Comments on The House Next Door: Taking all the fun out of Vice

Well, Saturday was a party at a friend’s house and...

2006-08-01T06:59:00.000-04:00

Well, Saturday was a party at a friend’s house and Sunday I had to work (call it the back-in-the-real-world equivalent of following up a stopover in Cuba to sample the mojitos with executing a perfect hostage-release raid on a trailer), so I missed out on an interesting discussion.

I rather liked MIAMI VICE precisely because it was so goes-down-easy mainstream. For the first act or so I was enjoying it in bits and pieces (the informant’s freeway suicide was stunning; Foxx and Harris’s romantic interlude spontaneous and genuinely sexy in a way most movies can’t even conceive, let alone pull off) but it all felt so hollow and pointless. I was missing Mann’s gravitas, the way his gaze tips over from clear-eyed melancholy into a thousand-yard stare and invests those neon-rippled streets and empty, symmetrically furnished rooms with a palpable ache. But when Farrell and Gong hit the dance floor, and Mann’s camera savored a tightly clad hip as longingly as Wong Kar-Wai’s ever has, it struck me this wasn’t the latest Treatise on Mannly Men, rather an entertaining throwaway, a chance to rehang the old clichés under more favorable (digitally captured) light.

So in contrast to Odieanator’s take, I actually found it the most light-hearted of Mann’s films. Not playful, no; Mann seems to think enjoying life is tantamount to missing the point. (“What the fuck is [a normal life]” DeNiro asks in Heat, “barbeques and ball games?” Of course later he almost has Pacino pinned down in front of some Weber grills.) But there’s an engaging casualness about the movie, a blissed-out sense that, barring some grisly shoot-outs and a busted love affair or two, things will turn out pretty much how they started. The breathtaking beauty of every Mann film is still there, but it doesn’t feel as labored over, as hard-earned, as before. No doubt it was, as Peet’s quote indicates; but the feel of the thing is that such epiphanies as the cigarette boat gleaming blue in the twilight, the parti-colored Haitian streets, the South American river that opens up to a fractal wonder of a waterfall (whose own majesty is immediately diminished to mere backdrop for the definitive drug-lord’s mansion), were as much happy accidents as the lightning flaring up Miami’s steamy night sky.

Odienator: “And what [Gong] was REALLY pistol whipping was the English language.”

I didn’t have a problem understanding a single one of her lines. Though I can’t dodge anonymous’s imputations of racism my own self because both Tosar’s thick-tongued locutions and Farrell’s clotted attempts at Southern-fried escaped my audibility more than once.

Odienator: “The more I think about this movie, the more I realize that it feels written by a 12-year old boy--and not in a good Conan the Barbarian kind of way.”

It feels more paint-by-numbers to me (which could of course indicate my blindness to my own immaturity). Less juvenile than indifferent to nuance. That didn’t bother me for the reasons mentioned above, but I admit either comes off more as an excuse for the script than an explanation.

Sean: “I think it's thematically interesting to stage the relationship we're constantly told "has no future" in a landscape that for all intents and purposes stopped sometme in the 1950's.

“For a movie so obsessed with hyper-modern sleek technology, the vintage cars and aged architecture of the Cuba sequence provided what I thought was a pretty nifty visual contrast.”

Lovely catch I wish I’d made. Possibly a second viewing is more in order than I thought.

KJ: “I believe the jury has come in with a verdict on Colin Farrell, and it's not a favaorable one….”

I’ve liked Farrell well enough here and there (mostly MINORITY REPORT and THE NEW WORLD, though he panics well in PHONE BOOTH), but he was the least engaging element onscreen here, yeah.

Sean: “[Femme Fatale] is one of the happiest, horniest movies I have ever seen -- only DePalma could combine a Christ-like crucifixion/rebirth/redemption pose with a full-on Rebecca Rojmin beaver shot, and the great thing about BDP is you know he's absolutely sincere about the beauty of both.”

Just wanted to chime in with total agreement on that.

