Miami Vice
Click
Miami Vice
"Miami Vice" the popular 1980s TV series was unique as a cop drama as it successfully tapped into superficial adolescent male fantasies. Outfitted in Versace and a Ferrari Daytona, your average police detectives were recast as sexy crime fighters in a lush, neon-saturated world. The good guys were cool, as measured by the standard set by a newborn MTV. Directed by Michael Mann, a creative force behind the series, the film version of "Miami Vice" maintains and updates the cool factor for both nostalgia fans and younger audiences. The plot resembles a typical episode from the series. Attempting to identify a leak, undercover cops Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) stumble upon and penetrate a trafficking operation connected to a South American drug lord while Crockett woos the drug lord's moll and associate Isabella (Gong Li). Farrell's brooding portrayal of Crockett is almost unbearable to watch, Foxx's talents are underutilized and the partners share no chemistry. But there's enough to keep it interesting. Mann tempers the slickness of the exotic cars, superboats, sleek private jets, perpetually horny women, automatic guns and pulsating clubs with interesting use of grainy video footage particularly at night. This is basically eye candy for boys.Â
( Sherwin Das )
I went into this film expecting to hate it. Some two hours later I came out of it in a blissful daze. "Miami Vice" actually took my breath away. It is a laconic, superbly stylized, almost painterly work that leaves every other cop film well behind. The story of Detective "Sonny" Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Detective Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) is too convoluted to neatly summarize. In brief, the pair has to pose as criminals to infiltrate a Colombian drugs cartel in order to get to a group of white supremacists in Miami. They mumble so much I couldn't understand half of what they said anyway. But director Michael Mann evokes this almost mythical underworld with such detail that it irresistibly draws you into its facially coded laws and mores. Yes, it's extremely macho, in an adolescent fantasy sort of way, but Mann makes it work. The night scenes are shot with digital grittiness which is an ingenious way of re-representing the superficiality of filmic vice and glamour. Likewise, the actors are so stone-faced they become almost pure representations. Even the final shoot-out is handled with such amazing freshness that you want to duck at every shot. This is a powerful, almost hypnotic film.Â
( Tim Ochser )
Click
I like Adam Sandler. I find his dopey but lovable average Joes endearing and occasionally touching. His films are like fruit-flavored gum 's pleasant to chew but unlikely to stimulate any real reflection about chewing. Sandler's latest vehicle, "Click," has a simple premise. What if you had a magical remote control which enabled you to shuffle through your life like a DVD, particularly allowing you to skip all those unbearable moments? Sandler plays Michael Newman, a suburban father struggling to balance his demanding job as an architect with mounting family responsibilities. Enter mad scientist Morty (Christopher Walken) who presents our hero with the magical remote. Now, Michael does exactly what I and many men would do first. He fast forwards through all his wife's most annoying habits. Talk about overdue technology. Michael, however, gets carried away, and this has consequences. The film is, at first, a little too heavy on tasteless gags, but shifts tone as Morty becomes a kind of Ghost of Christmas Future leading Michael through his ever shallower life. Click managed to appeal to that suburban dad buried deep inside me. I think and hope that this is due to Sandler's talent rather than my own repressed fantasies. Something else for me to chew on, I guess.Â
( Sherwin Das )
Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) is stressed and overworked. Then one night he has the bright idea of buying a universal remote control to make his life a little easier (he keeps muddling up the various remote controls that control his domestic electrical appliances). He finds a late-night store and goes through a mysterious-looking door where he meets the mysterious-looking Morty (Christopher Walken) who gives him a remote control that can control his life. It allows him, for example, to put people on mute or to rewind to any time in his past he chooses. Please excuse my dry, dreary tone. I don't know how else to describe this execrable story. "Click" is made up of everything I can't stand about Hollywood. It's an imbecilic idea taken to imbecilic extremes which cynically combines comedy and morality, except there is nothing remotely moral about it. I actually felt faintly sick just watching it, which is why I walked away well before the end. I watched an Italian film later in the evening called "The Consequences of Love" just to remind myself what a good film is. "Click" is a thoroughly disgusting film whose life-affirming message is really a life-negating one, if you think about it.Â
( Tim Ochser )
