Did anyone else actually like this movie?

[ViceFanMan]

On 8/13/2017 at 12:37 AM, ViceFanMan said:

I'm sorry but I cannot stand the 2006 movie..it sucked, horribly (my opinion)!! First, hardly any of it actually took place in Miami, and the actors chosen for most of the characters were terrible choices--Castillo especially! I was like...what the "heck"??  

Second, it was somewhat boring and the movie seemed to be out of focus throughout most of it...it was very "grainy" and slightly "blurred" or something. It left some with headaches, as in my theater my dad and I talked about how out of focus it was, and we overheard some girls saying the same thing...and it was giving them headaches. I also read similar experiences online in the days following the premiere--so it was not just my theater. 

Third...there were hardly any odes to the original series, save the movie "Trudy" being tied up in an old trailer like the Smuggler's Blues episode. I realize that in 2006 we weren't gonna have pastels and Phil Collins playing in the background (although I prefer that)...but I expected a "heck" of a LOT more from this movie--and was devastatingly disappointed and let down!!  

To be blunt but truthful...this movie was boring, out of focus, actors were terrible, plot was mediocre, and it is a disgrace to the MV franchise!!  The original series kicks this movie's proverbial butt BIG-TIME!!! 

This was my review from a couple years ago...I still stand by it.   I will never pay money to own this despicable embarrassment to the MV franchise. 

(NOTE: I will say that when I said the actors were terrible, I meant in this movie. I’ve seen them in other projects and they were better.) 

[Gary1911A1]

17 hours ago, ViceFanMan said:

This was my review from a couple years ago...I still stand by it.   I will never pay money to own this despicable embarrassment to the MV franchise. 

(NOTE: I will say that when I said the actors were terrible, I meant in this movie. I’ve seen them in other projects and they were better.) 

I agree. It's hard to believe Michael Mann make this movie. What was he thinking?

[RedDragon86]

One of the problems with the film for me is there is no Miami feel, it feels like LA. I mean who starts a Miami Vice film at night? It would have been brilliant if there was scenes in and around the beach front showing Carlyle Hotel etc, with the sun and the palm trees feeling the vibe of Miami. If he was going to pick an episode theme it should have been "No Exit". Should have picked the original Jan Hammer theme as well.

As for the casting Matthew McConaughey as Sonny without a 70's mustache, just a bit of stubble would do.

Tubbs - Terrence Howard.

[jpaul1]

23 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

I mean who starts a Miami Vice film at night?

a guy that puts realism before anything. because cops are born at night. this is where i love that producer. he isn't scared of being critiziced. only thing that counts for him is to make a good movie. and what better place to start a good cop movie than realism. didn't like the erotic scene though. totally useless IMHO. but enjoyed every second of the rest

[Mr. Vigilante]

50 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

One of the problems with the film for me is there is no Miami feel, it feels like LA. I mean who starts a Miami Vice film at night? It would have been brilliant if there was scenes in and around the beach front showing Carlyle Hotel etc, with the sun and the palm trees feeling the vibe of Miami. If he was going to pick an episode theme it should have been "No Exit". Should have picked the original Jan Hammer theme as well.

As for the casting Matthew McConaughey as Sonny without a 70's mustache, just a bit of stubble would do.

Tubbs - Terrence Howard.

Yeah, it was definitely a dark film.  I've always thought Guy Pearce could've pulled off the Crockett role.  He's like a chameleon in movies, and he's played so many different types of characters.  But, he does play pompous very well, which is why I think he could portray a believable Sonny Crockett.

[ViceFanMan]

6 hours ago, Gary1911A1 said:

I agree. It's hard to believe Michael Mann make this movie. What was he thinking?

I know...Mann has created several awesome projects before (Vega$, MV, and Crime Story to name 3). I’m not sure what he was thinking or trying to accomplish with the “Miami Vice” movie...but whatever the case it was a devastatingly, disappointing film!!   He should have not tried to tie it in with MV at all, and made it its own film...calling it “The Cuban Crisis”, or something like that. 

[JoJo Jackson]

Colin Ferrell and Jamie Foxx acted too dry for me. Even Edward James Olmos had more emotion than them.

