I went to this with no expectations and didn't really care. I wanted to just do something and my friend's younger brother was the only person in town.

I was actually shocked and pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Maybe because my expectations were low or because I knew nothing about the content, but I really enjoyed it.

Handful of Mogwai on the soundtrack too. Pretty decent flick.

Speaking of this soundtrack, I had to laugh when I heard a metal cover of "In the Air Tonight" over the preview.

I'm wanting to go see this because of the digital filmmaking involved. Mann has pretty much started mastering the limitations and advancements of the process. They were using some newish cameras on the project, and being the nerd I am, I want to see how it turned out. I was talking to a guy who was a cameraguy on the project, and he said the dailies looked gorgeous so, I'm banking on some cool visuals.

Plus, its the Vice, mang.

Exactly. I havent made it out to see this yet (today or tmrw for sure though), but I must say the reviews are really annoying to me. For example:



I guess most of these people have never actually watched the TV show if they thought it was some camp-fest. Easily one of the darkest shows EVER on TV.

Yail is right. Vice had flashy colors but it was anything but festive. It competed with Wiseguy for "darkest show people didn't think was dark."

Yeah. I never watched the show. I may have seen it on here and there and when I saw this movie was coming out, I thought it was going to be one of those slapstickish remakes. I was wrong. The movie was heavy.

And Mr. Rabbit: The visuals were ok. I think there were some scenes where they made it grainy or had some filter on it just to have some filter on it or make it grainy. There didn't seem to be any motive behind some of the visuals. However, some of the aerial scenes where there is like B roll of the jet flying is really stinking awesome. It was extremely clear and crisp.

Haq, thankfuly they didn't play that song until the credits were rolling.

I was gonna set an over under on the number of times he uses the shot where there are two characters on screen, one grainy, one in focus, and then they reverse.

Openly used in every Mann movie since at least Manhunter.

Seeing this later today.

I expect it to be an awesome popcorn movie.

Mann's movies never have any script depth, but they're not shallow viscerally.

I've heard nothing but bad things...I'll wait for the vid.

considering they essentially shot this without a script...you'd be right sir. But, they also never had real scripts (just concepts) for the show either.

Funny Tania, I've heard nothing but the exact opposite....who knows?

So True. Who wrote that crap? Pretty shallow for a critic to sum it up on appearances. "Totally 80's" is not a bad thing when its an influential or significant imprint on its decade.

Well, it's 2006. There are many current "adult and serious" critics who were under the age of 10 when Miami Vice debuted. They may think they're familiar with the decade, but they're not, no more than I would be any good at relaying the impact a 60's show may have had on a previous generation.

HD is still well behind 35mm. For one you don't get the latitude in darkness you get with film. Mann's obsession with HD is most likely fueled as much by $$$ as actual look. He overshoots like a director that has no clue what he wants & the studio most likely gets sick of funding his overshooting. HD is a hell of a lot cheaper than 35mm. On "The Insider" he shot a 100 to 1 ratio. That's 100 minutes for every 1 minute that ended up in the final cut. Normal in Hollywood is half of that. Normal in Indie & Foreign cinema is even lower. The only other feature film that I know of that was in that 100 to 1 ratio vicinity was "Apocalypse Now" which of course was plagued by major issues including switching the main character part way into filming. And it's 100 to 1 ratio was earned prior to the "Redux" version coming out.

I can't wait for the day when every sporting event is shot exclusively in HD, it's head & shoulders above digital video. But beyond sports or documentary type stuff I can't get excited. I think by the time it catches up & takes over feature films our eyes will be so old we won't know the difference

And yes, my thoughts exactly, but therein writes a critic exemplar or a critic immediate.

The thing is, you have to approach it, and light it like film. If you don't, yr screwed. Collateral was shot the way it was partially by the limitations of the format, and partially on purpose. I think its good that filmmakers (whoops) are experiementing with different methods. I'm intrigued by the outlook. The thing is, digital is getting closer and closer to 35 everyday. Look at digifilms like Altman's "The Company", and look at Superman. Big difference. It just makes sense for workflow purposes as well, when you think we're editing digitally, so why not go directly from camera essentially to computer. I shoot still bunches of stuff on film (16 & S8), and I love the look of it, but if you give me the leverage to shoot, I'm going to shoot.

the tv show gave me nightmares as a child, so i'm not interested in seeing it unless jamie foxx pulls out a ray charles impersonation at the film's climax.

well. It's not Ray Charles, but he does have an interesting climax in the movie.

Yeah, there is zero character development of sociopolitical commentary in Heat or The Insider.

Haven't seen this, but I love the Mann more than even Ollie Stone, so I will peep it this week fer sure.

Watched it tonight, and I'm happy. I thought it was worth the money plunked down. My fiancee who hates these types of films, even dug it. Look was great. One of the best shots was aerial of two boats going down Miami River...blue lights on them.

Farrell and Foxx were good, but I gotta say the supporting cast was the highlight.

Damn was there a lot of Audioslave played.

I'm down with the digimaking when the film calls for it, and this, is by far one of them.

*edit* forgot to add that with many of Mann's films, this has a blink-you miss it-type of storyline to it. I was reading reviews about garbled dialog, and excessive sex scenes, but found neither excessive. I say go see it on the big screen.

Crap.

I was completly ignoring the existence of this movie until I found out that Gong Li is in it. Does she have a big part in it? Is she in any hot scenes?

I might have to watch this at some point now.

She's the ladyfriend/business manager of the big drug dealer and the love interest of Colin Ferrell. So, pretty big part. She's on screen a lot.