Miami Vice

[Aeon]

I watched the 2006 Miami Vice again. It's still not a perfect movie and it doesn't meet the promises that the amazing teaser trailer made, but it's... alright. I'm surprised to say that because when I first saw the damn thing, I hated it and I know I wasn't alone with the feeling!

Sure, it still isn't the "real" Miami Vice everyone propably hoped for. Especially the hardcore fans of the show. Often the characters are too cold and unattached, the plot is more or less so so, the music is lacking (even though there are some nice scenes with the original score) and Miami doesn't feel like a very interesting place. The whole thing is a bit too serious for it's own good I suppose.

But it's alright and it feels weird. What do you think about this movie after four years?

 

[Dac]

FWIW, i'm not a fan of the original aside from a clip from the pilot and the music, although if I actually sat down and watched it im sure i'd enjoy it.

As for the film? Going into it I didnt know what I was expecting but I ended up really enjoying it. Sure, its not the most amazing film ever, and the story is a bit all over the place but it just oozes style. Visually its stunning, and although the soundtrack as a whole isnt great, I can remember a few scenes were the audio and visual matched perfectly and just made the whole thing better.

 

[Forbin]

The movie had no soul. None of the characters had any depth, and the ones who weren't Crocket and Tubbs were total cyphers, just there as check marks on a list. It was visually stunning, of course, but that's not enough.

I also have a problem with remakes that place original characters from a 20-or-more-year-old tv series in a modern setting as if they didn't exist in their previous incarnation. Is the movie trying to tell me these folks didn't exist in the 80s and all those episodes I watched and loved didn't happen? it's the same issue I have with the new 5-0. I loved the original 5-0. McGarrett and his team were Hawaii State Police in the 60s and 70s, not some illogical rogue commando squad in the 2010s. This is why I'd rather see a continuance of an old series concept with new characters, than a total remake.

 

[Star Wolf]

I liked it and back in the day I only recorded Miami Vice and Deep Space 9 on the VCR. Sure the story was a mash up of Smuggler's Blues and the Calderon episodes but so what, that's what most TV shows to movies do.

It was strange that they changed the office relationship from Sonny and Gina to Rico and Trudy. The story worked better originally in the 80s when Trudy was just a co-worker wired to explode without the adding her as the love interest in peril.

 

[Aeon]

The movie had no soul.

That is a very nice way to put it.

If they would do a sequel and if they would do it correctly... well, the potential is there. It could be something amazing. But I suppose that will never happen. Unless someone wants to do a reboot of course.

And personally I didn't see anything wrong with Farrell or Foxx. All the faults can be traced back to the writing. Those guys were top notch in my book.

 

[Forbin]

Agreed, it's usually the writing that makes an otherwise-decent actor fail to impress.

 

[the G-man]

The movie had no soul. None of the characters had any depth, and the ones who weren't Crocket and Tubbs were total cyphers, just there as check marks on a list. It was visually stunning, of course, but that's not enough.

While overall I thought the movie was a decent cop film, the characterizations were probably the biggest problem with the movie: Crockett and Tubbs didn't have any depth whatsover.

And, as an aside, Colin Ferrell's not a bad actor in other roles (and sometimes he's very good), but how incredible would it have been to get Lost's Josh Holloway as Crocket instead?

I also have a problem with remakes that place original characters from a 20-or-more-year-old tv series in a modern setting as if they didn't exist in their previous incarnation. Is the movie trying to tell me these folks didn't exist in the 80s and all those episodes I watched and loved didn't happen?

Here we are going to have to disagree.

Remakes are a fact of life and have always been (see, eg, the plays of Shakespeare). The best stories are always retold.

Sometimes the remakes aren't very good. Sometimes they're better than the earlier versions.

But you can't get upset simply because they exist.

Case in point: should Christopher Nolan have set his Batman movies in the 1960s to avoid telling the fans of Adam West all those episodes they watched and loved didn't happen?

 

[the G-man]

FWIW, i'm not a fan of the original aside from a clip from the pilot and the music, although if I actually sat down and watched it im sure i'd enjoy it.

The original series is best remembered for the 80s look and music but (at least in the first two seasons) it was actually a very well-written and acted bit of televised film noir.

The biggest problem with watching the show right now would probably be the fact that it was such an innovator and influenced so many TV shows and movies that came after it that, if you weren't there when it aired, you might not realize how groundbreaking it was. As a result, you could end up thinking it's derivative and cliched, even though it was the originator and works that came after turned things into cliches.

 

[Star Wolf]

FWIW, i'm not a fan of the original aside from a clip from the pilot and the music, although if I actually sat down and watched it im sure i'd enjoy it.

The original series is best remembered for the 80s look and music but (at least in the first two seasons) it was actually a very well-written and acted bit of televised film noir.

The biggest problem with watching the show right now would probably be the fact that it was such an innovator and influenced so many TV shows and movies that came after it that, if you weren't there when it aired, you might not realize how groundbreaking it was. As a result, you could end up thinking it's derivative and cliched, even though it was the originator and works that came after turned things into cliches.