KJ: "Have you guys read Ellroy? Hartnett doesn't h...

2006-08-01T05:03:00.000-04:00

KJ: "Have you guys read Ellroy? Hartnett doesn't have that kind of access to that kind of darkness."

Ellroy himself would disagree. He's said repeatedly that Hartnett is a revelation and absolutely nails the character.

Wow. Liked this movie. Liked Gong Li. Liked the re...

2006-07-31T21:54:00.000-04:00

Wow. Liked this movie. Liked Gong Li. Liked the relationship between her and Farrell. And...AND I liked her accent. Honestly, the criticism of her seems pedantic at best, borderline racist at worst. If she is a "Dragon Lady" it's not because that's how Mann chose to portray her. It's because that's how you chose to see her.

Also, if Fox has the most stable relationship in the movie, doesn't that mean the minority characters are actually treated rather well? If the movie chose to concentrate on Farrell and Li, isn't that because unstable relationships are more cinematically interesting than stable ones?

Dude, you're even wrong about the whole "I'll take your badges" scene (and really, if you have to make up dialogue to criticize a movie how right can you be?) The captain's not saying "I'll take your badges", he's saying, basically, "I put my ass on the line for you guys, if you fuck this up we're all going to get burned". At least get the clichés right.

Fellas, there is absolutely no-fucking-way Josh Ha...

2006-07-31T13:07:00.000-04:00

Fellas, there is absolutely no-fucking-way Josh Hartnett even gets close to nailing down Dect. Bucky Bleichert in "The Black Dahlia". Bleichert is a classic Ellroy protagonist. These men rage and burn. They are killed, they self-destruct, or they disappear, headed for parts unknown. Have you guys read Ellroy? Hartnett doesn't have that kind of access to that kind of darkness. Aaron Eckhardt, his co-star, belongs in this universe. Russell Crowe belongs there (L.A. Confidential).

I will say it again: I am sick, of these pin-ups in these kinds of films.

Dignan: Max certainly takes a few pro-active poin...

2006-07-31T05:39:00.000-04:00

Dignan: Max certainly takes a few pro-active pointers from his fair, but to group him into the same category as Mann’s protagonists listed above is absurd.

I hope I didn't try to. Vincent is the Mann character.

Max comes from unsung PIRATES guy Stuart Beattie and Frank Darabont and the nine-thousand other people who worked on this script as it journeyed from a direct-to-video Gary Busey thriller (name-checked even, on that terribly unpleasant Comedy Central Busey Reality Show) to what it is now, which is...

“…improbably (though quite entertainingly)…" Isn’t that basically Collateral in a nutshell?

Yep. I love it to death - I've seen it maybe fifteen times, but it's still just as big a load of fucking awesome macho bullshit as that new movie you're ragging on, dude. COLLATERAL's just framed tighter and has a few more sops to the blue-hairs and the Syd Field crowd. I don't get the big philosophical difference.

Whatever... both of these movies are so swarthy that I walk out of the theater with delusions of virility. I'm just a sucker for a good testosterone rush, I guess.

Burns: COLLATERAL fits the same bill, but it makes...

2006-07-31T04:46:49.580-04:00

Burns: COLLATERAL fits the same bill, but it makes it easier on the audience by also giving you a conventional good guy to root for instead

It’s not just the audience’s sympathies that are swayed towards Max; I feel that the turning point is in Mann’s sympathies swinging in his direction as well. When Vincent bests Neil it’s one superman defeating another. As you pointed out, one jaded, emotionally detached ethos over another. In Thief it’s superman Caan defeating a mob of armed assassins single-handedly. Mohamed Ali, Will Graham, Lowell Bergman (considering that The Insider is often remembered for Crowe’s work, the very mortal Wigand more or less disappears for the last 40 mins of the film while Al single-handedly changes world events); same type-A personality persevering over and over again. But in Collateral you have Max with none of the calculation or cunning of Vincent (popular name), acting improbably and often against his own best interest and killing the trained killer through dumb luck. Vincent is completely detached and obsessed with nothing beyond success in his work, which is mirrored early on in Max (his obsessive cleanliness, his knowledge of traffic patterns, his thoroughness/timidness in starting his new business) and by the end of the evening he’s destroyed his cab, told off his boss and placed himself in harms way for a woman he’d ordinarily have nothing to do with. It’s precisely because he has a soul (the thing Max claims is missing from Vincent) that makes him the film’s hero. Max certainly takes a few pro-active pointers from his fair, but to group him into the same category as Mann’s protagonists listed above is absurd.