[jpaul1]

16 hours ago, ViceFanMan said:

I know...Mann has created several awesome projects before (Vega$, MV, and Crime Story to name 3). I’m not sure what he was thinking or trying to accomplish with the “Miami Vice” movie...but whatever the case it was a devastatingly, disappointing film!!   He should have not tried to tie it in with MV at all, and made it its own film...calling it “The Cuban Crisis”, or something like that. 

i should have bet the jackpot on your reaction

[Ferrariman]

No

[Tom]

No

what worked great with Heat (was also a remake from MMs 1989 movie Showdown in LA with different actors) became a disaster with the MV movie.

recycling Smuggler’s Blues with bad casted actors, faceless characters and a filmed as a soul-less film noir has apparently only one purpose: he wanted to try out new fully digital cameras for the first time - which would explain the abundance of night scenes. 

Even if MM had called it “Columbian Connection” it would have been a bad movie but calling it MV was doing bad service for a legendary series and did no good for MMs reputation either. 

[ViceFanMan]

2 hours ago, Tom said:

No

what worked great with Heat (was also a remake from MMs 1989 movie Showdown in LA with different actors) became a disaster with the MV movie.

recycling Smuggler’s Blues with bad casted actors, faceless characters and a filmed as a soul-less film noir has apparently only one purpose: he wanted to try out new fully digital cameras for the first time - which would explain the abundance of night scenes. 

Even if MM had called it “Columbian Connection” it would have been a bad movie but calling it MV was doing bad service for a legendary series and did no good for MMs reputation either. 

Amen! 

[airtommy]

I just met a security guard at the airport who was a Vice fan.  When I started talking Vice, one of the first things he said was "Did you like the movie?"  We then proceeded to bash the movie for a few minutes.  That's the one thing the movie is good for:  complaining about the movie is a bonding experience for Vice fans. 

[Tom]

vor 8 Stunden schrieb airtommy:

I just met a security guard at the airport who was a Vice fan.  When I started talking Vice, one of the first things he said was "Did you like the movie?"  We then proceeded to bash the movie for a few minutes.  That's the one thing the movie is good for:  complaining about the movie is a bonding experience for Vice fans. 

Try to do the same with Rick Bravo and you’ll have a different “bonding” experience !

[jpaul1]

i have a question to MV the movie 'haters'. what would have been a good movie as per your standards

[Robbie C.]

Different script, different actors, more day vs. night contrast shots, a better sense of being 'grounded' in the series. I've got a copy of a draft script for Smuggler's Blues and it's dry as hell on paper (which is somewhat unusual for Vice scripts, honestly). What made it come to life were the actors. Mann took a dry script, made it worse in my view, and then populated it with dead actors. Mann's script for the movie focuses heavily on visuals. The dialog feels more like an afterthought or something he modified from the original episode. You can tell he wrote Castillo based on the memory of EJO, but then he didn't cast to fit that memory. Same goes for Crockett and Tubbs.

I don't hate the movie like some, but I also don't really consider it a Miami Vice movie...it's a middling cop action movie that happens to be called Miami Vice. It has about as much to do with the show as the Wild Wild West movie did with the original show: Next to nothing aside from some names.

[Ferrariman]

It actually wasn't a terrible movie, it just shouldn't have been called "Miami Vice"  Then again, change the name and the names of the characters and it would've been criticized as a "Miami Vice" ripoff. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.  The 1 thing it was, was unmistakable, classic Michael Mann style. 

[RedDragon86]

Why do the film if you aren't going to have the main themes? you didn't even get to see the OCB. It would have been great if he recreated the department with it looking the same but it obviously modernized, Sonny at his desk with the strategy room etc.

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by RedDragon86

[Robbie C.]

11 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

Why do the film if you aren't going to have the main themes? you didn't even get to see the OCB. It would have been great if he recreated the department with it looking the same but it obviously modernized, Sonny at his desk with the strategy room etc.

 

I agree, especially if you're going to call it Miami Vice and make some effort (misguided in my view because it misses the mark) to hark back to the series. The whole "In the Air Tonight" thing is a classic example of the disconnect. He could have made a decent movie using more or less the same plot with new characters and been done with it. Instead he (in my view) showed us how little he grasped some of the underlying character concepts of Vice (the Yerkovich elements) and how strongly he focused on the visuals. Again, it reminds me more of the whole Wild Wild West fiasco than anything else. Except Vice didn't have a Robert Conrad to publicly complain about how the characters were wrecked by the movie.

