, what MV really is is an extended episode of "Robbery Homicide Division" -- A short lived TV show Michael Mann produced that starred Tom Sizemore as a RH detective similar to Al Pacino in "Heat".

      The whole tone and pacing is very similar to a RH episode (the show only lasted 13 episodes). It tries to hit the audience with a ton of realism at the expense of characterization and honest-to-goodness action. RH was more like the foreplay before the actual deed if you get my drift... And MV is the same way.

      I happen to like MV, however.

      It's not perfect, but it has its moments spread through out. Unfortunately, they aren't enough of those moments to make up the sum whole of their parts and create a compelling piece of coherent film making, IMO. It's an acquired taste. I understand why a lot of people were disappointed, or just don't like it.
      Positive outcomes. Only.

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      • #4
        Re: Miami Vice...

        I really, really liked this movie. I won't say loved. I loved Heat. I loved Collateral. But I just really, really liked Miami Vice. If you know what I mean.

        I'm too damn tired to get into my reasons for liking it. I wrote something rather thorough on an old thread if anybody's interested.

        And I honestly don't remember them saying Gong Li was of Cuban heritage. Maybe Cuban citizenship.

        Ele...

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        • #5
          Re: Miami Vice...

          Collateral was a good movie. Heat was a good movie. Miami Vice was a let down. Sonny drove a Ferrari F430.... a car chase would have been nice. And those go fast boats were pretty sweet... but the best we got was a 10 minute too long scene of Sonny and Isabella making goo goo eyes at each other in the boat on their was to Cuba.

          It had a few decent moments, but thats not enough for a movie that is 2 hours and some change.

          Eddie

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          • #6
            Re: Miami Vice...

            I'm not a Michael Mann fan, some I can get behind, but I HATED Miami Vice. Horrible all aound. Though, Gong Li was not supposed to be Cuban, she simply grew up there.

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            • #7
              Re: Miami Vice...

              I thought it was very poor. The characters were not interesting at all, Crockett and Tubbs didn't connect -- I knew very little about them. Their characters were not fleshed out.

              I'm a big fan of the TV show, but was very disappointed with the screenplay.
              "What's worse than being talked about? Not being talked about."

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              • #8
                Re: Miami Vice...

                Originally posted by Slow Eddie View Post
                but the best we got was a 10 minute too long scene of Sonny and Isabella making goo goo eyes at each other in the boat on their was to Cuba.
                That was actually my favorite scene in the movie.

                Ele...

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                • #9
                  Re: Miami Vice...

                  It actually wasn't that far-fetched. Cuba imported a lot of Chinese immigrants around the turn of the century as farm workers. There was also a fairly large community of middle-class Chinese-Americans from California who basically upped sticks and moved there to escape discrimination. Havana even had its own Chinatown before the Revolution ("Chino Barrio")

                  But yeah, that accent. Sheesh...

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                  • #10
                    Re: Miami Vice...

                    Originally posted by elephant1978 View Post
                    I really, really liked this movie. I won't say loved. I loved Heat. I loved Collateral. But I just really, really liked Miami Vice. If you know what I mean.

                    I'm too damn tired to get into my reasons for liking it. I wrote something rather thorough on an old thread if anybody's interested.

                    And I honestly don't remember them saying Gong Li was of Cuban heritage. Maybe Cuban citizenship.

                    Ele...

                    My thoughts exactly. When did they say she was Cuban?
                    sigpic

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                    • #11
                      Re: Miami Vice...

                      I think she actually said her mother is chinese
                      father picked her in africa or something

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                      • #12
                        Re: Miami Vice...

                        Well crap. I'm an ass.











                        Jennifer Lopez still sucks!

                        Eddie

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                        • #13
                          Re: Miami Vice...

                          What Mann was clearly trying to acheive with Fox and Farrell was a sense of intensity, and unspoken trust between the two partners, but it came off as two dull and lifeless characters who looked more like a bunch of frowning, scowling cops in need of a heavy dose of Valium.

                          And the cold, female lead was too "icey" to even care if she died or lived.

                          It was a dissapoitment, because Mann, usually has very interesting characters in his films.
                          @TerranceMulloy

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                          • #14
                            Re: Miami Vice...

                            This film is all about mood and all about style. Mann's Miami is populated with some of the best looking, best dressed drug dealers in the world. Drug dealers who look as if they are moonlighting as Armani models. In this world, if you want to score large quantities of Columbian H, then you should head towards the nearest bank of neon lights you see until you find yourself inside a swanky Latin nightclub. Bad guys here, when they are not engaged in vicious acts of violence, basically wander around softly lit million dollar beach front condos, making exposition laced phone calls for the benefit of the viewer. You quickly lose count of the number of times in the film a character begins a chunk of dialog with “this is how it's going to go down.”

                            You can understand what Mann is trying to do. When you are in this deep there is simply nothing but business. These people don't have friends, they don't have hobbies, they don't talk about their feelings like a character placed in conflict in a narrative film should. Unfortunately, try as he might to fight with his minimalist procedural approach, this is a narrative film and it is sorely lacking in any kind of emotional resonance. There are skirted attempts to allude to an unspoken bond between Tubbs and Crockett that goes beyond professional respect and trust, but this is fleeting. The few moments of emotional punch seem to come out of a dutiful sense of necessity on Mann's part, rather than a genuine attempt to embellish his characters. Miami vice is as cool as ice, but like ice it is also cold and if you start to poke holes in it then it quickly shatters.
                            Frosties are just Cornflakes for people who can't face reality.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Miami Vice...

                              Gong Li was the worse. totally mis casted. maybe he (MV) got her because memoirs of a geisha movie was out around the time they were making this or something. her speaking was so irritating to listen to as she mangled the English language, lol. there should've been a HOT druglord/business woman playing that part and i dont care which ethnic background either so we could understand why Crockett would take such a risk creeping around with her. but this just came off like the only reason he was messing with her was because it was in the script. totally unbelievable relationship and the movie was boring.

                              i only bought the DVD to listen to Michael Mann's commentary which was great and check out his filmmaking process. the film was shot beautifully with very unique locations yet the story fell short. this had so much potential it was ridiculous. he shouldve let someone else write the script and it would've been 1,000 times better. period.
                              One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

                              The Fiction Story Room

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