151: 2025 Oscar Nominations

No Denzel, no Nicole, no “Challengers”?! Are Culkin and Saldaña committing category fraud? Does anyone even like “Emilia Pérez”?
Alex and Nick present a special live episode of their reactions to the 2025 Oscar nominations.
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Transcript

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Well, you know, President Joe, riddle me that. The rest of y'all know I'm there. You can't. None of y'all mirror me back. You hear me? Rappers like, can't g rap in his prime. I'm yo yo raps grateful dead master take over the globe I break bread I'm in Boeing jet flow express out the country. But the blue still connect on the low. But the I got a triple neck. But when you go back yep yep. Grand opening. Great closing. God damn Japan hold crack the can open again. Who you gonna find open ahead with no panties? Draw inspiration. So you gonna see you can't replace them with cheap imitations of these generations. Oh, do you wanna come get roll with the Brooklyn boys next time I need you to roll. Yeah, you know, what the hell are you waiting for? This should no more know that. Top. Make some noise. What the hell are you waiting for? Oh, hey, everyone. Welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex Witt. Throw in. I'm joined by my best man, Nick. So how are you doing there? Arcangel de Jesus. Montoya. So, man, you got ruined as I was about to go on and the scene from the heat was. I almost gave you Sonny Crockett. Yeah. I was hoping you're going to give me Sonny the boss of it all. I wanted to give you the boss of it all. The cool boss. The cool boss is that is is Garo is the twerp. Jose Jaros the chirp. Yeah. Arcangel de Hazers is the main dude. Yeah, I know he'll do the gets the fuck. He's the. He's the cool boss. He's not a cool boss. He's just very stoic and just sort of like I'm the boss. Oh no man, he gets in the back of that car and he's like, I extend my best wishes to your family. And he doesn't get caught. He does. He got he is out. I mean, it's true. You know what happens. The hero now motherfucker gets grenade launched like Jesus Christ, what a kill. Oh, what a great. You know, when the other guy gets killed too, he's like, no, no, Jamie Fox is that little flip? Oh, God. Miami Vice have me talk about this one. Jesus, this has got to be, It's got to be one of the ones where people are going to see this come out and be like, what are they doing? They're going to be like these fucking assholes. Like a dead heat vine. Michael. Bad. They just did. The insider and do we go to collateral? No. Do we go to last Mohicans or Manhunter two very popular films? No. These we go to thief. Do we go for evil? It's brilliant. No, of course not. Are they going to air it? Oh. Wrong movie. No, we stay smooth. That's how we do it. And we're going to Miami Vice, I would say. I don't want to say like his most. Yeah, I'd probably say the most, like, infamous or controversial movie that he made. But I don't mean controversial in terms of, like, content. I mean that this movie was so highly anticipated as a somewhat follow up, like a heat too. Obviously wasn't going to have anything in common with heat two, but this was Miami Vice from the dude who produced executive produce the original show. This is the guy that made he this is the guy that made collateral. He's going to fucking do it. You're going to love it. It's going to be the best action film ever made in history and movies. And it comes out and people go, what the fuck is this? Yeah, yeah. What was anyone talking about? Those guns were cool, And I was one of the few people in the summer of 2006, opening weekend. Edge of my seat. Understood. I don't know 40% of it, but absolutely loved it. And wow was I the asshole of my college friend group. I told everyone they had to see it. They saw it. They hated it because they didn't understand it. My relationship with it, first time I saw it as I went, I think. I hope that I will eventually understand most or all of this, as I eventually did with heat. The first time you watch heat, there's a lot going on in that. Like, what is this all? What does it means? The more time you watch it, the more is revealed to you. That has been the case. Miami Vice. I'm so excited to talk about this today. But yeah, it's a bit of a question mark for Michael Mann, for contemporary movies. Yeah, it's a weird movie. It's a it's a it's a $150 million art movie. That's what it is. Yeah. Pretty. Pretty much. Yeah. It lives in sort of the magic Mike sort of like arena of like what people expected and then what you get big time. Big time. Yeah. The. Yeah, I mean, I remember I refused to go see this movie when it came out. I so we, we've never talked about this on Mike but yeah. Talk to me because I was there opening weekend. I was in love with Michael Mann. How do you like what's your relationship with it? I and I gone back on this, but because I love Colin Farrell, he is one of my favorite actors. He's one of those actors that I will just go to see whatever movie he's in just because he's in it. Oh yeah. But there was a time where he was my most despised actor, and it was during this time I. I thought it was it was the reason why everyone hated Brad Pitt back in the day, is because I'm like, who is this pretty boy who judgmentally I'm like, can't act his way out of a paper bag. Some of the early performances were tough, tough material. Yeah, like I, I and I don't hold any of this against him, but I just I did not I did not like him. I just, I know I did was a Colin Farrell hater. And then all of a sudden this remake, like all, all of a sudden even 2006, I was not a fan of this. Oh, we're going to make a TV show, a new movie. I didn't care who directed it. I was like, right there doing Miami Vice with Colin Farrell. I will not see this movie. This was I like, I was like, this is one of those things where I'm like, I don't care if people tell me it's the best thing ever. I'm not seeing this. And I stood by that. I was again. I eventually became a giant Colin Farrell fan, but just sort of never just got back to this movie until you. Oh yeah, where you like it was. I don't know when this movie came up in our conversations, but you spoke about your love for Miami Vice, and I and I, I scoffed, I was sort of like, all right, all right. You know, I'm going to leave that one. And oh, passionate defender from day one. Yeah. And you just kept fucking push. You see Miami Vice and I go, no I don't. Is it I, I feel like the movies got nothing for me. And so I was on the flight back from a year ago from Italy. And so I had like you know, all this time I'm wasted because I'm on a flight. So if I'm on a flight, I'm drunk. Boom. And, and and I'm like, all right, I'm going to do it. Miami Vice is right here on this. I'm going to put this fucker on and and I'm going to have a time with it. Oh my God, did I have the it was it's to this day my favorite. Airplane movie I've ever watched. It's fucking awesome movie to watch a plane. Exactly how Michael Mann intended it. Yeah. You get to see all that gorgeous, gorgeous photography just perfectly projected on a five inch, a five inch screen, headrest screen. Yeah. I remember pushing this one on you hard because a lot of people had preconceived notions about it, and it just in the immediate aftermath, it did not have a good reputation. People were like, it didn't work. It didn't work more so than damn near any movie made. Since 2006, this thing has been, reappraised. So many articles, think pieces are written about how this movie is, in fact, actually a hidden masterpiece that never got the credit it deserved. Yes. It's complicated. Yes, it's confusing, but it has a vibe and a style that it ever, to a lot of people, supersedes story. I'm not saying to Michael Mann, but if you sit down and you're like, I want to put on this vibe movie and just watch it and roll with it and not try to understand every single sentence that is spoken, you're going to have a good time. Yes you are. I can't even promise that it's all going to land at the end. But this is a movie that I've seen again, we just did the Insider podcast, but like conservatively, 20 to 25 times I've seen it, I've studied it. This was way more than that. What am I saying? This. I had this on repeat in college because what happened at this movie? Fucking Michael Mann? I love you, dude. But sometimes once was enough. What this masochist does is he releases the movie in the theater. I'm being mean. I actually understand why he does this, I do, I understand why he tinkers with his movie so much when they're released on DVD, Blu ray, whatever his argument. And it's a really good argument in the case of this, is that no one showed up for Miami Vice. Critics didn't like it. It was a huge box office bomb. So in releasing it on home video, why not try something a little different to try to get more people to see it? Because they already rejected the one in the theater. So why not try a somewhat different restructure to beef it out a little bit, maybe make things clearer? And what he does when he releases Miami Vice on DVD is that it is only available in one version. It is available and an unrated director's cut. And I'm going, this is going to be awesome. I put this fucking thing on. And the beginning, so many people talk about this. Yeah, but the beginning of the director's cut is different from the theatrical cut. And whether you like the movie or not, but every single person who watches the theatrical cut of Miami Vice are impressed with its first five minutes because it is so disorienting. You are literally dropped in the middle of a vice assignment, a current vice assignment that is not really going to come back around. You're not going to see this pimp. It's not. But we're just bom bom, bom bom and you're there. Can I get an encore? Like, which is the way that, It's awesome. It's perfect. It's perfect. Even you can go back and read reviews and people are like, Ali was the same way. Not the most critically regarded, well-regarded Michael Mann film, but every single person who watches that goes kind of. One of the issues of the movie is that the ten minutes are the best sequence in that movie. The opening ten minutes of Sam Cooke doing his medley, and we're cutting back and forth Muhammad Ali's life, like Michael Mann, knows how to open a movie. He opens, it's Miami Vice and you're you're just thrown into complete chaos. You have to try to catch up. What he does with the director's cut is make it much more traditional, and it is a lead up there in the go fast boats. They're doing this long race. It's an open credit sequence. There's no open credits in theatrical cut. There's credits at the end. Now there's an open credits scene. It's very like slow, methodical. You see them kind of like, you know, going undercover and talking with that pimp that they're going to eventually talk to in the club. So it sets up the club, it sets up Neptune, it sets up all this stuff, and then we get to be dropped in. Big mistake. Yeah. Big, big mistake. So what I found from like late 2006, early 2007 when this was released on DVD, till God knows