Crushaholic
07-27-2006, 11:14 AM
The producers of "Miami Vice" have admitted that only the names are the same. Does this take the fun out of seeing this movie for you?
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http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2006-07-26-miami-vice-main_x.htm
'Miami Vice': Just the names are the same
Posted 7/26/2006 10:55 PM ET
By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY
So what is Miami Vice about the new Miami Vice movie?
"Good question," says writer/director Michael Mann, laughing nervously. The filmmaker, 63, who is renowned for such intellectual action films as Heat, Collateral and Ali, made his name as a producer of the neon-lit 1980s cop saga.
Now he's trying to rescue the name Miami Vice from the realms of nostalgia and kitsch, stripping away nearly everything people remember about the original show — pastel fashion, synthesizer-heavy pop music, celebrity guest stars, the sense of humor — and replacing it with a grim portrait of modern undercover officers.
"It's a new iteration of the characters and dropping a lot by the wayside that made the show charming and a feature of the 1980s," Mann says. "Guess what? It ain't the 1980s."
This approach was not what Jamie Foxx had in mind when he cornered Mann at Muhammad Ali's birthday party in 2002 and colorfully laid out a proposal for a 21st-century Miami Vice movie starring himself as Ricardo Tubbs. Colin Farrell co-stars as Tubbs' partner, Sonny Crockett.
Foxx envisioned more flash and sass: hot clothes, hot cars and playboy danger. So, the question remains: What connects this movie with its emphasis on slums, trailer parks and femmes fatales in business suits to what people remember about Miami Vice?
"I don't really know," Foxx says. "This is Michael Mann taking a risk in not giving you Miami Vice. He's not giving you any of it. It's a roll of the dice."
He says he has faith in Mann's vision, although it was a notoriously difficult shoot, with hurricane delays, security problems that disrupted filming in the Dominican Republic and a budget that climbed to at least $135 million.
Farrell says no one wanted to do a joke version, the way similarly dated hits such as Starksy & Hutch, Dragnet and Charlie's Angels were remade as farce.
"Miami Vice only became camp in hindsight," Farrell says. "At the time, it was a really cutting-edge show. It was really dark subject matter: drugs, prostitution. This has just been elevated to today's modern age."
__________________________________________________ __________
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2006-07-26-miami-vice-main_x.htm
'Miami Vice': Just the names are the same
Posted 7/26/2006 10:55 PM ET
By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY
So what is Miami Vice about the new Miami Vice movie?
"Good question," says writer/director Michael Mann, laughing nervously. The filmmaker, 63, who is renowned for such intellectual action films as Heat, Collateral and Ali, made his name as a producer of the neon-lit 1980s cop saga.
Now he's trying to rescue the name Miami Vice from the realms of nostalgia and kitsch, stripping away nearly everything people remember about the original show — pastel fashion, synthesizer-heavy pop music, celebrity guest stars, the sense of humor — and replacing it with a grim portrait of modern undercover officers.
"It's a new iteration of the characters and dropping a lot by the wayside that made the show charming and a feature of the 1980s," Mann says. "Guess what? It ain't the 1980s."
This approach was not what Jamie Foxx had in mind when he cornered Mann at Muhammad Ali's birthday party in 2002 and colorfully laid out a proposal for a 21st-century Miami Vice movie starring himself as Ricardo Tubbs. Colin Farrell co-stars as Tubbs' partner, Sonny Crockett.
Foxx envisioned more flash and sass: hot clothes, hot cars and playboy danger. So, the question remains: What connects this movie with its emphasis on slums, trailer parks and femmes fatales in business suits to what people remember about Miami Vice?
"I don't really know," Foxx says. "This is Michael Mann taking a risk in not giving you Miami Vice. He's not giving you any of it. It's a roll of the dice."
He says he has faith in Mann's vision, although it was a notoriously difficult shoot, with hurricane delays, security problems that disrupted filming in the Dominican Republic and a budget that climbed to at least $135 million.
Farrell says no one wanted to do a joke version, the way similarly dated hits such as Starksy & Hutch, Dragnet and Charlie's Angels were remade as farce.
"Miami Vice only became camp in hindsight," Farrell says. "At the time, it was a really cutting-edge show. It was really dark subject matter: drugs, prostitution. This has just been elevated to today's modern age."