EJO best MV actor?


Boca Raton

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Ok I'm new here & I just started rewatching the series for the first time & I'm only on Season 3 so pardon me.

EJO is the only one who doesn't break character.

DJ love him but he's doing Brando (he looks and acts exactly like Brando from One Eyed Jacks)

when DJ covers his face in powder in "Shadow in the Dark' that's not Crockett also I've noticed Sonny doing baby voices of condensation which is off the wall...

PMT - he's my fav yet he's over-zealous/over acts at times and seems aloof & never steady 

Switek - "A" for effort but he's clumsy that's all that comes to mind

Edited by Boca Raton
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Yeah I think I know what you mean with DJ. In the pilot and the first half of season 1 he's really gruff and puts on a raspy affect to his voice more so than normal but then out of nowhere he starts to act more like DJ than Crockett. Maybe it was a creative decision to tone it down and be less serious. IDK.

I still think Don and EJO are the stand out stars though. No matter how bad some of the guest stars were(and there were many) or how silly some of the stories were, They were always the constant and what elevated the show to greatness.

Phillip Michael Thomas was inconsistent as you said. There's times where he's awful and then there's moments where he's so surprisingly good that you applaud the TV in appreciation for his work. I don't think he did anything as bad as that beach scene in Calderon's Demise where he's shouting at Angelina again. He never reaches those levels of god awfulness ever again and improves alot throughout the show. So that's something I guess.

The rest of the cast are decent. Gina and Trudy are at their best when their just sitting around looking hot but that's just me. :D

Edited by Vincent Hanna
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DJ is without any doubt the actor, who had the strongest performance on the show, you just weren't questioning if he was in character. His character was constantly in focus/center, so I think, he had the possibility to show more of the acting skills then some of the other actors, although he knew in which direction, he took the character, unlike Saundra who was nervous, which became apparent in her character and Olivia, that after while became more familiar with the identity of her character. (Can't remember exactly, whether it was in the second season or third. ) I also thought, that their were a lot of times where, the guest stars did some bad acting. 

Talbott was at his best being a comedian, but that is also a part of his personality, so he used that well, but no so good, when he had to play the serious role, he seemed uncomfortable, like he didn't know what to to. I agree that PMT was inconsistent, watching some of the earlier episodes, his acting was great and believable, not sure what happened later on, as he seemed to become more absent, not entirely present in scenes, where he didn't do any facial expression/reaction like DJ did.

I noticed in S4 episode "The Big Thaw", DJ changed his raspy voice to his normal voice. In different episodes, for instance in the same scene, he would use the voice and then change it. Burned out maybe? 

Forgot to mention Edward James Olmos, who was the authority figure guiding them all. How he created his character was unique. But I didn't think, he was/could be versatile much. In a movie, he appeared in with Jennifer Lopez, EJO displayed more of that versatility. But he is also great as DJ.  

And either way they all had their shining moments. 

 

Edited by summer84
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Don Johnson turned the show from being what could've been a campy show like MacGyver into something special imo. (It was an ensemble of talented guys responsible for the show but Don was the guy who carried it every week). Imagine if they had replaced DJ with Mark Hamon like they were going to in S3. It would've been as disastrous as when they had that look a like b-actor replace Charlton Heston for Beneath the Planets of Apes. etc 

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Oddly enough Mark Harmon now plays a similar role on NCIS to the one of Castillo's character. If it hadn't been DJ, who was chosen for the show, I could imagine some other actors playing the part of Sonny Crockett like Jeff Bridges for in stance, I liked him in "The Fabulous Baker Boys." I accidentally caught "The Planet of The Apes" one time on television and thought it was going to be boring, but it turned out to be a great movie, I just didn't understand the ending though, with the statue of liberty sticking out from the sand. 

Edited by summer84
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2 minutes ago, summer84 said:

Oddly enough Mark Harmon now plays a similar role on NCIS to the one of Castillo's character. If it hadn't been DJ, who was chosen for the show, I could imagine some other actors playing the part of Sonny Crockett like Jeff Bridges for in stance, I liked him in "The Fabulous Baker Boys." I accidentally caught "The Planet of The Apes" one time on television and thought it was going to be boring, but it turned out to be a great movie, I just didn't understand the ending though, with the statue of liberty sticking out from the sand. 

Awesome movie!. Taylor sees the Statue of Liberty and realises he was on our planet the whole time and that Humanity had literally wiped itself off the face of Earth.

Pretty powerful ending and couldn't be more relevant now with North Korea and such.