Burns again: “…improbably (though quite entertainingly)…”

Isn’t that basically Collateral in a nutshell?

Dignan: we’re grading on a bell curve and after mo...

2006-07-31T01:19:00.000-04:00

Dignan: we’re grading on a bell curve and after months of mediocrity we’re supposed to now lower our standards... why should what’s released around a film factor in to how we appraise it.

This is called human nature, and I'm not sure how to pretend it doesn't exist, pal. If you eat microwave Chef Boyardee raviolis five days in a row, then on that sixth night even The Olive Garden is gonna taste pretty damn delicious, ya know?

As my two VICE screenings were interspersed between viewings of YOU, ME AND DUPREE, LADY IN THE WATER, MY SUPER-EX GIRLFRIEND and SCOOP... well, perhaps I got a bit over-excited because I had almost forgotten what it's like to sit through an commercially released motion picture without once contemplating suicide.

More Dignan: it gives you the quintessential Mann superman in Cruise’s hitman while at the same time busting open the convention and revealing it to be the fraud it is.

Right - but this is what pretty much every Mann movie does? His heroes typically come off as badasses for a little while, before eventually exposing themeselves as lonely, isolated souls who by the end of the movie have willingly consigned themselves to some sort of self-imposed Hell...

...we've already discussed Caan's nihlistic THIEF implosion, and even though DeNiro gets the "thirty seconds flat" speech in HEAT, Pacino wins only because he's the one who actually lives by this credo and thus walks out on his family (effectively ending his third marriage) at the hospital.

Crockett acknowledges that he is "not ready at all" to drop the hammer on Isabella... but he's "in it all the way" and so he does - trudging back to the hospital for the closing shot, in a victory that feels more like defeat.

COLLATERAL fits the same bill, but it makes it easier on the audience by also giving you a conventional good guy to root for instead - yes, that meek cabdriver who has never held a gun, yet can still improbably (though quite entertainingly) out-shoot the career assassin.

Tim: Where in the hell did Crocket come up with a ...

2006-07-31T00:44:00.000-04:00

Tim: Where in the hell did Crocket come up with a grenade during the meeting with Yabo (or whatever his name was)? They were frisked when they came into the room.

In the background you can see Switek and Zito (and I believe also Trudy and Gina) enter the club pretending to be customers a little while after Crockett and Tubbs sit down. (They weren't frisked because they weren't sitting in "The Bad Guys' VIP Lounge.") Zito tosses Crockett the grenade once everybody stands up and whips out their dicks... I mean, their guns.

Next week, Odie explains the Christian allegory of charity that is Chuck Berry's My Ding-a-Ling.

I can't wait that long.

Odie, you never disappoint. I knew bringing up MP ...

2006-07-30T20:28:00.000-04:00

Odie, you never disappoint. I knew bringing up MP was like throwing a soft, slow pitch right down the middle. Loved it.

I believe the jury has come in with a verdict on C...

2006-07-30T19:41:00.000-04:00

I believe the jury has come in with a verdict on Colin Farrell, and it's not a favaorable one: He is simply not an interesting actor, an engaging actor, or one capable of holding the screen. Why Mann felt he needed him is anyone's guess. I certainly don't believe Farrell's name on the poster is opening weekend insurance. He's another good looking hollywood actor on whom the dew of adolescence has barely evaporated. And there's a shitload of these guys out there desparately trying to convince us of their "manliness". Oy...And it must be said, Foxx is not much of a badass himself.

