Miami Vice

Year: 2006

Grade: C+

Country: USA

Director: Mann

Review

a film like this must be measured on a different scale than something as insignificant as “my super ex-girlfriend,” and that’s the downside of being as good as michael mann. in collateral mann employs the use of one song by audioslave, in miami vice he employs audioslave on at least three different occasions. perhaps audioslave is a good metaphor for mann’s last three films. audioslave rose from the ashes of rock gods rage against the machine and soundgarden. while audioslave is good in theory, they just don’t work together. mann’s last three films, despite some flourishes in acting and visual style, have just not worked – especially when compared to the previous two. it’s not that miami vice, ali or collateral have been BAD, but they’re not that great either. collateral was an interesting story with good acting and a new visual style, clearly the winner of mann’s last three. miami vice has some flourishes of the same kind, but is dragged down by some of the action cliches. cliches can be overcome by great directing, but they aren’t in this instance. miami vice could have been less serious and been an homage to the james bond genre, or it could have been a little more serious and been more inline with mann’s own “heat” or “thief.” it was a little too in the middle and dragged down by some of the lovey stuff and the ending. lastly, one of the things i like about mann is the sounds he uses. his gun fights sound better than anyone (other than speilberg’s in saving private ryan). usually sound guys use stock sounds and work with those, it seems that mann, or, maybe more accurately, his sound guys (callahan/coretz) has/have his/their own set of sounds.

Watched in theater