Miami Vice (UR) - Review
"Elvis has left the production"
Michael Mann goes back to the well with this slick reimagining of the the Miami Vice mythos, but comes up mostly empty handed. Crockett and Tubs (now played by Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx) are once again undercover south Florida drug cops, working and busting the cartels from the inside out. Gone is that 1980s scene nostalgia of the tv series, the je ne sais quoi chemistry of Johnson and Thomas, the hard as nails noir elements. Instead we get this milky translation, a bare bones retelling of the murky relationships and motivations of a undercover vice cop. Over dramatized and over produced, Miami Vice 2006 is just making the motions that were somehow done better and stronger on TV decades before.
4 Speed Boats out of 10 (BAD)
Showing posts with label Mann. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mann. Show all posts
Thief (1981)
Thief (R)
"Honor among Films"
Before electrifying 80s television with the cinematic crime series "Miami Vice" that catapulted him to fame, Director Micheal Mann wrote and directed this superb noir starring James Caan as a safecracker trying to do one more heist and go straight for his new found love and life.
Mann brings such a hard edge and slick sense of style to the film it's pulse is palpable. Caan's thief is a palpable antihero, an ultimate professional who has pulled himself by his bootstraps above street crime to profitability and self-righteous dignity. Unfortunately those he works among are missed the notice about honor among thieves, and through a disconnected series of events makes his last play at love, life and respectability while his new bosses try to suck him farther and farther into a new career of crime. One of Caan's most powerful roles, he is trapped between the need for wealth, need for love and the need for legitimacy. He is an uneducated, brutal bleeding heart whose only fear is a return to prison.
The rough edges of character and directly balanced out by Mann's best visuals and style. Thief crackles with energy, even in the shadows, and the final shootout brings a neon-lit Peckinpah vibe to the violence. His most visually striking film is also his first, and his best written characterization on screen until the release of Heat, Thief steals the show for both Mann and Caan.
9 Blue Jeans and Windbreakers with a .45 out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Honor among Films"
Before electrifying 80s television with the cinematic crime series "Miami Vice" that catapulted him to fame, Director Micheal Mann wrote and directed this superb noir starring James Caan as a safecracker trying to do one more heist and go straight for his new found love and life.
Mann brings such a hard edge and slick sense of style to the film it's pulse is palpable. Caan's thief is a palpable antihero, an ultimate professional who has pulled himself by his bootstraps above street crime to profitability and self-righteous dignity. Unfortunately those he works among are missed the notice about honor among thieves, and through a disconnected series of events makes his last play at love, life and respectability while his new bosses try to suck him farther and farther into a new career of crime. One of Caan's most powerful roles, he is trapped between the need for wealth, need for love and the need for legitimacy. He is an uneducated, brutal bleeding heart whose only fear is a return to prison.
The rough edges of character and directly balanced out by Mann's best visuals and style. Thief crackles with energy, even in the shadows, and the final shootout brings a neon-lit Peckinpah vibe to the violence. His most visually striking film is also his first, and his best written characterization on screen until the release of Heat, Thief steals the show for both Mann and Caan.
9 Blue Jeans and Windbreakers with a .45 out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
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About Me
- Kevin Gasaway via HardDrawn
- Turlock, California, United States
- Media and Reviews by Kevin Gasaway