I was thinking after the movie last night, what if you've got Aaron Eckhart as Crockett and Jefrey Wright as a thinking man's Tubbs. A different dimension. Mann likes those deliberate types after all, doesn't he?

That's right, Matt--although I'd be careful to des...

2006-07-30T17:27:00.000-04:00

That's right, Matt--although I'd be careful to describe Mann's change of style as "less meticulous." Mann will test every technical detail of the shoot over a period of many weeks and involve a color corrector early on to ensure the specific image he wants.

Just read this quote from DP Paul Cameron:

"In essence, we reinvented the wheel for lighting car interiors. We created a lighting system using electroluminescent [EL] panels [created by Novatech of Simi Valley, Calif.]. Those are basically lights that look like laminated pieces of paper. Over a period of weeks during the testing phase, we cut and mixed phosphors for the paper panels to get the color temperature we wanted for the car interior. We then installed those lights with customized, low-voltage wiring and dimmer boxes for each picture car. This gave us the look Michael wanted - a kind of ominous lighting effect that makes it seem like there is almost no light on the actors. The goal was to keep the IRE level up to reduce the noise on the faces of the actors. For the most part, we shot at plus-6 DB on the Viper camera. Looking at the monitor, it seemed like we were 1 to 2 stops over what you would normally do in the film lighting world. But with our calculations, we knew how far we could go and still be able to Power Window those shots as needed."

I have seen Miami Vice twice now, and the second v...

2006-07-30T16:45:00.000-04:00

I have seen Miami Vice twice now, and the second viewing, last night, solidified my opinion that it is the best movie I have seen since, appropriately and surprisingly enough, The New World. I find it hard to articulate precisely why, but I'll take a stab at it:

It moves quickly. Fewer lines of explanation for the slowest members of the audience, less time wasted on transitions, than I've seen in a long time.

The characters serve purposes, and experience emotions, other than puppy love and entitlement.

The world that in another movie, especially another American action movie, would be homogenous in every way (notwithstanding the black cop/white cop buddy cliche), is complicated. Guns from the Ukraine, pirated software from China, crates with Russian markings. Gong Li's accent is of a piece with this -- more than a joke for the David Denbys of New York.

The victory is partial, to say the least -- the Colombian military finds Montoya's house empty and abandoned, Montoya moving on in the business of international violence that his beard and glare and CNN screen suggest to the post-9/11 American viewer; Trudy will be scarred for life; only Crockett knows what walking back into the hospital instead of sailing away with Isabella costs him; there will always be more drugs, more Aryan Brotherhood thugs.

Peet: "Mann loves the poetic distortion of digital...

2006-07-30T15:45:57.450-04:00

Peet: "Mann loves the poetic distortion of digital video under low-light circumstances." You're right about this; in fact, his short-lived network series "Robbery Homicide Division" was shot high-def in real locations, mostly with available light, and all the nighttime street footage had grain specks the size of frisbees. I asked him about this at a press conference and he said he intentionally cranked up the gain when shooting in very dark conditions, knowing full well that it's considered a sign of amateurism (or a low budget) because he liked the rawness of the resulting image. He also operated the camera himself whenever possible, just because he enjoys it.

It's interesting to look at Mann's earlier movies, which were shot on 35mm film and had a hard, glossy look, and compare them with his more recent stuff, starting with "The Insider" (shot on film) and continuing into his experiments with high-def (starting with "Ali," which was shot on 35mm but contained some high-def imagery transferred to film). His camerawork has gotten less meticulous, even loose or wild, and he's gotten more and more comfortable with "rough" visual signals (heavy grain, for instance). He may have the same preoccupations he had when he started out, but he is not the same filmmaker.

Real fast, because I'm heading out: Saw Miami Vice...

2006-07-30T14:38:00.000-04:00

Real fast, because I'm heading out: Saw Miami Vice last night, flaws and all (including mis-castinig) I liked it just fine. Not Mann at his best, but as a distillation of everything that makes this man go, it is glorious.

