Miami Vice

[stkbrkr]

I like Don's look..Does it work now?

PS I do live in S. Florida and would like this look for going out to clubs.

 

[Fade to Black]

The Miami Vice look whether the TV series or updated film version will always work. especially if youre in miami...that look is so cool

 

[stkbrkr]

Hope pic shows up

 

[stkbrkr]

Thats what I think Fade..Just didn't want to make an ass of myself..

But down here it seems like it would be cool and nobody's doing it

 

[Fade to Black]

it doesn't show up

when wearing a Miami style outfit i also like to have Ras Kass - Miami Life playing in my head "Miami Life, at any price, keep my pockets right/Eff the po-lice, Miami Life ain't nothin nice"

 

[stkbrkr]

I get the (original)theme song stuck in my head..Makes me want to go out and party

 

[abkain]

...and big ups to Fade for that Ras Kass reference

 

[Count de Monet]

The best Miami Vice episode was "Out Where the Buses Don't Run" in season 2. The last 6-7 minutes had Brothers in Arms by Dire Straights playing with very little dialog while the missing drug lord's body was found inside the bricked up wall.

/resume discussion of pastel tee shirts and baggy pants.

 

[Phileas Fogg]

^ strip away the veneer of the show and it was actually very well written with some really memorable characters.
Some great guest stars too:
Bruce Willis
Glenn Frey
Frank Zappa (great episode)
Ted Nugent
Willie Nelson

still liked the Daytona more than the Testarossa.

 

[Thin White Duke]

The best Miami Vice episode was "Out Where the Buses Don't Run" in season 2. The last 6-7 minutes had Brothers in Arms by Dire Straights playing with very little dialog while the missing drug lord's body was found inside the bricked up wall.

/resume discussion of pastel tee shirts and baggy pants.

One of the best episodes was where they were seconded to the Robbery division to try and catch some freak who was breaking into houses, eating raw meat from the fridge and painting freaky pictures in blood on the walls, each time closer to the bedrooms of the sleeping families upstairs. Crocket tried to get into the mind of the villain, going nocturnal and eating raw meat. At the end they catch the villain just as he was about to perform unspeakable acts. As they lead him away in cuffs he says in a campy voice “you live with me don’t you?” as a completely bewildered and burnt out Crockett just stares into the middle distance. It was all very ‘Red Dragon’ which of course Michael Mann directed as ‘Mahunter’.

I really liked the show till it jumped the shark with guest star James Brown as a space alien. I still watch reruns when I catch them but if any of them have Martin Ferrero in them I turn it off and don’t bother, his ‘comic relief’ is pitiful.

The film is a decent watch as well, with the following corollaries:

Desperately poor casting of Colin Farrell and Gong Li. Why didn’t they get a Hispanic chick instead of the convoluted plot of shoehorning a moody pouting Chinese lass in there?

We’re supposed to believe that Foxx and Farrell would take a bullet for each other but they don’t even appear to like each other. Mostly they communicate in grunts. If you read wiki it says Foxx was a total arsehole during filming despite having worked with Mann on ‘Ali’ and ‘Collateral’

Some dreadful dialogue including cliches like ‘if you can’t do the time don’t to the crime” and “I’ll bust a cap in yo’ ass” plus a very poor imitation of Dirty Harry’s “feeling lucky?” speech. Also “why do I get th e feeling that everyone knows what we’re doing from fifteen blocks out?” “cos everyone knows what we’re doing from fifteen blocks out”.

(There is a great line lifted directly from the ‘Smugglers’ Blues’ episode: “we could close each others’ eyes right now, but then don’t nobody gonna make no money!”)

A dingy, muddled final shootout scene at night in which you can’t tell who is who nor which side anyone is on. Mann directed the shootout in ‘Heat’ which is one of the best ever. He also directed ‘Collateral’ which occurs entirely at night but is clear and sharp. It remains a mystery then how he completely botched the big payoff.

I think box office was less than expected so that blew the chances of a franchise which is disappointing. Apart from the above it’s not a bad flick!

