Tom and I went to see Miami Vice on Saturday. I don't think I've been to a film with Tom since The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, even though we've been living together virtually forever.
Tom was doubtful of Miami Vice because Dark Horizons didn't like it (he thinks), but I was confident and peppy. Michael Mann has always been a champ, and he was again. I thought everything about it was well done. Tom wasn't sure he liked the mood - he would have preferred more jokes by the black character. But I was all like the superficial black comic character is so overdone and those sorts of characters oppress the entire black community and make true reconciliation even more unlikely. Or something like that. Or maybe I didn't say that at all, but now I think about it, I should have said it. But mostly I disagreed it was because I like serious films with guns. I think guns are at their best when no one is being stupid with them, because they are only cool while you remember that they are deadly, awful inventions. I've never actually thought about this, but perhaps humour is one of the ways we glamorise violence in films. Maybe Pulp Fiction is let off the hook, because it's satire. I'm not really sure why some scarcely violent films make me squirm while other much more violent films are fine. I could just be an arbitrary sort of snob. There wasn't any glamour in Miami Vice. But it was very good.
I did like the film though. I just wanted a bit of lightheartedness.
But I liked Heat. That’s a serious film with guns. And I think that should have always been serious. Michael Mann too. Good ol’ Manny!
Tom / 11:21am / 28 August 2006
Heat was awesome. Yes indeed. We should watch it again sometime.
Ryan / 12:31pm / 31 August 2006