I remember a Film Comment article saying how opera had come to TV when discussing the first season. And on a pop audience level TV Guide and USA Today would publish the songs being used on that week's episode. I imagine the recording industry would do their best to place their artist much like it is done on Cold Case or Glee today.

The first I remember of SUV's Mariska Hargarity was on an early Vice clone series.

The funny thing is that while Vice seems hopelessly dated Hill Street Blues is a surviving template however at the time it wasn't looked at as something really special outside of the TV world like Miami Vice was.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I also have a problem with remakes that place original characters from a 20-or-more-year-old tv series in a modern setting as if they didn't exist in their previous incarnation. Is the movie trying to tell me these folks didn't exist in the 80s and all those episodes I watched and loved didn't happen?

Um - you do know that the original was just a series and that the 80s-set episodes didn't actually happen?

Do you walk around avoiding interviews with Don Johnson, just in case they spoil the illusion too?!

 

[the G-man]

The first I remember of SUV's Mariska Hargarity was on an early Vice clone series.

Vice's producers had an incredible knack for spotting talent. Off the top of my head I remember the following appearing while still unknowns: Jimmy Smits, Bruce Willis, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Julia Roberts and Liam Neeson. And, looking at wikipedia, there were many, many, others.

The funny thing is that while Vice seems hopelessly dated Hill Street Blues is a surviving template however at the time it wasn't looked at as something really special outside of the TV world like Miami Vice was.

Actually, when Vice was first being promoted the network made it a point to tell people that it was co-produced by a vet from Hill Street Blues (that, in fact, was what got me to tune in the first night)

But, otherwise, yeah. Hill Street was amazing. I watched some re-runs last summer and it still holds up on every level. Really, if you didn't know better, they could put it one HBO, say it was a new cop show set in the late 70s or early 80s and most people wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't a companion to stuff like the Wire.

 

[Star Wolf]

The first I remember of SUV's Mariska Hargarity was on an early Vice clone series.

Vice's producers had an incredible knack for spotting talent. Off the top of my head I remember the following appearing while still unknowns: Jimmy Smits, Bruce Willis, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Julia Roberts and Liam Neeson. And, looking at wikipedia, there were many, many, others.

.

I was thinking of CBS's response to Miami Vice, Downtown. http://www.tvrage.com/Downtown_1986

I think I remember Jon Glover being with a Black cop on an ABC clone show of Vice. All I can find on my search is something called White Street that was cancelled because a lead died in an airplane crash

 

[the G-man]

My bad. I somehow cut off my introductory "Speaking of early appearances by famous actors..." line.

 

[Forbin]

I also have a problem with remakes that place original characters from a 20-or-more-year-old tv series in a modern setting as if they didn't exist in their previous incarnation. Is the movie trying to tell me these folks didn't exist in the 80s and all those episodes I watched and loved didn't happen?

Um - you do know that the original was just a series and that the 80s-set episodes didn't actually happen?

Do you walk around avoiding interviews with Don Johnson, just in case they spoil the illusion too?!

Yes, I meant it exactly like that.

 

[JarodRussell]

The teaser trailer with all that digicam footage was already looking like a very bad fanfilm. And then Farrell and Foxx?! I backed off as far as possible from this thing.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Miami Vice doesn't have a memorable story, but it was pretty stylish and moody and I liked that aspect of the film. I also liked the song building up to the end along with the abrupt finish. I heard that that wasn't the intended ending, but what they did was nice.

Here's the song...

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAWL_bdpXWA[/yt]

 

[Star Wolf]

Miami Vice doesn't have a memorable story, but it was pretty stylish and moody and I liked that aspect of the film. I also liked the song building up to the end along with the abrupt finish. I heard that that wasn't the intended ending, but what they did was nice.

I don't know. The story was perhaps to familiar for an old Vice fanatic like me. The took Smuggler's Blues and dropped Glen Fry and grafted on the later story of the Calderon clan who's head flew away free in the Miami Vice pilot. And then flipped the roles of Crockett and Tubbs, Sonny being with Gong Li, the Calderon stand in And to that added slighty bigger explosions and put the movie out. It worked better then SWAT

 

[Timby]

I also have a problem with remakes that place original characters from a 20-or-more-year-old tv series in a modern setting as if they didn't exist in their previous incarnation. Is the movie trying to tell me these folks didn't exist in the 80s and all those episodes I watched and loved didn't happen?

This is a complaint I see about a lot of remakes / re-imaginings / what have you, and quite frankly, I just don't get it. The existence of Star Trek '09 isn't stopping me from watching an episode of the original series when I feel like it, the same as the new Battlestar Galactica doesn't stop anyone from watching the series from the '70s. The old shows aren't somehow being erased from history, with proscription squads kicking down people's doors and confiscating every copy of the 1978 Dawn of the Dead and replacing them with the 2004 version.

 

[Forbin]

And again, that's not what I mean.

 

[Gaith]

I remember it as having interesting and stylish elements but being mostly dull. I would like to try the "Go-Fast Edition" fan edit, however, which cuts 41 minutes of flab to produce a 93-minute movie, which, as I dimly remember it, is about all the rather thin story and characters deserved.