when. I had a lot of trouble advocating for this movie because I'd be like or rent the streaming version or whatever it is, like, do not watch this. And this was the only way you could watch it before it became available on streaming. And then, thank God I did some research and in fucking like March of this year or May of this year, they released a steelbook, finally, a Blu ray that has both versions. It's the first time I've seen both versions available, so I immediately put on the theatrical cut. Of course, Michael Mann's commentaries are amazing, but he only does a commentary for the director's cut. So you're like, God damn it! But whatever it's it's been part of that. History has helped the Miami Vice lore like, no, dude, you got it right the first time. Yeah, audiences rejected it. But go back to the theatrical cut. It's it's better. And, yeah, I love this movie. This movie had one of the most insane productions in modern cinema. The way it went down is completely bonkers. He's lucky he even got a movie out of it, let. Let alone one that has legs like it's been, you know, almost 20 years. Do you know how this movie was made? Like, do you know? No. I'll get to that in a bit, though. Michael Mann, Michael Mann, Michael Mann, Michael Mann, we just did the insider he makes the insider not big with audiences, but gets him a lot of Oscar attention, a lot of nominees. He gets nominated for Best Director, which is wild. Then he goes to a Oscar heavy biopic that was in 2001, leading up to Ali. That was the Oscar movie. It was going to be a big deal comes out. It is also not very, not very well received by critics or audiences, though I love it. And he goes back to like his bread and butter. Give me a criminal and a good guy stuck in a car talking. I'll give you a kill every ten minutes. Call it collateral. It's one of his shortest movies. It's his highest grosser if we adjust for inflation. Mohicans last. The Mohicans is his highest grosser. Collateral is a big hit, which is not common for Michael Mann films. So then he uses all that good fortune he's made. And in since Alis developed a relationship with Jamie Fox, who he's so good in all, he's hilarious, all of his little rhymes. It is evidently at the Ali wrap party that he's like, Michael, come on, you got you got Ricardo. We got Sonny and Ricardo. Like, I can play Rico. Get someone else to play Sonny like it's right there, Miami Vice. Let's do it. Puts it on the back burner. They do collateral next. Now he's like, come on. Like it's. Let's do it. We got to do this. Jamie Fox wins an Oscar for Ray. His next movie after is Miami Vice. And then a lot of things go wrong before they can get the movie off the ground. A lot goes wrong. I like to do this sometimes, these disastrous productions before we get into it. All right, here we go. So he wants to shoot a lot of it digitally on this Thompson Viper film. Street camera looks great. The oh my God, the photography of Miami Vice is age, so it's crazy. It's so good. And then of course, there's some 35 millimeter shot for high speed scenes, underwater shots. The production was characterized as being troubled. That's a sentence that I love. So, you know, they lose some time because of hurricane stuff has to be delayed. All that stuff. They greenlit a $90 million budget, which is a lot. It balloons to 150 million. This is largely because man, as depicted by several crew members, there's been huge articles written about this. That's where I got all this shit from, man. Would make script changes, like on the day he would demand to film in unsafe locations, he would go places that weren't on maps, places like in the Dominican Republic, like very obscure places that made the actors. They're like, all right, what's going on? It? They were places that the police avoided, so they had to hire the active gang members in the area to run security. That can make it very hard to, like, gain permits or, you know, put trailers or just just to make it. This is a huge production, and he's taken to these really sketchy places. He's changing his mind a lot. So the budget balloons now, because Fox had just won an Oscar, it sounds like Fox is the nightmare of this production and made everything extremely difficult. When he signed on, Colin Farrell had lead billing and was going to be making a little more money than Fox. Fox is like, no, I need top billing and I need to be making more money. When Colin Farrell hears that, he goes, just give him some of my budget or give him some of my salary. So that's essentially what they did. Like they took salary away from Colin Farrell, gave it to Jamie Fox, and Farrell just shrugs. He doesn't give a shit. He says he wants more money. He's showing up. This huge entourage is he's refusing. Some of this is crazy because apparently he refused to be in boats and planes. But there are some authentic plane shots and boat shots in the movie where Jamie Fox is in it. So I don't know if that was like negotiated somehow. I'm not sure you're Miami Vice. Yeah, the big one. Well, that's what I'm saying. It's like, dude, this was your idea to get it off the ground. Now you're not going to be in planes. He demanded a private jet. He wouldn't fly commercial. One of the reasons why this movie got greenlit for so much money is that the studio is like, you know what? No one saw heat in the theater, but it's it's been a monster on VHS, DVD, Blu ray. Maybe that'll happen to Miami Vice. Even if people don't show up to it, it's going to be a hit in the long term. And he had scripted and all timer shootout ending that rivaled heat. Everyone involved in it said this is going to be like one, if not the best shootout of all time going to take place in the Dominican Republic. That's where they're going to film it. Maybe it's supposed to be set in Paraguay, but they're going to film it in the Dominican Republic in a really dangerous area. Gunshots are fired on set in October 2005. It was a misunderstanding, but it's not like anyone. And he you know, there are people tangentially related who I think got kind of injured. Jamie Fox leaves the country, gets on his private plane, leaves the country and refuses to film anywhere but the United States, for the rest of production. So he has to completely rewrite his ending, set it in Miami at that shipyard. So because of that man, his kind of before the movie was critically accepted again, he kind of wrote it off. And it's basically like we didn't get to shoot the ending, the original ending, and he's trying to be kind of a good sport about it, even in the commentary, like the commentary for collateral, he spends a lot of time in heat. He spent so much time talking about how much he respects actors, the quality, the acting. He's not like that in the Miami Vice commentary. He's never talking shit, but he's not really like that. So Jamie Fox difficult to work with? You see that in the editor of the movie when toward the end of the movie, they take him out largely, he's in a hospital room. Yeah, he's, you know, it goes off with Colin Farrell and Gong Li a lot more. And you, you sense like what was going on in the edit and then, of course, Colin Farrell is coming off the new world. He's amazing in the new world and he's in bad shape at this time. In fact, he's so fucked up during the making of Miami Vice on booze and various drugs, cocaine, what have you that he genuinely says to this day that he remembers very little of making the movie, little to none. And right when they were done making this, he took himself off to rehab, went to rehab, got cleaned up, came back with in Bruges. There are a few awkward movies in the middle there that I think had already been filmed. Came back with In Bruges and, you know, he's been sober since. But yeah, you, you see like the bloat in this. You see the some people might call it a spotty accent. I don't really know what they're talking about. I think it's flawless. But yeah, he's so it it was a troubled production. Nothing that Michael Mann isn't used to. Michael Mann is a difficult director to work with. It's got to be his way. And that's when I think he's had some constraints at times. I think this is also why I'm not just bringing it up, because maybe it's fashionable now. I think the only good performance Will Smith has ever given, the only truly great performance Will Smith is given is when he gave himself over to a director in the. In terms of Ollie and Will Smith hated making that movie. He did not like making it. He refused to make it for years. And then as soon as he signs on door to be in it, Michael Mann's like, cool. Go take a year to learn how to fight. Will Smith's like, wait, what? He's like, yeah, you've taking a year to go learn how to fight. Like that's I'm not. That's go do it. So yeah. And but you see when you give yourself over to him what can happen. And it looks like Colin Farrell did here. All the crew said Farrell was great to work with. You know, maybe a little out of it, but always knew his lines always showed up on time. And that was not the case for Jamie Foxx's recent Oscar winner, Jamie Foxx. And that's just, you know, while he may have been in that mood for a while now, definitely was not how he was reacting when he got on Django Unchained set, because Tarantino doesn't allow that shit either. So I think there probably a lot of talks, like if you're going to behave like that, like you did not like, you know, Miami Vice, how you do on my set, you're not doing this. And I think, you know, but he's not in as many movies anymore. Jamie Fox had his film star pop one it's Oscar gave gave good performances. He's good in Ali. He's good in Any Given Sunday collateral, Miami Vice. But it's interesting how physiologically, Jamie Fox is in so much better shape than Colin Farrell. 