I have seen a couple of early reviews of Miami Vice online, the first right here, which painted the film as a disaster, and then there was another review right here that showed the film in a slightly better light, but the reviewer’s style is quite annoying as are the question marks that seem to be replacing quotation marks in the article. But considering neither of those come from any sort of an official source I remained optimistic. After all, the trailer for this flick had me wanting to see it ASAP, especially after Michael Mann‘s phenomenal thriller Collateral.
Well, my excitement took another shot today as Fox News posted an article with the headline “‘Miami Vice’: Summer’s Biggest Bust?” It seems, based on this article, there is no hope for the picture. The opening paragraph tells us that word around Miami Vice is that it’s a dud, and a major one at that. It then goes on to say the following:
The bigger problem, I am told, is that the movie fails to captures the flavor of the TV series or even establish a new identity. No matter what Mann’s done so far in editing, sources tell me “Miami Vice” still comes across as a good-looking empty shell of a movie.
To be perfectly honest I don’t care if it “captures the flavor of the TV series,” I didn’t particularly like the TV series, I liked the trailer and I had hope the film wouled be gritty like Collateral and less flashy than the television show. I don’t know, I guess a trailer accompanied by Linkin Park and Jay-Z doesn’t really give me the feel of an ’80s style cop drama with guys wearing white suits and hot pink shirts. This is what had me intrigued, this article is attempting to beat down that intrigue.
One thing the article does do is point out that Colin Farrell is “yet to have an actual hit movie.” Think about it, we all know who Colin Farrell is… right? He is the guy that went into rehab recently, had a sex tape out and about and is quite the drinker, but no one really talks about Farrell the Actor. What happens to his acting career if another blockbuster picture is DOA. Let’s see… Alexander ($34.2 domestic box-office vs. $155 mil. budget), The New World ($12.7 domestic box-office vs. $30 mil. budget) and A Home at the End of the World ($1.0 domestic box-office vs. $6.5 mil. budget). Actually, it hasn’t been since 2003’s S.W.A.T. that Farrell starred in a film that actually made it’s money back at the box-office, and that film earned a meager 52% rating at RottenTomatoes after the majority of critics panned it.
Personally, I like Colin Farrell, I didn’t think he was horrible as Alexander even thought the movie was bad, I enjoyed A Home at the End of the World and I actually enjoyed The New World and the poor performance of that film was in no way the fault of Colin. Nevertheless, Farrell needs to get out of this trend. Granted, of the films mentioned above, Alexander and The New World slightly exceed their production budgets if you take into account their overseas box-office take, but there are also no figures available based on advertising, press tours and the expense of taking care of Farrell during the rounds.
On the other hand, Farrell’s Vice co-star, Jamie Foxx, is on the opposite end of the spectrum and even stars in a film that is already getting early Oscar buzz in Dreamgirls. Not to mention an Oscar on his mantle already.
I am not sure what is going to happen with Miami Vice, but based on its rumored $125-150 million production budget hopefully some work is being done in the editing room to correct anything that has gone wrong so far.
Miami Vice is set to hit theaters on July 28, click here for pics and a look at the trailers.
To get the rest of the article referenced above click here.