Quick question: Why is that the scene of Crockett and Isabella go fast boating it to Cuba, India.Irie on the soundtrack, that boat an arcing speck of white across a vast blue background, is so thriling to me. It's Mann painting. Beautiful. An almost peerless.

Matt: "And other reviews have noticed a difference...

2006-07-30T14:37:00.000-04:00

Matt: "And other reviews have noticed a difference in grain from sequence to sequence, or within a sequence."

MV hasn't opened where I live yet, but that can easily be explained: The lower the light level, the more video grain. Mann loves the poetic distortion of digital video under low-light circumstances. He probably shot many of the scenes with available light, which means fluctuations in grain from shot to shot are unavoidable. Mann likes to push his technology, especially when it helps him to achieve an interesting look.

TLRHB: it doesn't surprise me that somebody who sc...

2006-07-30T11:32:34.983-04:00

TLRHB: it doesn't surprise me that somebody who scorns the high-flown romantic brilliance of MACARTHUR PARK would totally not appreciate MIAMI VICE.

This is the nicest thing you have ever said to me.

Since you so eloquently "schooled" me on the romantic stylings of clueless macho men, allow me to retort about your beloved MacArthur Park.

MacArthur Park is all about getting a venereal disease. Look at its lyrics. "It took so long to bake it" equals "getting burned." The cake getting ruined in the rain is symbolic of not using protection (galoshes are sometimes called rubbers, and your shoes, or in this case, your cake, won't get ruined if it's protected). And you can't get a case of "love's hot, fevered iron" (which burns!) in your "striped pair of pants" if you do it yourself, which is what the line "Birds like tender babies in your hands" means.

This deconstruction is just as romantic (and full of shit) as Miami Vice. Next week, Odie explains the Christian allegory of charity that is Chuck Berry's My Ding-a-Ling.

atoep: That's not Odie, that's me. Although he kno...

2006-07-30T00:57:40.090-04:00

atoep: That's not Odie, that's me. Although he knows how "Miami Vice" was shot, he'd reflexively used the phrase, "switching film stocks" and I truncated that phrase during the editing process because the movie was shot on high-def, and the word "film" doesn't apply. Your explanation is clear and sounds correct -- I can't say for sure because I still haven't seen the movie, but I'm not fool enough to argue with American Cinematographer. However, it was a choice between interrupting the flow of the paragraph for a precise explanation vs. going with a ballpark phrasing that wasn't technically perfect. And other reviews have noticed a difference in grain from sequence to sequence, or within a sequence.

For what it's worth, though, I've purchased a fair amount of tape in the last few years, and many distributors do use the word "stock" to describe what they sell. For instance, here and here. I realize the word "stock" refers to specific merchandise for sale and not necessarily to the stuff that rolls from one reel to the other inside the plastic case. Nevertheless, I offer this tidbit as meager justification for an editorial choice that's open to dispute.

"Beebe's work in Vice--shot, like Collateral, on h...

2006-07-29T20:23:00.000-04:00

"Beebe's work in Vice--shot, like Collateral, on high-definition video--is haphazard, switching stock for no good reason, and generally accomplishing little besides drawing attention to itself."

Not to nitpick, but I'm not exactly sure what you mean here. Obviously shooting on video means there is no stock, therefore no changing of stock, and according to August's American Cinematographer the entire movie was printed on the same stock. Using these cameras there is a clear difference between the way daylight and night scenes are rendered, especially since the use of "movie lights" on the night sequences are kept to a minimum. That being said, there doesn't seem to be a clear change in the visual stategy of the movie from sequence to sequence.

Andrew: Actually the best popcorn film of the summ...

2006-07-29T20:05:52.600-04:00

Andrew: Actually the best popcorn film of the summer is due next weekend and it's about a bunch of cute Scottish women who have a little adventure underground.