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Edward James Olmos arguably went on to have the most enduring and versatile career after "Vice", and was able to avoid being typecast most successfully. He has gathered large fan bases well outside his work on Vice, whereas Don will probably always be remembered chiefly for Miami Vice. Ok and Nash Bridges, in which he was really just an aged Sonny Crockett in a parallel universe (that's almost literally what somebody in a newspaper review for Nash Bridges wrote at the time, anyway)

That's not necessarily a bad place to be; Don is without a doubt one of the most recognizable faces of 80s pop culture, and pretty much all over the world. Not many people can say that about themselves. But Don's career has been hit and miss since the end of Vice, while EJO is now a well respected character actor (and political activist).

As for Philip Michael Thomas, well... I think he was either way the best partner that both Don Johnson and the producers could have hoped for. If various teen magazines were to be believed back then, the two had grown tired of each other behind the scenes by the end of the show and barely talked to each other anymore. But their chemistry on-screen was undeniable until the end. I think that regardless of whether he was/is a talented actor or not, Phil just didn't play his cards right, and allowed himself to descend into dubious gigs for a paycheck too quickly. Maybe he just had a bad agent or something.

I would have liked to see more of Michael Talbott, but I understand he retired completely from his acting career a few years later. Michael Talbott and John Diehl should have had their own show. Not really as Switek and Zito, but maybe as two slightly chaotic police detective buddies going through all kinds of funny adventures together like in Made For Each Other or Phil the Shill. A concept like that definitely would have worked outside of Vice.

 

I tend to still root for Don Johnson, after all he was one of my biggest idols while I was growing up. But in truth, I haven't watched any of his works of the last five years or so. I want them to be good, but I haven't actually felt compelled to watch any of them.

 

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42 minutes ago, Vincent Hanna said:

Awesome movie!. Taylor sees the Statue of Liberty and realises he was on our planet the whole time and that Humanity had literally wiped itself off the face of Earth.

Pretty powerful ending and couldn't be more relevant now with North Korea and such.

Thanks! And I agree. 

Edited by summer84
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PMT on MV oddly enough, starts out great!  - a dynamite actor then he's just good then ok then pretty damn good again so he's not "consistent". 

DJ's is really doing Brando though - which isn't a bad thing...seriously DJ looks like Brando from that 1961 movie he did One Eyed Jacks.

he starts to go out of character for me in season 3. Let's face it though DJ is cool as shit. I really can't remember him much after MV except for Tin Cup which I can't believe I even watched - he was GREAT as a villain in that!

poor PMT, I've been reading a crap load of interviews & both claim to have never stopped being friends and all those rumors were 100% false about them ever not getting along.

PMT's vegetarianism rubbed off of me, his music is actually cool & he's got talent -unlike DJ he wrote/produced his own music. 

 

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12 minutes ago, Boca Raton said:

his music is actually cool & he's got talent -unlike DJ he wrote/produced his own music. 

That's a close one, i love this and DJ's Heartbeat equally. :D

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6 minutes ago, Vincent Hanna said:

That's a close one, i love this and DJ's Heartbeat equally. :D

The video for 'Just the Way I Planned It' IS weird but damn is it catchy! It's like a more manly Michael Jackson - 'Off the Wall' era.

'Heartbeat' is a rad song but not original and that album is not written by DJ , PMT proves he can write/sing

 

 

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8 hours ago, Boca Raton said:

I really can't remember him much after MV except for Tin Cup which

 

Good movies with DJ are The Hot Spot (Great movie. An underrated classic) and Dead-Bang (Excellent movie). I recommend both.

The show generally had high quality acting from the main cast and guest stars. Don and Phil were great on the show IMO. Some don't rate EJO as an actor, saying he mumbled too much and always had the same sour expression.

Edited by Tommy Vercetti
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Tubbs had that tough New York attitude in the beginning, but later on that was toned down. The only thing, that to me was over the top/unnecessary with Crockett's character was the shouting and anger. Also with Trudy and Gina I liked how the played the scene in "El Viejo" proving they could also do comedy stuff. Gina was very good in "The Pilot" in the boat scene with Crockett. When she says "there is not a hell of a lot you can do about it now anyway!" Trudy did a good job too. When it comes to the main cast Trudy and Gina rarely get mentioned. 

Edited by summer84
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vor 3 Stunden schrieb Tommy Vercetti:

Some don't rate EJO as an actor, saying he mumbled too much and always had the same sour expression.

And yet, that made him a fixture on Vice. And it takes talent to play a character like that. Also, I don't know why people always complained about him mumbling; to me, he always said his lines clear enough so that you could understand him perfectly. And I'm saying that as somebody whose first language isn't English.