2006 and now we go today. And that's even physiologically but career wise and everything that's flipped, that's changed. So that's all crazy movie crazy production. I mean that's that's great that it's, it's the reason I keep you around is, is what I do. I just study this shit endlessly. It's. I mean, you just you some of these things are just like a dream you read about, and you go, okay, Jamie, if Jamie Fox is portrayed as the villain here, Michael Mann wasn't making it any easier for anyone. He's going like, yeah, let's hire this entire this gang on Wednesday, this gang on Thursday. Go down here. It's like Jesus Christ fed. I mean, you'll you'll be listening to the commentary. Same for collateral for it. He's like, yeah, that guy. They're all he's a good actor. I hired him, he's playing a cop here. That other guy playing a cop, he's just real LAPD Cup. He. I mean, it might be vice. Like, yeah, that guy back, there's a head of a gang. You're like, Jesus Christ loves his authenticity. But sometimes, maybe to a tunnel vision degree. But, you know, to his credit, he goes, If I'm going to do Miami Vice movie, it's going to be nothing like the show in terms of the pastel outfits yet, all that stuff. We're going to we're going to take a completely different direction. And it it's not going to be obvious. It is not going to be spelled out. You're really going to know what it feels like to work with one of these crews. I mean, that is sort of so I never this is an interesting part of the conversation. I never have watched Miami Vice ever. I've never seen me either. I, I have never seen the TV show, never my life, but never I know enough. Yeah. Of this that right. Like, like without having ever seen an episode. I know the neon. I know the past. Like I like those Tangerine Dream. Yeah, it's very bright, very colorful. Yes. And it is very 80s. And we get this muted. Muted I don't want to use the word drab because that because it's beautiful too. But it's just not it's just not what you'd expect it it. He is committed to the look of the movie. Yeah. Never betrays it. He's committed. Yeah. And even and there's always some stuff like like that he'll do like that's just Michael Mann like fancy stuff like that for no real reason. Like the, Yeah. I'm just thinking of, like, the scene in The Insider when they're in the car having a conversation, and it's just the reflections, like green. It's so he he's making it look like the 10th over every, like the top of everyone's windshield is, like, permeating through the whole car. Yeah. Like it's it doesn't look like that. Yeah. They're just having, like, this kind of conversation with this color going on and you're like, yeah, it looks awesome. But you're like, That's Michael Mann being Michael Mann for for no other reason other than just, you know, it looks really fucking cool. Let's go with it. I can't think of an actual scene in this movie where he betrays that look for just some type of esthetic that is funky, cool, weird. He keeps it all locked up, but I love it. I think it's great. Oh, yeah. You're never going to see, like, a bright, like, neon colored dress. Like a yellow dress, or like blood blood blood red. This color palette, they're even the way the universal logo looks in the very beginning. It's like steel, the steel looking filter over it. I love that that logo. And then there's a little bit of silence and boom, boom, boom, boom. It's just one of the best. Like needle drops ever. Like it's what got me like I remember being on the plane and I'm like, all right, let's start this fucker. And then all of a sudden it just hits there and I'm like, oh, I mean, I am in. So did you, like, ever have an idea? Oh, how many times have you seen this movie now. Because I've seen it a lot. Two times. Maybe dosed two times. Okay, okay. Do you understand what's going on in the beginning of this sequence? Do you, like, get it? Do you care? Does it matter? Okay. The first time I was on the plane, I was not following. And there are still elements even to the second one, because, like, the one thing I 100% got that I didn't get before was the John Hawk stuff. Sure. Yeah. But, like, there's even things where, like, the girl is getting off and, like, beaten up in the corner and like, when they're chasing after her and then you, Colin Farrell is just sort of like his time will come. Yeah. We have to stop. Yeah. And I'm like, okay. I don't really know what that is, but, it seems like we're on to something else now, but this is where I actually think, like, the beauty of this movie actually lies is that it's, I just remember being so wrapped up in, like, when you get that needle drop and we're in the club and we're just getting dropped in, and I'm like, oh, they're working on something. I don't know what. But then, like, you get thrown with the charm of Colin Farrell and he just goes and hits on the waitress. Oh my. It's one of my favorite, like, flirting scenes in movies. I could sound the 100. It's like, where are you from? You get your tan in Miami? Yeah. God, there's something. If you don't include that little scene in the beginning of this movie, I don't think you're setting up for what this movie actually is going to be. Is like, it's just like that, that hang a little bit. Hey, no. Two Bacardi mojitos and a gin and tonic. Lemon or lime? Lime. Where are you from, please? For, That's in Portugal. But you got your tan in Miami. I you what's your name? Peter. I hate sunny. It's like we're in the middle of, like, some crazy operation, but we're just going to segway right here for Colin Farrell for no reason. Like he. There's no plot here. He's just going and just throwing on the charm and a little flirting scene, and then we're back to it. But I'm like, this is cool, man. Like, we're we're on a mission, but we're like flirting. We're oh, we're in it like I. And and that to me is like the vibe of like, it's all work and all play, all at the same time. Absolutely. Yeah. You're not supposed to know because they keep cutting to these different people. But you're like, all right, I know Colin Farrell is I know who Jamie Fox is. They look intense. They're looking at something. Okay? They're investigating a prostitution ring. The music's blaring. The song keeps changing like it wouldn't a club Sonny is hitting on the bartender, Dominic Lombardo is undercover with this pimp. There's Justin Thrill running surveillance, and Nomi Harris is standing guard. Elizabeth Rodriguez is mounting the camera. There's these quick bursts of violence. You're like, did you just, like, break a dude's hand? Like, the hell yeah. You're looking all around. What's going on? Very reminiscent of just being dropped into the Koreatown club scene and collateral. If we were just like, oh, yeah, now here we are. Really. We are in space. Okay, 5.5 minutes in. We have no idea what's going on. Finally they talk. Sonny gets a phone call. It's John Hawkes. Who the fuck is this? He's frantically calling them. Why? And then, man, when they go out to that rooftop in that, you're really getting a taste of what this movie's going to look like and how you can see all of Miami behind them and the way they're talking. So this guy, we're like, we don't know who John Hawks is, but we get it's this criminal informant. There's who they were on a job with, you know, months ago. They handed him over to the FBI. So now they're he hangs up, Hawks hangs up. He's speeding back home. And they got to get the FBI on the call. I love just like you're negotiating all this, like, what is this? And then suddenly they're like, leaving. It goes full heat. Like they got someone in a helicopter trying to find out where the fuck he's driving. Alonzo is driving. They catch up to him on the street, and then it's. Everything's moving so fast. You have no idea what's going on. And what we gather is that okay? This is how these guys work. This is the typical night for these guys. They'll be here at this club working on case, their active case, which is against this pimp Neptune. And then they get a call, a criminal informant they had for case they had months ago. They haven't talked to in months. He's in jeopardy. His wife's in jeopardy. They get in charge with the FBI, and they figure out that Alonzo John Hawkes was involved in a drug bust that has gone very, very wrong. Lee is involved in a drug by that has gone very, very wrongly. Of course, it's with the Aryan Brotherhood. They're always a scary bunch of fellows. And I mean that that action scene of them, that that big guy just chomping away on the gun, it's actually the fucking best friend from Henry. Portrait of a serial killer and action, basically. So good. Tom talks, I think, is his name Tom Toles? Tom Toles is his name. They blow them to shit. That's an amazing thing with all of them. This was a Barrett 982 sniper rifle. Sniper rifle. They blow the ever loving shit out of those cops. But then that action scene is going on. Now. There's like, some shirtless Nazi in front of a fridge. What the hell? What? Okay, what is this? This poor Ivan guy just got absolutely destroyed by the gun. So all this is going on? We have no idea what any of it means. And we're 11 minutes in and we're like, okay, what is this and that? Even me explaining it, it's too many words to say. It's so much better just to fall into everything and to not really, like, try to put, okay, what's this? Trying to catch all the beats of it. But yeah. Can me and just explaining it all exactly. Exactly. Alonzo's a friend. His, he was involved in a deal gone bad. So the long and short of it is that they. Because of this. Because he was a friend. Because this deal went so wrong, Sonny and Rico meet up with their boss, played amazingly by Barry Shabaka Henley. I love this guy so much. And they meet up with the head of the FBI operation, Kieran Hinz, Ciaran Hinds. I'm sorry, his last name is Fujiyama in the movie because of course it is. It's like John Hawkes, not really a guy you would think would be named Alonzo. This guy? Not really guy. You'd think his last name is Fujiyama and now it's all spelled out in very, very clear, understandable English. I'm joking. Of course. The four of these guys are not and are just attracted to the tentative tete talking about all these things. And yeah, for me to sit here and, like, explain every little bit of it probably isn't that interesting. The beauty in the of the movie lies in the fact that all of these people know their job so well that they are not dumbing it down for the anonymous audience, where it's more like watching a documentary, like we're watching a bunch of cops argue whose jurisdiction in it shit went bad, who ratted? Who out? Who's this Colombian cartel? Jose arrow? Oh, yeah, I heard him. And you're like, okay, they know that guy, so I don't know him, but it's okay. I'm going to know him. Yeah. It's all just moving, moving, moving. And as I am learning in real time right now, not at all. Very fun to explain. Beat for beat about what's happening. No, it's just not. And I'm just going to for the whole time I'm not. No, it's not what that's going to be. I was going to say like this is where like and there's they pepper it in with these cool statements like there's one where like Colin Farrell is talking on the roof and he goes, yeah, it's not what I want to do either. But here is, we, here we are like 1147 on a Sunday. And that is the hand we have been dealt. Yeah, that's the hand we've been dealt at 1147 and, and it's just sort of like you get some of these just like sentences where I get it. But it's also like a really cool way to say that. Oh yeah. There is like this element of cool that's going on the entire time, but then there's even stupid shit like, he's got to given his fucking code to prove that he's an FBI detective. And he's like, it's like, how do I talk about this over a now to secure line? I don't know, that is a hand we've been dealt. Yeah, exactly. It is like, what's your number? And then Jamie Fox is having a conversation. They're conflicting. And yeah. And then you get to like they had this one scene where the four of them are together where yeah, you get oh, this guy was undercover for you. It went bad. That's on you. You fucked up. Don't you fucking talk to me like that. I'm like, you know, like you get, like, the the power rankings of how everything goes. And then. But then I love at the end of it too. It's like, I'm sorry for your for your loss, for your guy, for. Yeah. For your guy did lose guys. Yeah. And they're like, we were sorry for you too because that was your