Michael Mann movies

Talk about works by Michael Mann.

So far, I watched three of his movies; Collateral, Heat, and The Insider. I absolutely love his filming style; everything is so crisp and there is just nothing unnecessary going on and straight to the point, unless it's for dramatic effect. Out of the ones I watched, Collateral was the most entertaining movie, while The Insider the most inspiring, and Heat all around the best.

I'm planning to watch Ali, Manhunter, and the Last of Mohicans in a bit. Public Enemy and Miami Vice seems to have more mixed response, though. Should I check those out too?

edited 5th Oct '14 3:54:38 PM by dRoy

Public Enemies is one of his films that I'm not all that fond of. It's rather good and stuff but isn't to the same level as either Heat or Manhunter. I haven't seen the Miami Vice movie - remakes never seem to satisfy me so I don't know how good or bad the film is.

Out of the three you are planning on watching, both The Last of the Mohicans and Manhunter are all sorts of excellent, with decent scripts and direction and excellent acting almost throughout, but I'm not fond of Ali. I never liked the man the film is based on, which is probably sporting blasphemy. I don't care, I'm already a heretic.

I quite liked Miami Vice for itself. I've never seen the TV series, so I had no prior expectations. To me, it was kinda like Heat on the east coast, but not quite as good. Just little things, like the plot not being as tight, or (IMO) poor filming choices. For example, the climactic shootout could have been equal to the bank heist in Heat, but it wsas filmed at night, so you couldn't see what was going on. IIRC it was done in some form of "shakycam" too, but I could be mistaken.

Also, he's had more practise at doing big "mythical" shots of LA than of Miami. :)

It's been years since I saw either Last of the Mohicans or Manhunter (and it's possible I've never watched either all the way through in one sitting), but they're both good. Brian Cox's Lecter is very different to Anthony Hopkins', but just as good.

I was going to mention Stop Making Sense before I realized, no, that was the guy who did Silence Of The Lambs.

More on topic, that shootout in Heat, pretty B.A., no?

Damn straight.

Hey, who here thinks that Collateral would make an AWESOME TV series?

Stretching the plot of the movie just a little bit and add more kills and character interaction between Vincent and Max, I think Season 1 can be about the first movie, with more emphasis on how deadly and resolute Max becomes. Vincent dies (or disappear, depending on ratings) by the end of season 1. But, in the movie note how the ones that hired and employing Vincent at the first place are still alive. So, season 2 could be about those guys hunting Max down, with Max eventually turning into a killer himself, and all the personal and relational conflicts that entails. And so on.

Manhunter and Heat are quite good.

Miami Vice is proably his worst. The shoot-out scene... I could barely know who the fuck was who.

Have seen Collateral, but I don't remember it. Maybe I'll rewatch it later.

Watching MM movies gave me an idea for either a novel or a movie. It's currently titled Mann of Main Street.

Paul Mann is a former special force operator turned to taxi driver, living a life suffering from depression and suicidal urge. One day, one of his passenger turns out to be a mob hit man, who involves Mann into a gunfight I rival mob's safehouse, killing everyone involved except Mann. There, he discovers a cache including valuable documents and $5 million worth of cash. After stealing all of them, he leaves a message for the mob: If they want the money back, come and get him.

The mob sends out their agents after agents to get him, but they all end up either dead or almost as worse, and soon he becomes an overnight legend. After many failed tries, the mob sends in the best hitman they ever have. In the meanwhile, the police wants to get a hold of the document so they can charge the mob, and they too start to look for the one that stole the money. Things escalate as the mob becomes more desperate, and Mann's taunts becomes bolder and more outrageous, until it accumulates into a massive, bloody war.

So basically, Taxi Driver meets No Country for Old Men, directed by Michael Mann.

It's going to need some polishing, but I think I got a decent, workable idea right here.

This is probably better suited for the "red flags" thread, but I get really tired of the "retired SAS in a dead-end job" character. :)

It is a Truth in Television, though. There are cases where spec ops soldier develop mental disorder over the course of his career due to extreme amount of stress, both mentally and physically. Some of them don't make it through the minimum 20 years of service it take to be discharged from military with pension. Those kinds of people wouldn't really make it in PMC, technical advisor, etc either. As I stated in the premise, this guy is not exactly all right in the head.