It's kind of interesting to think how the show would have turned out if Gregory Sierra had stayed on. Lou Rodriguez was the epitome of a hectic, no-frills, by-the-book, cigar smoking 1970s police drama lieutenant in a cheap polyester suit, best exemplified in the pilot scene where Crockett and Rodriguez are sitting in the car arguing after Eddie Rivera got blown up. It definitely would have given the show a different turn.

Castillo as a character was really more a work of art, an elaborate stylization of the authority figure that a police lieutenant is supposed to be. And in that way, he helped make MV the piece of modern art that it became.

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3 hours ago, Tommy Vercetti said:

Good movies with DJ are The Hot Spot (Great movie. An underrated classic) and Dead-Bang (Excellent movie). I recommend both.

The show generally had high quality acting from the main cast and guest stars. Don and Phil were great on the show IMO. Some don't rate EJO as an actor, saying he mumbled too much and always had the same sour expression.

I'll check out those DJ flicks.

I think they are all great actors on Vice some as I said go "off" a little but never too much I was just being over-analyzing/picky.

Lou Rodriguez- yeah glad he didn't stick around because he's cliche and annoying 

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When I first read the title of the thread I thought immediately to myself that EJO is the best actor, no doubt.  I was thinking in terms of over-all career versatility and range.  He totally transformed himself in Stand and Deliver.  He was the Pachuco in Zuit Suit, Gaff in Blade Runner, etc...  Just look at his film and television work in IMDB.  He's had an incredible career and it's still going strong.  Don Johnson's career was pretty quiet in the years after Nash Bridges though it has picked up considerably in the last several years. 

Thinking about just the show itself, which wasn't my initial thinking, Don Johnson had much more opportunity to show his range than did EJO.  Castillo was clearly a supporting character to the two leads.  His screen time was so much less, but even then he stood out.  That alone says something about his acting ability.

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vor 8 Stunden schrieb Boca Raton:

Lou Rodriguez- yeah glad he didn't stick around because he's cliche and annoying 

He was alright for what he was. But he was the one element of the show that wasn't fresh and groundbreaking, but  a real throwback to lame old 70s cop shows. I think I saw Gregory Sierra in a guest appearance in a 1970s police drama episode once (don't remember the name), where he played a very similar character. Gregory Sierra wasn't a bad actor on Miami Vice, he just wasn't right for the show, and Miami Vice in turn didn't suit him either. After all, it was his idea to leave the show after Calderone's Return.

Also, could you have imagined him with the whole DEA/Southeast Asia backstory of Castillo... kind of never would have worked with him.

Then again, I think Castillo's DEA past was actually Edward James Olmos's very own idea. So it never would have happened anyway.

Edited by Daytona74
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On 9/23/2017 at 11:00 AM, Tommy Vercetti said:

Good movies with DJ are The Hot Spot (Great movie. An underrated classic) and Dead-Bang (Excellent movie). I recommend both.

The show generally had high quality acting from the main cast and guest stars. Don and Phil were great on the show IMO. Some don't rate EJO as an actor, saying he mumbled too much and always had the same sour expression.

Dead Bang... That's where my nickname comes from ;-)

By the way my favorite actor/character on the Show was Eddie Olmos, definitely.

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Random thought. I don't wish harm on anyone but PMT injuring himself during filming and enabling Castillo and Crockett to team up in Home Invaders was awesome. How serendipitous.

Wish we saw more adventures of the two hanging out and solving crimes.

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EJO was very good, but was pretty one-dimensional in most episodes.  He did play that single plane of existence with great power and searing intensity.  

I just watched "Bushido."  I think this is one of his best, maybe better than Golden Triangle.  When he is telling Gretsky's son Marty the story of the samurai sacrificing himself to his best friend to save his family...  Heavy Duty.  And this is I think, the only time Lt. Castillo really breaks the rules to take care of some personal business.  (Please correct me if I'm wrong.  Watching the entire series AGAIN, second time in the last 2 years, so it is blending a bit.  But damn, what a blend!)

I honestly think DJ is the best actor in the series.  Even considering the number of episodes that end in the freeze-frame of DJ doing the anguished "silent scream" and it's influence on this assessment, DJ (and the writers/directors) creates a 3-dimensional character that is, for all of the pastels and expensive cars, a pretty realistic/accurate depiction of a hyper-dedicated, undercover cop who loses his marriage, his friends, and almost his soul because of the Job.  (Ask my ex-wife about how she felt about the Job at the end of our marriage.  Maybe my current wife too, at least until I retired this year.)

And I think a lot of people don't give Olivia Brown the credit she is due.  The Dutch Oven and Asian Cut come to mind.

Edited by Marco Falcone
Grammar/tense typo
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