 

[Phileas Fogg]

^ the movie sucked. And I’ve heard that Foxx is an asshole to work with....period.

I remember that episode. Didn’t he get help from another cop who had gone made trying to catch him?

I know it’s been discussed before but it’s worth mentioning how much the selection and addition of the music helped to drive the story and add greater depth. Mann’s vision was truly genius.

check out this clip:

 

[Thin White Duke]

I love the story about the alleged genesis of the show was simply Anthony Yerkovitch writing “MTV cops” on a napkin!
Cop / Private Eye shows had been done to death in the seventies, MV gave the genre an entirely new dimension.

As an aside there was a superb documentary doing the rotation on cable a couple of years ago named ‘Cocaine Cowboys’ which gets into the back story of how Miami became the centre of the drug trade. I was fascinated by it aside from the last section which descends into some ex hitman jailbird going on and on about all the people he killed. One of the main interviewees John Roberts wrote the book ‘American Desperado’ which is a good read. The amount of dough they pulled in was ridiculous. He owned property, race horses, had a pet puma, had the outside of his house piped with tear gas which he could set off at the touch of a button. They bought a plane for a million dollars, flew too high and knew they’d be exposed to radar so had to bail out and ditch it along with cocaine cargo, then answer to the Columbians as to what had happened.

 

[Phileas Fogg]

I love the story about the alleged genesis of the show was simply Anthony Yerkovitch writing “MTV cops” on a napkin!
Cop / Private Eye shows had been done to death in the seventies, MV gave the genre an entirely new dimension.

As an aside there was a superb documentary doing the rotation on cable a couple of years ago named ‘Cocaine Cowboys’ which gets into the back story of how Miami became the centre of the drug trade. I was fascinated by it aside from the last section which descends into some ex hitman jailbird going on and on about all the people he killed. One of the main interviewees John Roberts wrote the book ‘American Desperado’ which is a good read. The amount of dough they pulled in was ridiculous. He owned property, race horses, had a pet puma, had the outside of his house piped with tear gas which he could set off at the touch of a button. They bought a plane for a million dollars, flew too high and knew they’d be exposed to radar so had to bail out and ditch it along with cocaine cargo, then answer to the Columbians as to what had happened.

I recall watching that one. Didn’t they interview one guy who was still in hiding because he had stolen about $10 million from one of the cartels? I remember something about wanting to buy an old Soviet submarine.

 

[Thin White Duke]

I recall watching that one. Didn’t they interview one guy who was still in hiding because he had stolen about $10 million from one of the cartels? I remember something about wanting to buy an old Soviet submarine.

Crazy stuff. I think they all got rounded up in the end and are either dead or in jail. Roberts knew he would die a bad death and ended up with colorectal cancer. The hit man is still locked up. Mickey Munday, arguably the smartest, most cautious and with a deep knowledge of the Everglades went on the run into the bush but eventually turned himself in and served his time. Maybe he had some stash to keep him in a decent lifestyle now?

Edit - just looked him up, he got 12 years in 2018 for an auto fraud conspiracy!

 

[Count de Monet]

If that question was directed to me ... yes, in Out Where the Buses Don’t Run Crockett & Tubbs get help from a crazy, retired cop played (very well) by Bruce McGill (who worked with Mann in Ali and Collateral and ... something else). McGill later played a cop for several seasons in Rizzoli & Isles.

McGill went nuts after the drug lord he and his partner had worked hard to bust “got off on a technicality.” So he spent years trying to recatch him. EXCEPT...

We learn in the last scene that McGill’s character (Hank) had actually killed the drug dude shortly after the trial and hid the body behind a bricked up wall with the help of his partner (Marty), played by a young David Strathairn (Bourne Ultimatum).

Also in the episode was Little Richard playing a street preacher they spot in a park (as Baba O’Riley by The Who fades out).

Mann wanted to use songs by the actual artist, rather than generic covers, even though the royalties were more expensive. One of the first TV shows in the US to do that.