friend. Oh, they don't know you. So you want to recruit us? Identify them. Who are they? Had they cut into us? How do we get into them? How do we get all close and personal like a by that work? Well cell door. We supply them. No, they got a steady stream of supply. Colombian named Jose Yero. Mid-level traffickers. Okay, so what about you? Can we get to them through you? Us? What does he need? Money laundering. Transport. Transport? He outsources his transportation. Okay. Do we run an undercover? Jose, you. So we transport a load for. You're one of those group shit. Can we run a load for you here? One of this group is a question. The transcripts of Haiti buy this product in from Colombia. Has someone to run it from Haiti into here. And, but going back to that John Hawks scene. What a fucking actor, man. That guy just, like, so good. He he's got no purpose in this movie other than just to be in this emotional state. And I mean, I love his death. I there's always some tense. We at first you're like, did he just really step in front of that? And you get like, not even a second, like a millisecond of the blood, but then the call and go, whoa. But I love even like the buildup to it's because he realizes that his girl's dead and it's his fault. And and Jamie Fox and Colin Farrell are like, you don't have to go home yet. Like, like basically he's like, they like, they said they wouldn't hurt her. They lied, they lie. And and it was just. And then the looks that they're, they're there for him and but and then it's like the camera it's got like again that beautiful like everyone's in like the far right of the frame. But then it's like moving little by little to the left little slowly. And now we're just looking at open space. And then that's John Hawks is like turn into the truck. It's just, it's so well done. What is essentially happening to John Hawks right here is kind of ish in a way. What is going to happen to Jamie Fox in a few hours? They're going to kidnap his woman under the threat of do what we tell you or we will kill her. Yes. And they're saying you know, you fuck up, we fuck her up. They're going to kill her anyway. They say that if they get the money, Trudy is dead. So that it's essentially what's happening now. Same people, same shit bags. Aryan Brotherhood, Jose Yero. Yep. Are all involved. Yeah. So. But you we have to see it play out. And again, none of this is explained to us very clearly, but one of my favorite scenes, there are two scenes of these four guys talking on these parking structures. There are two of my favorite scenes. The movie I just like, I love them. I love that people can't get on the same page about stuff, especially the next one. But in this way you know what the fuck happened? And, and these, like, cool down. He's always so smooth and good. I love him, I love him, but, yeah, we think the guy involved this dude, this Colombian cartel, the boss of it all, Jose Yero. He is pitch to them as the boss of it all. Jose Yero. Yeah, he's got a load of drugs being delivered on these go fast boats. And then when they go and rob those boats, you don't know, like, what the hell's going on? And they're pretending to be like Haitians and you're like, what the fuck is going on? I don't know, I, I've talked to people who love this movie and they still don't understand that. See it up like, that's the shit. They're gonna pretend to give it to Yero for free and like, you know, an hour, but, you know, you can't just, like, Waltz in to talk to Hozier. Yeah, Yaro, you got to have an in. And that's this other shitbag played by Eddie Marsan. This guy Nicolas shit with this crazy accent. I love him so much. They're being trusted by the FBI because this original deal was this joint task for, you know, DEA, FBI, and someone's gone bad. They don't know who. But the the lowly Miami-Dade Police Department is clean, 100% clean. If they if they're clean, I want to know why they're detectives. They're driving around Ferraris. It's shoot out blue flames. But I guess that's another story. We don't question those things in a Michael bad movie. I feel like there's a line that sums up everything about this movie that you like. And in terms of the blanket statement of not knowing what needs to happen. But, you know, what is this scene where Colin Farrell is driving and he goes, somebody, somebody. Something's gotta go somewhere. Someone. Yeah, you. Truth. Thank you, thank you. Sunny. And it's like it's like, well, I get it. Another thing I want to, mention about great dialog, I you brought it up. It is you brought it up earlier. But there can be a specific city. This is an all of man's, movies that deal with the criminal underworld. It is. It starts with James common thief. It's not the entire time, but there is a way that you learn how to talk in prison about when you want to be very clear and very efficient and effective, you start talking like this. You do not use contract guns and you pronounce every single letter to 80. That's how James Caan is talking lot. That's how I mean, even fucking Wayne grow and he does. You serious? Man? That is why I am here. When Nicholas Eddie Marsan calls to make to connect with Yero and then, you know, calls him, he will meet you there. It's a very, very specific way of delivering man's dialog that they're not doing it all the time because it wouldn't be genuine to talk about that all the time. But when you want serious business, I mean, apparently that's how it goes down on the yard, like on the prison yard. If you if you have a piece of Intel, like this person is going to come up and stab you in like 30s, you're much, much clearer about it. And I like that it's clear and all of his movies. Yeah. All this crime movies. I love the line, you know, if can't do time, don't mess with crime. Oh yeah. Pushing on. Yeah pushing on. That's that's what these people do. Like Nicholas gets to operate with some impunity. The guy's not in jail like that. Dude is a fucking criminal. John Hawks character is a criminal. But you come work with the cops, they let you get away with this stuff, but you also have to do the shit that they tell you to do. Like, hey, Nicholas, you need to put me in touch with a renowned Colombian drug cartel, and we're going to set up fake identities. Don't worry. But you have to vouch for us. And if that comes back on him, Nicholas is dead. But you can't do time. Don't mess crime. I mean, it's honestly, it's a great way to ask yourself if you want to enter into the crime world. Yeah, I feel like if you really want to be successful in that, like, you have to be like, all right, if I do this, I'm probably going to go to jail. Can I do that? Well, I am I willing to do that? If the answer is yes, then you got your answer. Baby. Shushing shame, right? Settle up. Chang. We learned that I can't, I couldn't I couldn't do the time suck. No, I couldn't, so why I don't deal three tons of cocaine in Miami. Jesus. We learn that Trudy and Rico are, in fact, lovers. They shower, they go at it, they shop for three. They do. They love showers. There's a lot of shower. Showering. Yeah, there's for a Michael Mann movie. There's a lot of, going at it in Miami Vice. It's very sexy film. I would say most of those Havana sex, badass footage of a small plane just look so good and clean. Very Michael Mann here we get to meet John Ortiz. Is Joe's eight year old. This is another guy that's just played any and everything. I mean, John Ortiz is known. It's like Philip Seymour Hoffman's best friend starting. I know Labrinth theater company. I know, I didn't know you all. You're. Oh you're plugging. All right, all right. Plug it then. No, you see, it goes. That's just what it is. Yeah, yeah. He started he was, had a really notable, small but notable role in narc as a crackhead who has I think he's just gotten the tip of his penis burned off his end. He he burned is. Oh, no, no, no, no, he set his woman on fire because she gave him, venereal disease. That's what it is. It's a great scene. That's what attracted Michael Mann to Cassavetes. Oh, my God, that meeting meeting's a bit tense. So tense that it very Michael Mann fashion. Justin Thoreau just unplugs a un pins a grenade and tosses it to Sonny and John. Is this holding his hand on the grenade? Unpinned. I don't know if you could do that, but it looks very cool. But I love that he's like. And you know, they're doing the thing where they have to act hard because they're deep, deep, deep undercover now. Like, how dare you question us? See you at the man. You said, don't waste our motherfucking time. You know, I think so, but this is a scene where I love the walk up to because they're like, why do I feel like this? Like, whatever they say, but they're looking at it's 15 blocks out because they're looking at us 15 blocks out. Yeah. But like when this scene starts, I had the exact same reaction to it the first time. And second time I, for whatever reason, shows that I was like, oh, this is going to be like like I was like telegraphed. I was like, oh, we're going to get like a big, like intense negotiation scene. And they start so hard in the beginning. Oh yeah. Where I'm like, I'm like, oh, this is going to be like cliche. And by the time that that scene is over I am floored. So it's, it's a really wonder to kind of like start a scene against it. Like both times I watched it, I had this reaction and I was like I'm, I'm, I'm, I am against what this scene is trying to do right now. And then this scene just goes where it goes. And I'm like, all in. It's amazing. What's that in your business? How much volume you do, whose product you move, who you work with. Oh, Nicolas, who the fuck knows you? Oh, my mommy. Daddy! No, man. We don't talk about who we work with. We didn't come down here to audition for business. Business auditions for us. And knows all about us before they call Nicolas. That way we don't always have gas for our motherfucking time, but always. You want us to be telling you about our shit? You can't find out your own. Why do I not buy that? You went to see what's up there. Talking about transport, where you put the man you weren't. Why? I'm gonna tell you what's going to happen. He's going to come in here. You know what they gonna say? They're gonna look around and go, oh, like he'll add some crazy motherfucker. More like, what is it, Jackson Pollock? No vehicle that was wholesale. You got splattered all over his own wall so we can close each other's eyes right now. Real fast. Then ain't nobody gonna make no money. The color scheme is brilliant, too. It's just those, like, blue white walls. And then again, he keeps it so consistent throughout. There's some, you know, mysterious woman sitting in the shadows, gone. Lee, is Isabella. She's only going to say a few lines, but the way that she cools the room or like, wait, is she in charge? Like, what's wrong? What's going on here? And then we learn, in fact, that Jose Yero is not in charge. He more runs counter intelligence for the boss of it all, Archangel that Jesus Montoya, played by Louis Tovar, who's just, in my opinion, great. You think he's not doing much. He's also I love the flair he has. He's got flair. I like that