Seen: Jine 3rd, 2007
Format: HD-DVD
Rating: 5
Miami Vice was not a show that I watched in its heyday. Hence I have no real frame of reference or nostalgia for this rendition. I've got to judge this one solely on its stand alone value.
Things look good, but looks aren't everything.
This film has style. There's expensive stuff here and lots of it. Clothes, boats, cars, planes. It's all awash in luxury. Even the guns are high-end. When we're shown something not of this world, it stands out. We've got beautiful places filled with beautiful women. There's beautiful homes with beautiful views of beautiful land and seascapes.
But looks aren't everything.
When it comes right down to it, this is a low rent cop thriller. When you strip off the veneer, there really isn't much underneath.
The plot is basic, and then becomes confusing. The setup is decently done. But the payoff for that setup, when it finally comes, is brief, under explained and abandoned. It's as if the writer discovered the real story three quarters of the way through and abandoned the original. Or perhaps the producers did. In any event, the film doesn't quite no where it's going most of the time, and invents convoluted explanations to explain where it's been. A caught, drunk unfaithful husband metaphor is in there somewhere.
There's loose ends aplenty here, just waiting to be yanked. But it's probably not worth the effort.
The action sequences here are very good. There's some decent camera work. So are the romantic ones. The acting is decent, if a bit contrived due to the limitations of the written characters.
The sound is a nightmare. Maybe it's just the mix on this HD-DVD, but dialog was often soft and muddled. In some cases this was done for effect, to make the POV seem more "realistic", but at others it was just poor. The musical score was also too loud in comparison, and in places actually stomped all over the dialog. I was continually jockeying the volume to understand what was being said and to avoid be blasted by music.
I have no idea how well this film stacks up against the original show. Perhaps it's an homage of great dedication. Perhaps it's a very plausible recreation. Whatever the case, I found it glitzy and glamorous, but with very little substance.
The Good: Fast boats, fast cars
The Bad: Sound mix
The Ugly: Style over substance
No comments:
Post a Comment