[ViceFanMan]

15 hours ago, airtommy said:

I just met a security guard at the airport who was a Vice fan.  When I started talking Vice, one of the first things he said was "Did you like the movie?"  We then proceeded to bash the movie for a few minutes.  That's the one thing the movie is good for:  complaining about the movie is a bonding experience for Vice fans. 

Exactly...Lol!   The movie was terrible— nothing to do with MV except for the name, terrible cast choices & acting, the dialogue was “dry” & lifeless, most of the movie didn’t even take place in Miami, and it was boring & out of focus. Like you said...true MV fans could go on & on about how “rancid” and despicable the movie was to the MV franchise! 

2 hours ago, jpaul1 said:

i have a question to MV the movie 'haters'. what would have been a good movie as per your standards

Something much more “grounded” or intertwined with the series...obviously updated but still having a lot more odes to the show; something with WAY better cast choices, acting,  and dialogue; something with more “life” and captivation & that took place in Miami (instead of Cuba)—and something that was in focus and didn’t give you a headache halfway through. Basically...anything other than what the movie sadly was!   (P.S. laughing emojis do not make what I say any less true. )

[jpaul1]

i see lot of opinions, but no ideas, or even scripts beginnings. it's easy to critize an attempt saying it's awful. but it's harder to create a 'good' thing. this is where i think some bad opinions aren't justified here (even if i totally respect them). what would have been a good MV in 2006? i think Mann attempt is good, because plausible, because of its high degre of realism. i mean MV is just a story about two undercover cops right. and this is what Mann serves us. so where's the prob actually. also i don't get the complaining about the cast neither. for me the cast is great. it wasn't an easy challenge to play into a reboot of such a mythical series. I'm really interested about the definition of a good Miami vice movie in 2006. what is it exactly. Noogie, Izzie, crazy preachers, murders around voodoo? no way these things would work in 2006

@ ViceFanMan: actually it's your reaction that makes me laugh a lot. you even talk about my emojis. proof that the fact that when someone is against you on that subject you go mad lol. like if you wanted to kill any people on Earth, who said the movie was great lol

Edited January 1, 2020 by jpaul1

[Bren10]

I think a lot of people get upset because they think Mann was trying to replace or supplant the tv show with this movie, and that simply isn't the case. Someone asked why he made this movie. Well, he was trying to put the premise into a modern (and modernist in terms of filmmaking) setting and see how it would turn out. As an artist, he has every right to do that. I don't see why people can't love both the show and the film if they want to (as I do). If you don't like or even hate the film that's fine, but to act as if the '06 movie's very existence somehow demeans, insults, or threatens the tv show is just silly imo. And there is no way for a single film to encompass a 5 season show and all it entails with fans in the first place, so why should Mann try that? He has never been one for nostalgia all that much. I find this problem a lot like the season 3 haters when I ask what would satisfy them as an alternative. Essentially it's "Well it should just be better and more like what came before".

[ViceFanMan]

35 minutes ago, jpaul1 said:

i see lot of opinions, but no ideas, or even scripts beginnings. it's easy to critize an attempt saying it's awful. but it's harder to create a 'good' thing. this is where i think some bad opinions aren't justified here (even if i totally respect them). what would have been a good MV in 2006? i think Mann attempt is good, because plausible, because of its high degre of realism. i mean MV is just a story about two undercover cops right. and this is what Mann serves us. so where's the prob actually. also i don't get the complaining about the cast neither. for me the cast is great. it wasn't an easy challenge to play into a reboot of such a mythical series. I'm really interested about the definition of a good Miami vice movie in 2006. what is it exactly. Noogie, Izzie, crazy preachers, murders around voodoo? no way these things would work in 2006

@ ViceFanMan: actually it's your reaction that makes me laugh a lot. you even talk about my emojis. proof that the fact that when someone is against you on that subject you goes mad lol. like if you wanted to kill any people on Earth, who said the movie was great lol

As some have stated before...there could have been lots of different but good (and definitely better) storylines or plots for the movie. That could possibly be an idea for a whole other ‘thread’. But, no one said that they should have done the movie exactly like the show...we know that 1986 wouldn’t work in 2006. But they definitely could have incorporated a lot more of the “ideas” and odes to the series in an updated way, in the movie.