he plays it more like even he's not Scarface. You know he's not. No. 2000 all around. He's a fucking businessman. You know, I was saying like you should have gave me sunny is all I'm saying. Oh, in the beginning, when I give you the names I give, you are not meant to build you up. They're meant to make you laugh and break you down. Well, make the audience laugh. You did. I gave you Antonius Block on the Bergman on the Bergman pod. That should be enough forever. I called you Nick on the gender role in the episode, but if I want to call you Fuck Buttons, I will call you Sock buttons any time I damn well please. That one does take the cake, but I know I love that meeting. You know what's so funny about listening to Michael Mann commentaries? And they really are good. You get a sense of how much fucking research he puts into every one of his movies, and if he is asked a question, he can answer it like he already knows it. He just does. So when you're watching this scene, for example, at the commentary, he goes, yes. So what Yaro is doing here is he's testing him because Yaro is setting up a delivery scheme that would have the drugs in the money in the same room at the same time, which he would never do. But he wants to see if Sonny and Rico have a plan that never puts the money in drugs in the same room at the same time they do, so they pass the test. The way he explains in the commentary is very easy to understand. That level of clear expository dialog in a movie does not interest him at all, so you have to put all that together. I didn't even understand that's what was going on there. But we get it because of the intensity, as you're saying, because of how fucking hot everyone is coming in right away, we're like, okay, okay, this is all really. But it's just a test to see if they pass to meet the boss. And you get that, like, exactly like exactly. You explain that from the commentary. I'm like, oh, that actually is pretty cool. He's trying to see if they don't want the like, but. Right. I would have never guessed that that was the specificity. But I do understand that this is a test and that that Jose has got something that he is looking for and it passed, but then also did it like there's still like a looming question. So it's like one of those things where it's like, yeah, I don't know what's happening, but I know what's happening. Yeah, yeah. The best Michael man, his best commentary is he. But the best for all this back story is collateral because you put it on. And about 25 minutes in he just launches in unprompted to Vincent, his backstory, the Tom cruise back story and he knows berth up until when the movie starts any and everything. And this was not it. You know, he's like, Tom and I developed. I'm like, no, you didn't. You fucking came up with a biography, a dossier like relationship with his dad, 11 years old, where you went all this stuff, and they do that for Max to to where he's like, Max's mom is really hard, mom to be around. So much so that his three brothers moved to Chicago when they were of age and haven't come back yet. You're like, what? What the fuck? What? What did that happened? Like where do you. He just put so much into all these characters. So back to Miami Vice. The way that Jesus is kind of introduce all these layers of security that they have to get into, and then it just it's like a seemingly casual meeting in the back of a car. But it's not casual. You know, I extend my best wishes to your family. You're like, gotten in the heat. Fox immediately goes Rico rather immediately goes and calls Trudy. So you're like, okay, these these people are serious. Like, it's very, very serious business. Of course, Sonny's catching eyes at Isabella, sly dog. They do that. I can get it. Colin Farrell. They they do the first drug run in Colombia. It goes off without a hitch. Of course. This is where they're bringing back in. We did this load. It went fine. But we also found all these other drugs. And they're using this to try to like win Jaros trust. And you know it's just it's really smart to be like oh these are the drugs we stole from you two weeks ago. But now we're going to give them back to you for free. It's funny, and it should be said the whole time that Yero is really the only one who's like, I don't like these guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rico's okay. The bloated white one. I don't like that guy. Slowed it. Boy, I don't know. Sometimes he has a southern accent, sometimes he doesn't. It's really weird. Looks like he went on a bender the night before. Yeah. Our next section here, and it is the big thing of the movie. Sonny and Isabella does this relationship work for you? Do you think Gong Lee works in the movie? Oh, that's because I am an enthusiastic yes. Yeah, for both. But a lot of people have trouble with her. It's a very good actress. She was in a Wong Kar Wai movie 20, 46 two years before. Very good. She did not speak English. She didn't. She didn't speak Cantonese either. According to Michael Mann. So all of her dialog is delivered phonetically. She doesn't necessarily understand the actress. The words that she's saying, this to me doesn't matter. I get it, I get all of it. I also understand how her role in a massive organization like this, the sort of like accounting role could, you know, she's just a really smart businesswoman, I get it. I've never had an issue with the fact that they fall in together with each other. Ultimately, he's going in so deep. Yeah, he's trying to win her over so that she convinces Hazlehurst. Yeah, they can work for us. But I love just this whole, you know, this is the thing the movies made fun of the most. It's Sunny and Isabella, like, she. No. Yeah, I beat it. Yeah. Go for I mean, this is this is the vibe of the movie, though. It's like you get that. Exactly, exactly. You fall into, like, this love, like. Or just like this torrid sort of like affair. And whether it's based in real or not, it's got it. It's alive. I mean, but it's also peppered with like that, like, you know, like those lines like I'm a fiend for my Cheetos and like, I'm taking you and taking to Havana for, like, you know, the best mojito you've ever had. And we're on a fast boat, like, yeah, we are. And, you know, all of a sudden they're dancing and I'm like, well, that. Yeah. Like we the movie slows down here because we've had like, we got the crazy rifle car blowing up in the beginning. They, you know, broke in and stole your hero's load. We've done a drug deal. We've been in planes. Now we're going to spend like 12 to 14 minutes with just these two. Yeah, yeah, they're flirting together. They go how fast? So let's go fast. Like I love it. I don't know, I felt like we got whisked away into, like this. Like very, very like steamy, sexy, like, like whole entire, like, thing. And you just live in there. I mean, I dug it. Michael Mann breaks down the math for us in the commentary. Of course he does. Says to be about 90 miles from the very tip where that meeting was taking place. Very tip off Florida to Havana. So he's like, depending on how fast it's going, you know, 70 miles an hour or so, you get there in about 90 minutes. So he says that's how long it would take. And believe me, they've done the he's done the math. And I'm thinking like, you know, it's kind of cool for first date. It's like I this is my favorite drink. If this is the drink you want, you got to go here to another country. And he's thinking as a cop, they're not going to let me in with my passport. Don't worry about it. I know the person who can let us in. So we're going to travel 90 minutes by way of go fast boat to have some drinks, dance and get it on for a day. I think it's awesome. It's fucking great. And then they get they're sitting there enjoying their drinks and she it's the same way he can flirt so well with the bartender in the beginning. She goes, do you dance? Just takes a perfect beat. I dance and while they this was they did not know how to do this. They practiced like three hours a day for weeks to get these scenes down. And they dance so well. Salsa is just create a scene. It's so sexy, you know, it makes it sets your neck. You know, it makes it sexier. Audio slave I was going to say it makes everyone sexier. Dude. I've never. It takes the salsa to mute and then breaks up audio Slave, which he had done in collateral, but not to your romantic scene. And you're like, all right, here we go. Michael. Bed. Yeah, I wrote that down. I was like, I was like, are we really getting into a sex scene with Audio Slave in the background? And then thinking, seriously, there's no girl? Are you not fully boom, boom. Come on. Don't don't fire up. I'm not, I'm not. I'm gonna go bada boom and I go for the an have for you both on this call. Are you up by 941? You mean. And you want to. Samuel. And I'm like. He goes in on the commentaries. Oh, yeah. He loves them. He loves them. Oh, yeah. I mean, they're great. I loved it, too. I was, but there is like a thing where, like, we really do an audio slavery. No. Hell yes we are. But again, this is another reason why I love the movie is because it's like, yeah, I'm here for all of this. This is all fucking awesome. You're never going to see any of this in a movie unless it's directed by Michael Mann. See and hear all the weird. But, the muted color palette, it works. The weird but, unexpected musical choices. That works. Yeah, the acting styles that I'm having trouble with my lead actors, but it works. My lead actress doesn't even speak speak fluent English, but it does. It's all these pieces that to me, it all clicks and all clicks. It's it I honestly, I like this is the magic of this movie is like none of it should really work, but it it does. Like even when she like, it's like showing the picture of like her family. Yeah, yeah. You're you're like, oh, she's falling, you know, like it. But and then like I don't know, like he gets her to work a brand new deal and, and but you believe that's what. Yeah, it's that's what Michael Mann would lead you to believe is that he's a of course he's getting feelings, but he's going so deep undercover all to negotiate this new deal. Also that the way again, Michael Mann is very clear in explaining in the commentary, but essentially what he's trying to do, he knows Yero doesn't like him. So if he gets in good with her, she can convince her business to hire them more, which works. It does work, and it's kind of a great twist at the next time. One of the next times we see her, she's in bed with Jesus and she's like, I slept with him in Havana and he doesn't even really care. He's like, cool. Because to him it's all business. He cares when this is not casual, when that comes up. But it it works. I mean, we're getting into some risky sexual politics, of course, because, I mean, it's, Sonny has misrepresented himself, but, you know. Yeah. I mean, in other words, it's it's past a bad idea and there's no future in it, so there's nothing to worry about. That's what he says to her. Well said. I know, I know, after talking about all but brothers, Leonard skittered off like, what the fuck is he talking about? God, I just love him. Oh, I love him. Oh