Actually, if you mean The Descent, I saw that four months ago on DVD. While the director does some very nice, claustrophobic things, I really wasn't that enamored of it. The plus is that it does get under your skin if you have issues with enclosed spaces (I do), but like Wolf Creek before it, the movie gives me far too much opportunity to spend time with, and learn to dislike, the victims. And the ending I saw is apparently different from the ending the US will see.

AB: I applaud ethnic-blind casting and Mann films the actress beautifully but speaking English should be a prerequisite somewhere along the line.

AMEN to that! Somebody needs to perform an intervention for Gong Li, and get her out of these American movies where she embarrasses herself. Her Hooked on Phonics performances make me cringe. Mann should have made her a mute; she can do wonders with no dialogue.

Odie, Odie — it doesn't surprise me that somebody ...

2006-07-29T17:29:00.000-04:00

Odie, Odie — it doesn't surprise me that somebody who scorns the high-flown romantic brilliance of MACARTHUR PARK would totally not appreciate MIAMI VICE. This is not an action film, it's a chick flick about a guy and a girl who are in love but cannot love because of their circumstances. It's really that simple. While I winced at the Farrell line, "I'm a fiend for mojitos," this movie is essentially a silent film about desire and the way a man and a woman look at each other and lust after each other. Why do you think the film is shot in such dizzying, intense closeup? It's about the overwhelming power of intimacy, both in the personal relationships and the professional ones. It's a love story heightened by firepower and really cool boats. The action is the MacGuffin, folks, because Mann will never come right out and admit that he's as big a gooey, romantic softie as Kevin Smith is, that would kill his street cred. The movie is Colin Farrell and Gong Li in love, although the last scene says something else, too, which I think is sort of brilliant. Anyway, can't wait to see it again. Fabulous movie.
By the way, look at the scene of the jet flying through the clouds. Has anybody seen a stock plane shot filmed with such visual panache?

Yeah, sure. This stuff's a lot more important than...

2006-07-29T17:17:00.000-04:00

Yeah, sure. This stuff's a lot more important than Lebanon. That's another means to earn a quick buck from an audience.

sean burns: (I think he types with his balls.)Now ...

2006-07-29T17:09:00.000-04:00

sean burns: (I think he types with his balls.)

Now that's a powerful image. An hour has past since I read that sentence and I still can't get it out of my head. But hold on--it's a good thing I have the DVD of FEMME FATALE to do that for me!

Odie: "What happened?! Is Snakes on a Plane going ...

2006-07-29T15:50:38.716-04:00

Odie: "What happened?! Is Snakes on a Plane going to be the thing that restores my faith in pure summer trash? "

Actually the best popcorn film of the summer is due next weekend and it's about a bunch of cute Scottish women who have a little adventure underground.

As for Vice, what a colossal waste of talent and resources and that's coming from a big-time Mann disciple from way back. This was nearly 2 and a half hours of perfunctory plotting, obtuse cop show jargon, thinly sketched characterization, loud gunfire and car and ammo (and speedboat and airplane and helicopter and so on) porn.

What struck me most is how much of a Michael Mann knock-off the film was, like it felt it was made by someone who loved Mann's films but had none of the filmmaker's worldview or personality. It’s all posturing and glowering in search of “cool” with no mechanizations underneath the performances, as if the direction began and ended with “act like a badass.” Foxx, who’s done his best work for Mann, is completely playing against his strengths (the bedroom joke, while nice, is the only moment of levity in the performance and ultimately is out of place coming from the mouth of this humorless bore). Ferrell who can always be counted on to invest these bland alpha-male roles with danger and a rascal’s heart here just lowers his voice an octave and slumps his shoulders. I wish his relationship with Gong Li could resonate for me in some way (especially since it takes up such an inordinate amount of screen time) but it never moves beyond too pretty ciphers compulsively humping and reminding us that “this won’t last.”

And when can you say about Gong without sounding cruel? One of Asia’s best actresses reduced to playing the Jennifer Tilly (or Eva Mendes) role, delivering Mann’s clunky dialogue with all the conviction of a ninth grader in a Spanish class conjugating verbs off the blackboard. I applaud ethnic-blind casting and Mann films the actress beautifully but speaking English should be a prerequisite somewhere along the line.