No one has said anything about killing people!  Not sure where that came from? Your reaction to the posts cracks me up as well...not angers me (I’ve never said that either). I refuse to get mad over a TV show. I just know that people lots of times try to use laughing emojis to try and make something seem less true or as a form of “insultive-disagreement”. When  you start putting laughing emojis on everything I put, it’s a little obvious, lol. But you’re the only one who’s mentioned actual anger. 

All of the criticisms or dislikes of the movie have pretty much been justified many times over by many different people over the years. I understand you are part of the few who like it (and I acknowledge that)...but just because you disagree with the majority of us who dislike it, doesn’t make our opinions ‘bad’. I may disagree with some of the opinions of the movie...but I don’t insult them. 

Edited January 1, 2020 by ViceFanMan

[jpaul1]

well you say i'm minority. maybe you're right, but i'm not sure about that, at all. concerning emojis, first i didn't even know these things were called emojis lol. but if you come often onto these forums, you'll notice two things. first i'm not the kind of guy who enjoys the trolling thing. and second on a family forum like MVO, laughing emojis mean you're amused, not upset. maybe you don't realize it, but each time someone says the movie was good, we have the feeling you're going to jump in with a gun . but this is not insulting at all, this is funny, that's all . regarding the series personnally i wouldn't have liked something ressembling too much to the original stuff. simply because we are not in the eighty's anymore. i would have find this cliché, boring, not to say lazy. but well i have my opinion, you have yours. and i believe this is good like that

Edited January 1, 2020 by jpaul1

[ViceFanMan]

28 minutes ago, jpaul1 said:

well you say i'm minority. maybe you're right, but i'm not sure about that, at all. concerning emojis, first i didn't even know these things were called emojis lol. but if you come often onto these forums, you'll notice two things. first i'm not the kind of guy who enjoys the trolling thing. and second on a family forum like MVO, laughing emojis mean you're amused, not upset. maybe you don't realize it, but each time someone says the movie was good, we have the feeling you're going to jump in with a gun . but this is not insulting at all, this is funny, that's all . regarding the series personnally i wouldn't have liked something ressembling too much to the original stuff. simply because we are not in the eighty's anymore. i would have find this cliché, boring, not to say lazy. but well i have my opinion, you have yours. and i believe this is good like that

I don’t jump in with a ‘gun’ or anything violence oriented, or anger , I usually will converse with or quote others who have similar opinions or ideas. I usually only respond to others that disagree with me if they’ve responded or reacted to mine first. 

I do know that laughing emojis can be used for amusement or humor...but they can also be used as a sarcastic way to insult a post, especially when you start doing it on several posts by the same person & when the posts are not meant to be funny or humorous to begin with.  Again...this is not an anger thing, I found the continual emoji thing funny myself—I’m just pointing out the obvious. 

As for the movie, I actually agree...I wouldn’t have wanted the exact series replicated either. It wasn’t the 80s anymore (however ironically a lot of 80s styles were repeating themselves at that time...and still are). But, in order to call it “Miami  Vice” you’re going to need to incorporate a lot of the same ideas from the show, and/or odes to the show, just update them. You cannot use the title & names of characters from a show as iconic as MV, and then do nothing from or about the original show...it will not go over well and it will backfire/flop—and ultimately it did. Again,  this movie should have been called something else, had different character names, and not had anything to do with MV. 

As for other plot ideas...there are tons of ideas or directions they could have used or gone—but something in Miami & not Cuba.  What ideas or directions...well, I still say that’s a good idea for a whole separate thread!   Since this one is specifically about the actual movie that sadly was, I don’t want to completely go off on other ideas here. 

Edited January 1, 2020 by ViceFanMan

[ViceFanMan]

Another side-note: I’ve seen Jamie Foxx in other things too, besides the Miami Vice movie, and I know he has played some serious roles. But, every time I see him I always think of In Living Color, and his characters on that—especially ‘Wanda’, the ugliest woman in the world, lol! 

Edited January 1, 2020 by ViceFanMan