my God. But because, yeah, he's negotiated this new deal, they found out to Yero is middle management. And really the big dude is. Hey Zeus, we have meeting too with Fujiyama. I love when Fuji insults calls him, you know dogs and Ferrell's like, go fuck yourself. Team Fox goes chill, chill. It's so good. Ferrell walks into the scene as Sonny pissed. He's just so pissed I love it. It's my favorite moment from Jamie Fox, and the whole entire movie is the chill scene in well, not well, but a byproduct of it is basically it's sort of like Colin Farrell, like lays out the whole entire deal and was like, this is how we're doing it. And Hines is like, he's like, no, fuck that. We're not doing it. And and the other guy as Fox is like, where are you? And Fox is so bothered by Colin Farrell's outburst that he's just staring them down like this. Yeah, look at his face. But he goes, I'm 100% with Sonny. But he's like, but I don't agree with this behavior. And I haven't seen this fucking guy for a decade willing to go fast to a better. So you we illuminate Montoya's operations from the inside. No one has ever tried before where we are now. Now the answer is no. You take the Aryan brothers, the shooters pressure them for the league. It's a bird in the hand. I'm not changing my up plan for speculation masquerading as Intel. Look, I know undercover requires aggression, some outlaw attitude. You know? How else do you lie down with dogs? Go. Fuck you! Fuck! Shit! Shit. You're. You know, this pricks game is to get his picture in the Miami Herald of a quick bust saves punk ass career. This club from DC. We are not backing off this. That's it. Where are you on this? I should be so sunny. Change the mission statement. Yeah, but. But there's also, like, an element to, like, this relationship that I think helps. The movie is like they do talk about it later on where he's like, I will never, ever doubt you. Yeah, like you can tell like the, like when it when it's time for business. Like, this is a guy that like whatever his move is, is my move. But like, where the fuck were you? I trust that I don't need to know, but goddamn me. But it's gotta give me something. But it is that ease, that trust that I think, allows this movie to work is it's one of those things where you don't talk about it. It's just there. And it it helps the vibe of it. It does. I don't want to hear them explain. Like why I never just say, never doubt you. I don't need like a ten minute monologue. Seven. No, whatever three minute monologue about. Remember that time in the past where you like, they've been through so much. Yeah, we we get it. We get it. Yep, yep. Harness for life. Ride or die. Right. Hey, slick, don't try to shot me on. You don't have the time or the skill. So that's that's what has happened here. The original assignment was figure out how the operation got blown. Discover Yarrow and the Aryan Brotherhood, which they have successfully done, and now they want to push it to the limit one more time. Because they are now, you know, no one has tread. No one has ever tread before. Where we are now. And they want to take down Jesus. That's how deep in they are. Yeah. We should say, you know, jumping straight to the end what they're advocating for and what they get permission to do to take down Jesus, they don't do they ultimately end up solving their first objective, which is they take down yarrow and they take down this small sect of the Aryan Brotherhood. But Jesus is gone as major drug cartels are their way to their, level of risk is so much there's so much more careful. And when they sense anything bad, adios. Bye bye. Empty mansion. You're setting up the sequel, baby. I fucking wish Jesus song me started. I'd fucking watch it right now if he did it. He's doing a heat two sequel. You could do Miami Vice too. If you're going to do heat two. Yeah. Hey, Zeus and Isabella, they go at it after she admits to being with sunny. Isabella meets Sunny in Colombia. They go at it in the back of a moving car every once, and then they go to Euros Club and mistakes are made in the club. It's just it's very sloppy. Number one, there is no fucking reason for Trudy to be introduced here. You did not need to bring Trudy to the club. Hey, this is my girl, Trudy. It just seems careless. And they're both. Yeah, that. Well, there's that. And they've negotiated this huge new eight ton drug trade. And then Sonny and Isabella just give zero fucks and start zero dry humping on the dance floor, catching the ire of Yero. And it's like, Isabella, you already did it. You already convinced the boss that, like, yeah, I hooked up with him. I slept with him in Havana to get a better deal. But this is all Yero needs to be like. They're too good at their jobs. I don't trust him. This is not casual. This is not. It's just not. I don't know, I don't feel good about it. So that's why he behind the scenes, is getting the Aryan Brotherhood involved again. But there's a lot of, you know, we get that great scene of all the cops kind of talking on on the ship deck there, and it's the version of the heat scene of like, do we take this score down? You know, the action is the juice, and there's all going around taking turns, and let's take it to the limit one more time. And I love that. Before, you know, let's go, let's do it. And it seems like the run is going well and everything. And then very smooth, very smooth. Very smooth. Smooth. How we do it there. Got the drugs hooked up to that thing and they're like I love this zip line. I love the zip line. Yeah. Shoot. So everything's good. Very technical. We're doing it. We're in muscle shirts Dominic. Just throw great stuff. Great stuff. And then Trudy kidnaped by the Abbey. Those fucks. And this is a this is essentially what has happened to Alonzo's girl in the beginning. That's that's basically what it's happened. And we've right now circle on it brought brought it right back. Well Michael man did let's be clear. And so what they want AB is now like, you are going to deliver your load directly to us. You fuck her up, we fuck her up, I love that. Yes. There's loads a lot, you know, I loads delivered loads. There's loads coming and going. Get used to it. Be mature, smooth. That's how we do it. Because truly I love like it's kind of like taken before taken when they give the phone to Trudy to prove that she's alive and she starts saying, you know, there's, an airplane trailer park, all this and that great little stuff. And because of that, they're able to triangulate her position. And now we have the raid on the trailer park. Do you think that there is a prequel to taken to be called Take Like Trap? I thought I really thought they'd go with trapped Eddie. Like, trapped. I don't know, I just feel like it'd be in the past tense instead of trap like we're setting up. Oh, you mean you mean the Josh Hartnett or the if. If they make a prequel to Take in called Take, they have to have Liam Neeson and like Irishman old school. Oh yeah. Effects. I want him to still play the role. Okay, you have to. That's what I want. Is this how he met Famke Janssen? What a what a I'm sure that'd be a great movie. No trailer park raid. I love this. This is just great. They found this is one of the best I love this. It's my favorite action of the whole movie. Oh, yeah I did because it's so proficient. Like him rolling up sleeveless shirt and sleeveless in a fucking gun locker, showing off a joking about. Yeah, yeah. It's amazing. And then how he, like, chokes the dude out very calmly is just like, clear into his walkie, I love that. Yeah. Let's talk about the sequence sequences. The whole leaves in this sweat on his arms. Oh, yeah. Good call, good call. Yeah. This guy's a running and gun and it just found this out. I love getting in. You know, you get in via pizza. Totally believable way to just get into, like, a stash meth, Aryan brotherhood house. Who were pizza, I didn't sure. I'll open the door. I love that Jimmy Fox like, pulls it away. Just pulls it away. What? The coolest thing about the scene is that they get in, and then they have him at gunpoint, and that the kid tries to attack Jamie Fox first and he just disables him, basically knocks him out, and then the other dude comes with the knife. He gets a knife away from him, knocks him down, and then just looks down and point. Blake shoots him in the back of the fucking head, as if it were violating all police procedure here. At this point he's like, what? What do? Drop that detonator? Yeah, exactly. It's just great. It's great. And then she. And then the girl just lays it all out. I love it, it's like one of my favorite parts. Tell me, sport, do you believe that par. Shoot me. Yeah. She dies. Show me. Go ahead. Fuck it. We can all. God. That's cool. That's not what happens. What will happen is what will happen is I'll put around a 20 700ft per second into the middle at the base of your brain, and you will be dead from the neck down before your body knows it. Your finger won't even twitch. Only you get dead. So tell me, sport, do you believe that? Hey! What would happen is I will put around a 2700ft per second into the medulla at the base of your brain. I love it, but. So we could all fucking go, and it really goes, It's great. You know what I love about this as well is that once Yero finds out that the drugs never made it to the Aryan Brotherhood, just a few buttons on a phone, he just blows the fucking place. Blows the fuck? He doesn't care if, like, cops are in there. He doesn't care if the Brotherhood are in there. He's like, yeah, I don't give a shit. This is who cares? But yeah, it blows up. And now we have war. To an all out war because Trudy is hurt. You fucked it all up. I mean, we kind of burn through the trailer park scene, but I love when they're on the boats. And Colin Farrell's talking to his team, and he's like, if they get the drugs, she is dead. Like, it's so clear that, oh, you have to go rescue her. Yeah. You know, she's in the hospital now. It's my only gripe of the whole entire movie, actually. They basically just basically are like, she's not going to make it. She's like, she's fucked up. Yeah, she's in bad shape. Yeah, yeah, she's in bad shape. Like she's in a coma. She's got like brain issues. She's got like rib. They like everything is bad. And then she's just better in the end. I mean, I get it like, you want to end on a good note, but I'm like, kind of set it up in a real grim way that you set it up like. Yeah, they they lend their hand like she's not going to make it. It's just I it's so funny because I love that scene so much because I directly not even like I just stole the context of she's in bad shape and put that in my feature film wait from Miami Vice. Like I literally stole that. She's in bad shape. So I every time I see that doctor say that, I as a way of explaining her injuries, summarizing her injuries, I like it. But yeah, I mean it's she's very, very fucked up and you know, because Yero convinces hey Zeus that the relationship that Isabelle and Sonny has is not casual. Hey, Zeus is basically like, I don't give a shit. Then do whatever you want. Kill them all. Like I don't care. Yeah, but yeah. So. So