Everything feels derivative of earlier Mann (and that’s coming from someone who’s seen not a single Vice episode in their life) but with no real sense of purpose or energy. The use of the Viper/HD, so perfectly-suited to painting one of the most populated and often-filmed cities in America as an impressionistic, alien and lonely landscape here feels like just another toy on display; Mann’s Ferrari to tool around with. The music selection is like a greatest hits collection of Mann’s previous films (more Moby and Audioslave) but it’s more or less haphazardly dropped over picture without an ear for the iconic. There’s no moment in the film that stays with you like “God Moving Over the Face Of the Waters” as Pacino holds DeNiro or Lisa Gerrard’s sad harmonizing as Russell Crowe watching the walls melt away into a family movie. Weeks from now, the only thing people will remember about the film is how casually violent it is.

Plus, in hindsight, how depressing is it to see Mann going back to this well? Whatever you feel about Collateral (for the record I just about love it unconditionally) it gives you the quintessential Mann superman in Cruise’s hitman while at the same time busting open the conventional and revealing it to be the fraud it is. Beneath the sleek suits, clipped dialogue, nihilistic world-view and handiness with weapons is a complete and utter vacuum of personality and soul bested by the bumbling everyman who rise above by beginning to care more and investing in something beyond “the job.” And yet here we are with more empty suits who talk tough and carry big guns.

Sean: “A demolition derby, maybe? Mann's weakest film in decades? Certainly. But have you seen what else is out there right now?”

This sort of mentality has been bugging me all summer (it was rampant in many circles when Superman came out), as if we’re grading on a bell curve and after months of mediocrity we’re supposed to now lower our standards because something’s got to come out as “the best.” Does that mean if Vice opened May 5th, before the disappointment train started rolling, it gets the slap it deserves? Why should what’s released around a film factor in to how we appraise it and does it work the other way in the fall when all the Oscar contenders are all clamoring for screens: “Well I liked Good Night, and Good Luck a lot but when you compare it to History of Violence I like it less.” I like to think it’s this across the board of lowering of standards that’s allowed these people to get away with releasing garbage during the months the AC is on.

I believe the white supremacists' sniper rifles we...

2006-07-29T15:50:00.000-04:00

I believe the white supremacists' sniper rifles were Barrett .50s -- an appropriate choice, as the Barrett is notoriously a favorite of militia and AB types, when they can afford them. There are occasional calls to ban them as likely to be used by terrorists against aircraft, etc. Harper's published the transcript of a disturbing conversation between an undercover ATF agent and a gun dealer, during which the Barrett's effectivess against armor, particularly armored limousines, was much emphasized.

It's possible that Mann chose them for those associations -- he chose the coat hangers in the motel scene with Ashley Judd in Heat, as I recall.

A demolition derby, maybe? Mann's weakest film in ...

2006-07-29T15:04:00.000-04:00

A demolition derby, maybe? Mann's weakest film in decades? Certainly. But have you seen what else is out there right now?

Good question. I haven't been to a film at the theaters in quite a while and at least Mann got me out there. Here was my timed-out afternoon:

The beginning of Scoop -- aargh!

25 minutes of Superman Returns -- yack!

An hour of Pirates of the Caribbean -- modestly entertaining but I didn't mind leaving it one bit.

All of Miami Vice. I guess it had that much going for it, at least.

Really, one of the things that marks a successful film is how few times it kicks you out of the experience. Right? Watching the Munich DVD, it was hours into it before I finally thought, "Gee, I'm watching a movie." In other words, master craftsmanship.

But too many of those moments in MV, and I'd like someone to please tell me about this one:

Where in the hell did Crocket come up with a grenade during the meeting with Yabo (or whatever his name was)? They were frisked when they came into the room.

Did he have it stashed in what Tony Soprano would call "his basket?"