So I saw Miami Vice last Friday
xposted to geekculture, geekwars, miamivice, miamivicewoot, moviebuffs, 
Multi·Genre·Fandom, & ubergeeks
5:14 PM 8/12/06 · Soon as I got into San Mateo I did what I usually do: called
Anna,
Gryphon, &
niveK although that didn't work. Was planning on seeing a movie anyway but it would've been nice with some company. I'd kinda figured I'd either see Miami Vice or Zoom depending on what time I got there and working around my dinner schedule.
Ate at the theater; saved time.
Was actually amused by one of the posters I saw there, for The Descent, while waiting in line. At the bottom it said "Showing Everywhere August 11th" and it wasn't playing at this particular theater. Not sure if that's bad advertising, the folks that run that theater are just really clueless, or if there is a new definition of "everywhere" making the rounds. Whatever the case, it got me grinning.
If I've not mentioned this before, during a 3¼ year stay at a boarding school in Massachusettes, the Miami Vice TV series was one of the things that prevented me from losing it in that place. I'd never even heard of it before I was there but got into it really fast. I largely attribute this to being a California boy and Massachusettes being kinda dreary, at least at first to me, and the views of Miami on the show just seeming kinda homey. Not exactly but close enough.
Multi·Genre·Fandom, & ubergeeks
5:14 PM 8/12/06 · Soon as I got into San Mateo I did what I usually do: called
Anna,
Gryphon, &
niveK although that didn't work. Was planning on seeing a movie anyway but it would've been nice with some company. I'd kinda figured I'd either see Miami Vice or Zoom depending on what time I got there and working around my dinner schedule.
Ate at the theater; saved time.
Was actually amused by one of the posters I saw there, for The Descent, while waiting in line. At the bottom it said "Showing Everywhere August 11th" and it wasn't playing at this particular theater. Not sure if that's bad advertising, the folks that run that theater are just really clueless, or if there is a new definition of "everywhere" making the rounds. Whatever the case, it got me grinning.
If I've not mentioned this before, during a 3¼ year stay at a boarding school in Massachusettes, the Miami Vice TV series was one of the things that prevented me from losing it in that place. I'd never even heard of it before I was there but got into it really fast. I largely attribute this to being a California boy and Massachusettes being kinda dreary, at least at first to me, and the views of Miami on the show just seeming kinda homey. Not exactly but close enough.
- Film quality varied from being crystal clear to gritty but I kinda preferred the grittiness because it fit the content of the film really nicely. Not sure if that was on purpose or not.
- When I heard that Michael Mann was doing this I almost had a little joygasm. The man was the mind behind the original series and to have that here was beautiful.
- Was also glad they avoided a feature that seems common with more television shows going to the movies...having actors from the origial series make guest appearances in the movie. Which isn't to say I didn't see a few familiar faces during but none of them were major players on the show.
- There were two female leads/cops on the show: Trudi & Gina. You usually saw more of Gina overall and even when Trudi was there she didn't get anywhere near as many lines, one or three episodes being the exception to that rule. Trudi is the lead/role for the film but it was one rather bizarre feature of this that kinda shook me. In the series Gina had long dark hair and Trudi had short, styled or length depending, blond·ish hair; keeping in mind that Gina was the one with the most lines. In the movie it's Trudi with the long dark hair and Gina has the close to her head blonde going on. I'm thinking some variation of the Samson myth: she who has the long dark hair gets the most lines.
- Various television shows and movies, over the years, have kind of conditioned me to expecting gunfire to sound a particular way. So much so that I have no idea what it actually sounds like in real life, not being a huge fan of guns probably plays into this as well. Well, I don't know how it's supposed to sound but Mann may've gone for as realisatic as possible with this because the gun sounds and effects were beyond over the top. It can't get any realer than that.
- Gong Li, a name I know but can't place to anything specific off the top of my head, plays the main female bad guy lead. During the film, hearing her accent and the way she felt her way around the language, I was under the impression she doesn't actually speak English. During the credits I noticed she had a lot of speech and dialogue coaches so that may be the case. This happens more often than you might suspect. The female lead in the Shogun series didn't speak a word of English either and neither did Arnold Schwarzenegger in a number of his first American films.
- Soundtrack was excellent and I may have to go get it. That'll be interesting in itself for the novelty of having the television series one too. Moreso, even though they're on different media, I expect the current one'll only be available on CD, they do look remarkably similar. It was part of my 1st XMAS since going to the boarding school...that knowing my love of the show, my parents bought me the soundtrack. Being parents, as I'm sure many can relate for being kids around 1985, they bought it for me on a record and not a cassette tape. Still have it around here somewhere.
- I got a special little thrill seeing the cityscape of Miami...I've really missed that show. Y'know, it's probably playing regularly on some cable channel these days. I'm probably going to have to track it down.