that's how things are just past or out so easily. So. Yeah. Yeah. So kidnaps Isabela. Now we get our. We're mounting up to our final showdown. I, I just love watching people who are good with guns get their guns ready. You know, I love that, you know. Are you afraid? You're afraid that I'm in so deep I don't know which way is up. Oh, it's just great stuff. Jamie Fox again. Notice how he's just kind of like lazy days. Cool. Throughout all this stuff, you know, he's not he's not center of attention anymore. It's definitely turned into Colin Farrell story in his show. But there again is like that conversation where it's sort of like like, hey, can I trust you to do what needs to be done? He's like, yeah, yeah. But also account for just like me, like, but I'm not playing and about the girls so is like and Jimmy Fox is sort of like I get it. Yeah. He's like, as Trudy would say, I'm not playing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to go get like we got her. But now that they hurt her, we're just going to go take them all down. And this is it's really genius about all like even if you don't know anything about police procedure the way their lieutenant. It's going. Okay. They're going to change the location at the last second. We're going to have our guys. They're a little like heat seeking devices. We're going to fire them. I love how he's, like on the walkie. You know, you got a stall, one located, two located and just slow, like walking back and forth or you you send over Isabella. I'll send over dumb check the money. And this just a great Michael man shoot out. There's really, you know, there's not much more you can say about it. It's not the day like it is with heat, but it's a very, hearing Michael Mann Blake breakdown. How tactile everything is in in the heat one. But then also in this about how the formation that the cops are moving in and how they are able to form, kind of like an L so that some people are moving. So they start at like the corner of the L, and then one group is moving along the base of the L kind of perpendicular, and then the other group are advancing forward up through the L. And when you do that, you space out with all the bad guys staying in one place. When you space out like that and are able to flank them, that's how you get the upper hand and just seeing them. That's why the action scene plays so well, because they all know that and they all know how to get, protect fire for each other, just like in heat, you know, go there. Yeah. They're shooting for a little bit. And the other one goes it's it's amazingly staged ending with, I mean there's two great kills. The double tapped at the head Nazi Tom Toles gets boom, boom, first in the ankles. And then because you always want to see that like people hide behind a car to movie and I'm going there's a whole part under you that, you know, you could just boom, boom shootout. Then we get that, that great close up of him, two massive, massive holes in his head. But let's not forget, like, the whole reason why that scene works so well is because the girl is. Isabella is just basically trying to kill Colin Farrell. The badges have come out. She's learned Sonny ain't no drug trafficker. He is a member of the police department. And he is like trying to hide her. And she just keeps throwing her body. So he keeps, like, coming out into the open. Yeah. And then I just love that he just fucking drops because there's nothing. Well yeah. Because they're about to get taken out. So he like throws both of them down. Yep. Throws. And that's how he's able to shoot out the ankles. Yeah yeah. But you're right. She's like who are you. Who are you. It's is time lady I don't know shit. Shit. No not this way. Yeah. And then yeah. Jamie Fox with the foot, the flip. Oh, my God, you boys got that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's got the shotgun. He's like a surgeon with the shotgun running around doing flips. Gets the Jaros like, right hand man. And then when he rolls over and gets him with the grenade launcher, that was a huge. Well, like the movie or not, every time I saw it in the theater just got a huge applause. And this Elmo's played this a few times. I've seen this in the theater since. It plays much better now. Thank God they played the theatrical version. But I saw this. I'd seen this in the theater this year, I believe it, or at the very least last year. And people, you know, when you're seeing an old movie in the theater, you can tell people who haven't seen it before. People are like cheering at this grenade thing. It's just great. It's a great way to take him out. Fantastic. It's good shit. It's good all around. Justin Throw got shot there, but it looks like he's going to be okay. He's just gone. He's flat. Yeah. Big. They get Isabel and stash house. They go back to the hospital, see what she's doing. And then this is. This is great. I love, a man named Frank is going to come in a boat. It's like what he said about it. Frakes. He didn't come into boats, like. Thank you. How romantic. I mean, these photos, they don't even cover. They don't even have a conversation. She goes from trying to kill him and being like, who the hell are? Who are you? And then he just takes her away. They have a long drive, what I imagined to be. And then all of a sudden, she's just sort of like, oh, I guess it was good while it lasted. Yeah, yeah. And he had been dropping scenes before, like, if you can get out, you should. Yeah. Stuff. So presumably that's Frank's going to take her away on the boat, you know. And then I mean, the no bullshit, though, that my favorite Mike drop in this is McGuire's auto Rock, which plays out the end of this movie. This. Oh, my God, this song was so important to me. I use it for the trailer. My first ever movie, Full Circle. I love this song and you know, Rico's at Trudy's bedside. She starts to flinch. You get chills. Isabella's going off in the boat. Sonny looks sad, conflicted. Has he ever loved like this before? Does she remind him of the former love that he's had? I don't know, Trudy shakes awake. The song blares away. Well, I mean, honestly, one of my favorite endings. It is so simple. But Sonny rushing back in that hospital just to check on Trudy, it gives me. I'm getting chills just thinking about it. Prison purple title card. The end. Perfect, perfect. I love this movie. It's so fucking good. It's not a movie that I could probably recommend to like. I mean, you have to know what you're getting yourself. Oh, no you don't, because I didn't and I had a great time. Yeah, it's just a vibe movie. This is Harmony. One of Harmony. Corinne's favorite movies. You said it. It is the movie that influenced Spring Breakers the most. Just by, wow, falling into this world and just in these vibes, the colors, the mood. Yeah, it's remarkable how much you get when it's just, I mean, I guess you really the takeaway, if you're Michael Mann, is the only way you can get these vibes to exist is that as the filmmaker, you need to know all the specifics. You need to make sure that everyone is that that is in play, knows what the game is, and that way you can get away with it. Not necessarily translating because the movie just sort of washes over you in like the best possible way, and that's the only way that you could fall into it is by everyone knows what they're doing so well that you don't have to. Very true. Yeah, I dig it. So where does this rank for you and Michael Mann? If you had to think about it, it's definitely in my top five. He hasn't made that many movies, but I think it's tough for me. I think I go number one heat two. The insider three is still split for me between Ali and Miami Vice. I cannot, I know I like Ali more than everyone, but I love that movie. But yeah, Miami, I don't know, it's either 3 or 4. It's right there. I think it's three for me. I think it's yeah. Insider Miami Vice fuck yeah. Damn right he got this movie. Rocks did not rock when it was released at the time. Unfortunately, critics weren't really a fan. They didn't really know what to do with it. Like I said, $150 million budget made 64 domestic. Yikes. That is a bomb. A little more worldwide, but it. Yeah. And then I've already talked about the home release Blu ray. That's really important. If you're finding a version, I highly recommend the theatrical version. When I'm thinking of Michael Mann, if like, you know, the most recent version of Ali, the commemorative edition is by far the worst cut of that movie. Just it's the only cut available on Blu ray. Like it stinks. His director's cut, which is longer, is better, but the theatrical cut is probably still my preferred cut of that. I don't know the stuff he's done. The heat has been very minimal, like it says Director's Definitive Edition, but he's just like, touch it up some sound effects and like brushed up some that shots. That's it. No like structure. Yeah. But I will say I'm not not trying to talk shit I did. I rewatch all of his movies leading up to this. If it had a commentary, I watched it. I'd seen them all before. And I am not joking, I always like he disowned The Keep, his second movie that got taken away from him May 1983. His first cut was like four hours. Obviously Paramount wasn't going to release a four hour movie, so if you watch it now, it's like ridiculous and silly, but I'm able to enjoy it for those reasons. For that kind of campiness. And it is. So all this to say, yeah, all this to say the least effective movie he has made is Ferrari. I think that is the worst movie he's made. I actually think Ferrari is a worse movie than The Keep. I'm not Blackhat. The theatrical cut is not very good. The director's cut is a really good Michael Mann movie. Like it has its issues, sure, but there are some bad ass action scenes in it. I don't, I don't know, maybe I don't know if he's going to do a Ferrari recut. I don't know if he's actually making heat to. That's what's been rumored. I don't know, but Ferrari really did not work for me. It didn't work for people. Like, I've never heard one person say a good thing about it, to be honest. It's very dull and very, very boring and long. And it feels like that was it's a movie he's been wanting to make for his whole career. It just feels like he was too close to it. And if I think it's available on Blu ray, I don't think he did a commentary for it. But if he did, I'm sure that commentary would make so much sense. He would offer so much context for things. But I'm like, this in this life. Like, this is what you included. Why, during this final race, are you cutting away to all these different things, yada yada? So I love Michael Mann. I love his movies, but, we'll see if there's anything else. We'll see if there's heat two. We'll see. I don't know, we will see. But I love these movies that we've been talking about today. He's 81. We'll see. He's 81, 81. He's up there. Yeah. Smooth, smooth. All right. What are you watching Miami Vice for an episode. Went through that quickly because I'm not going to sit here and explain every plot detail of it. It's just too much. It's way you put in it was. It was already boring enough to hear you do it. Thank you. So. I