Doomsday's Andrei Tarkovsky Love Fest

Gotta love Heat.

U wot.

I re-watched The Insider like a year or two ago. It's one of Michael Mann's best.

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Keanu would survive the zombie apocalypse.

Ali (2001)




When Ali was released it was first and foremost a Will Smith vehicle. It was one of the first films to help him take that step from the land of blockbusters to the Oscar-seeking actor we know today who is a little too old to be cool, isn't as cool as he once was and what's worst of all, he still thinks he's as cool as he always has been. Nowadays Will Smith is like the 40-something guy in the Las Vegas club with the streaks of gray hair and the button down shirt he bought at Nordstroms. There's nothing wrong with him being there, he's not breaking any rules, he just should have moved on long ago. Ali I think was the beginning of the end of the Will Smith we all grew up on. He started taking himself seriously, almost too seriously. He still made some fun fare but he also had his Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds, neither of which were bad movies but really showcased Smith's struggles to get the critical attention he thinks he deserves.

In 2005 Ron Howard released a movie called Cinderella Man. It was another boxing film about Jim Braddock, a down and out boxer past his prime who loses everything in the Great Depression and becomes champion again. It's a competently made movie and doesn't suffer any severe missteps other than the fact that it's a generic, by the book sports movie that is as safe and predictable as they come. Ali doesn't let itself fall into such tropes. On the other hand it seems seems out of focus from the start. We begin with Ali prepping for his first fight with Sonny Liston where he as the underdog wins the World Heavyweight Championship. Throughout the rest of the movie we see his interactions with Malcolm X, his first wife, his second wife, the Nation of Islam and finally his fight with George Foreman. But why? How are these things related other than being singular events in Ali's life? That brings us to Ali's main problem; there isn't any narrative. It's mostly snapshots of events rather than a coherent story. I suppose you could say it mainly focused on him having his belt taken from him and his struggle to regain it however that one particular goal is bogged down in non-sequiturs. There's even a scene with Idi Amin. Why? Nothing is fleshed out, nothing is developed and it's near impossible to care. Like previous Mann movies the female characters come and go. It all builds up to an event that in real life wasn't the end of Ali's career at all. He regains the title, yes, but by that point it's not really the focus anymore. Ali didn't have to be a run-of-the-mill sports film like Cinderella Man. It could have been much more while having some fabric of a story. Unfortunately it's a movie that feels like it could coast on the performance of its star.

Aside from the script that could have used some major reworking, Mann does manage to bring in some great performances. Yes, Will Smith is fishing for an Oscar with an enormous piece of bait but he does do justice to his character. The real standout is Jon Voight in his second consecutive Michael Mann film, this time playing sports announcer Howard Cosell in a well deserved Oscar-nominated performance.

Ali had the potential to be something great. The ingredients were there and it's obvious that Mann wanted his movie to stand apart which I respect. However the end result is movie that's choppy at parts and incoherent at others. I remember very much looking forward to this when it was released but ultimately it sits near the bottom of Mann's works.

Ali is... well it isn't "bad" exactly but there's probably a reason why I haven't thought about it in years. It's a pretty by the numbers biopic in many ways and while I wouldn't say that Will Smith embarassed himself or anything he is noticeably not in the same leagues as something like Jamie Foxx in Ray or Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln or other high profile biopic performances, which is kind of what you need when you're playing someone like this.

Yeah, Ali is kind of mixed. I like Smith and the rest of the cast and the film looks good, but the film is really dry and I'm not sure what the point of it was.

Unpopular opinion time: I think Collateral is Mann's best film.  Yes, even better than Heat.

I also love The Insider.  And yeah, Ali is pretty jumbled and unfocused.

Same.

Miami Vice (2006)




Miami Vice is Michael Mann's film based on his television show from the 1980s. With this update gone are the flashy suits and signature 80s flare that Mann used to full effect in his projects of that time period. Now we're into the gritty digital era of filmmaking, one lacking any humor or emotion. If you want to see some cool shootouts and boats go really fast then this movie's for you. If you want something that might give you any sense of excitement, suspense or intrigue you might want to look elsewhere.

Miami Vice stars Jamie Foxx as Ricardo Tubbs and Colin Farrell as Sonny Crockett. I had to look up the names to make sure because it was tough for me to remember just hours after finishing the movie. Mann has always walked that line of 'style over substance' and sometimes there's a great combination of both. Miami Vice is not it. It's totally devoid of any character development. It's sole focus is on these two cops who go undercover in order to infiltrate a drug ring. Sounds pretty simple right? Then why is the movie so convoluted? Throughout the movie it seemed to be almost trying to be as confusing as possible as if it made it more intelligent than it really is. At its core it's a movie where two cops go undercover until they eventually get betrayed by the guys they're trying to bring down. The movie is loaded with a ton of police jargon and terminology which usually adds to the effect of Mann's films however sometimes it can add to the confusion like it does here. It seems as if Mann wanted to make an 'adult' crime movie but someone convinced him that he can't have a clear-cut story or interesting characters, it has to play out like you know what's going on.

One thing I've always admired about Mann movies for the most part is that they eschew any tired cinematic tropes and are as realistic as possible. Sometimes this is to the detriment of any character development especially with any female characters as I stated in earlier reviews. Miami Vice drops you right into the middle of things almost assuming that you know who these characters are. The reason it's so important however is because without anyone to care about on screen the tension is flat when it's finally presented. That's Miami Vice in a nutshell. There's a lot going on and there are even a few pretty cool action sequences but it doesn't mean anything when we know and care so little about anybody. Again I want to say to Michael Mann 'just because a character has sex with someone doesn't automatically equal chemistry.' What made Collateral and Heat so fresh and energetic weren't that they had cool shootouts, it's because they were cool characters who were in cool shootouts. It didn't take a whole ton of dialogue but we knew enough about Max that we were invested. Heat is all about characters and how their lives are connected. Miami Vice is textbook style over substance, something that could have been fun had it just followed some Filmmaking 101 basics and made people that we knew.

I also have a personal gripe with Colin Farrell as Crockett. There was a time where I despised him more than just about anyone else making movies. My anger has tempered the past few years and I've seen him in some really good roles but here is one where they really should have cast something else. Jamie Foxx seems natural while you can tell Farrell is trying so, so hard. His scratchy, gruff voice is unnatural and his constant shouting of dialogue made me wonder if he even knew what the scenes were about some of the time. It's maybe the first time that I would say someone in a Michael Mann movie was really miscast.

Miami Vice is another misfire for Michael Mann. It's strange after watching his movies again that although I still consider him one of my favorite filmmakers (I plan to do this with another filmmaker after finishing Blackhat) it's becoming more obvious that he has as many mediocre films as he does great and exciting ones. The guy is in his mid-seventies and makes a movie roughly once every five years or so. Lets hope that he has one or two more good ones in him before he hangs it up. I mean look at what George Miller just did at his age.