appreciate that I appreciate it. You did, you did. You did a wonderful job. Zero Oscar nominations for this movie. As you may have guessed, that's the way it goes. Oscar nominations for Michael Mann. We've got last of the Mohicans was nominated for won for Best Sound. It won one. The insider was nominated for seven, Ali for two, collateral for two. That's it. Wow. That's it. That's the only Oscar nominations, which is crazy. It is crazy in terms of the technical aspects of it, like Miami Vice. It sound effects are amazing, even in Public Enemies. The sound is amazing. Like it's I don't know, it's weird. I'll never unders. I'll never understand the the Oscars don't there's something with them, with him that a separation I don't know whatever. But what are you watching? We'll move right on to it. So, so, I'm recommending the movie that I just saw in theaters. Okay, let me do one for you. And that is related. All right, so I'll go first. You go yet again. I'm recommending a movie that if you saw it in the year 2000, as I did, you would have fallen in love with Colin Farrell right away. In love. I understand why you didn't like him. But if you saw Joel Schumacher's Tiger Land came out. Oh, yeah. You talked about this amazing movie. They made it for nothing. It is about a few soldiers think kind of like Full Metal Jacket. But you know, not their training at this place before they go to Vietnam. So they're at military bases in Italy. It was Colin Farrell's breakout performance. He's playing this wise ass named role in bars. You're going to see a lot of familiar faces in this, though. Clifton Collins, junior Shea Whigham, who I love, who plays a fucking insane guy named Private Wilson, Cole Houser, Michael Shannon, it's good stuff. It's a really good movie made for like 500,000. I think it's really, really good. So please, people go check out Tiger Land. I myself have not seen it in years. I bought a DVD in that Walmart bin for like five of those things. Yep yep yep I used to. And I was a blind buy because I like the cover. I'm looking at my DVD now. Maybe I'll put it on. It's a it's a really, really good movie. Colin Farrell just great right from the get had some troubles as we've you know outlined in this episode. But it's crazy when the whole time he was making Miami Vice he was so messed up he does not remember making a single bit of Miami Vice. I don't know if I mentioned that, but I just I just don't understand how that like like, I mean, I mean, I crazy, I get the I think you probably remember some, but if he's for like six months doing this to his body, I bet all these years later just kind of like blended together. And it's like this much like making a movie is a thing. Like it's not easy. It's. And you're there every day for long, long parts of the day. I can't, I just can't especially like doing these action sequences. Oh my god. And like being on boats to kind of be like I don't remember making that. I'm like, that's just it's a wild statement. I love it though. So Tiger Land would be mine. What are you watching kind of thing. But go watch Michael Mann, please watch Miami Vice again. If you. You know, if it wasn't for you, I really I love this movie. It was a lot. We did our Insider and Miami Vice episodes back to back. It's been a lot of fun breaking down these two Michael Mann movies that don't get talked about as much as, let's say, he, Collateral Thief, even, you know, good. Manhunter, very popular movie. Yeah, yeah. Miami Vice. This is definitely a we're this this is in our like, Ocean's 12 category of what do you watch? Oh you guys where we're like, all right, you ready for this? So I saw a movie that you seen, but, talking about, was it, the director, JT Molnar JL more jt jt jt Molnar yeah. Strange, darling. Yes, man. This movie's in theaters. It was. Yeah, it was in theaters in August when I saw it. August 2024. I texted you and said I slept on it. I think this is my favorite movie of the year so far. Go check it out. And you sent me one text after you saw it, but I intentionally have not engaged with you about it because I want to know what you think. I really, really loved it. It was I, I don't even want to really say too much, but everywhere it went, I wasn't expecting. I thought its structure was very fun, very playful. I really liked its two lead performances, so I had a blast with it. I have a compliment for the movie that I think is it's accurate, okay, that the way that this movie was done is the way that people because I know, like, you know, it's an indie thing that now people are going to know about. So it's not like a studio type thing. But I think this is what audiences today want from a movie. Oh, okay. Good. I thought I thought you're going to go negative I agree. No, no, no, I think this is you know, when you get these big movies that are like 2.5 hours long, they're big IP type things like, these movies aren't going to go away, as a matter of fact. Like, I think twisters kind of prove that. All right. We're going to just go back and we're here to stay. Yeah, yeah. Like it's not necessarily going to be sequels or remakes. We're just going to take the name listed and then just do something new with it. That's just what it's going to be. Franchises will probably boom as a result, but if you're talking about the style of like, what will we say? What are the state of movies, what kind of movies that people want to see? I think the formula in which JT Molnar gave us here is a formula that, for at least a little bit, will can be a formula that people will like. Because I don't want to say how it is, because I think that's part of the pleasure of the movie. Right? It keeps you on your toes. Absolutely. When it comes to the world we're living in now, where our attention spans are not conducive to sitting and watching a movie, this movie solves that problem for you. And, it's also it's not very long. It's under two hours. Not it was 96 minutes in 96 minutes. Yeah. The way that the story reveals itself is a way that just keeps your attention. I think he may have. I know it's tough to say because of the genre that it is. If this type of structure storytelling can work in other ones, I think it might to be, I mean, you I mean, you have to play and do your own thing with it, but I think I'm talking so vague and undescribed because I don't want to ruin it. But I think this is a formula that 100% works in today's movie watching audiences. Yeah, it's it is an episodic movie by nature. We are being, a little obscure and talking about it. It's not like an obscure movie. It's no, it's just episodic and it's having fun with its structure. It's not the first movie to do this, certainly, but, you know, no, it's certainly not. Certainly not. I think the biggest, most attention this movie has been getting is had it was shot on 35 millimeter film. It looks great. And the cinematographer is Giovanni Ribisi. Yeah, actually. Giovanni Ribisi okay. Yeah. It's like, what up? Okay. He's a DP now. It looked great. It also said in the credits he was a credited producer. So I'm like, all right, he produced it. He shot it and I thought it looked great. But it's just it's one of those kind of random things. You go, Giovanni Ribisi, arguably the most well known person involved with this movie, does not have a single. He's not on camera at all. He just shot it. It looks great. But the lead characters, Wall of Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner, I really, really liked him. You get some a little more than cameos, but some supporting performances from two well-known people toward the end, I just yeah, I really when I realized, okay, so I just had no idea what it was about, you know, horror movie, all this stuff. Okay, kind of scary. And when I got onto it, latch onto what it was doing, I was mesmerized. And I really, really enjoyed it. And I was trying to be like, oh, I think they're going to be doing blink, blink, blink. Oh, okay, okay. And I really want to see it again because of this structure. If I can go back and see it in the theater, great. If not, I think this is going to do well on streaming. Hopefully they hopefully it finds a good place. If it's on Netflix, it'll be number 1 or 2. The second it's on there, it'll be the number two movie because the people will talk about this. Yeah, nothing in it is pushed too hard. Like in terms of whatever sexual politics stuff that would be red flags for sensitive audiences. It avoids all that and it but it's still it's a gnarly movie at times, like it really did down and dirty and I think really liked it. It's what I mean, like it's tailor made for today's audiences to be something that can be talked about. All right. Cool, strange, darling. Rock n roll, I love it. Yeah. Miami Vice Michael Mann thank you, Jamie Fox Colin Farrell who doesn't remember making the movie? I think I mentioned that a few times. I love this movie. What a vibe I can put on this movie damn near any time. Just have it on the background. Love watching it. No, it should be called Miami Vibe. Take the C, put the B in. God, you got a hold of that. So? So good. Miami time, Miami vibe. Let us know what you think of Miami Vibe of Michael Mann, NY w underscore podcast. But as always, thanks for listening and happy watching. Hey everyone. Thanks again for listening. You can watch my films and read my movie blog at Alex withrow.com. Nicholas Dose Telecom is where you can find all of Nick's film work. Send us mailbag questions at What Are You Watching podcast at gmail.com or find us on Twitter, Instagram and letterbox at WRI w underscore podcast. Next time. Yes, it's the what are you watching holiday special? Last year we gave you a deep dive with a family friendly film. He got Game. The year before that, it was a career breakdown of the great Ingmar Bergman. In 2021, we covered a film that puts absolutely no one in the holiday spirit Steve McQueen's shame. So this year, what better way to celebrate this joyful holiday season than with a common Terry on Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea? On Christmas Day, we will be releasing the Manchester by the sea commentary fired up on Prime with your family members and have a ball. Stay tuned. For. More. Neptune should ease up on the merchandise. That is the hand we have been dealt at 1140 7:00 on Saturday night. Put some amateurs into a game day. Ready for what the fuck happened, man? I ain't got so rule down somebody. Something's got to go somewhere. Someone can't do time. Don't mess with crime. Why do I get the feeling everybody knows we're here? 15 bucks an because everybody knows we're here. 15 bucks out. How fast does that go? Goes very fast. A a for a heroes. Don't try a shot, man. You don't have the time or the skill. So let's stick to the living one more time. You fuck up, we fuck her up. But we will not kill her until they've got the goods. Once they got the goods, she is dead. The man named Frank is going to come in a boat. The next time you hear from us, it'll be a date, time and a place like. There's an 18 Wheeler in the parking lot in North Miami. With the keys in the ignition. You pick it up, you drive away. Smooth. That's how we do it.