Movie review - "Ferrari" (2023) **1/2

 Michael Mann getting into the spirit of Enzo Ferrari... a genius in his field with grey hair, struggling for money, dealing with a nagging wife, a dead done, an easy going ish mistress, their son, an annoying mother, accountants, irritating press, road rules, prima donna drivers who root actresses.

The acting is fine, the period detail is a joy, the car scenes thrilling. There should have been more of them. The main character is very interesting, the female parts less so - Penelope Cruz is angry and hurt/haunted/horny, Shailene Woodley doesn't go for an accent and picks fruit and worries about the kid, Linda Christian is hot, there's another car widow is hot. because it's Michael Mann characters stand around staring in sunglasses but that's part of his charm.

Did it need to cost this much? It lacks propelsion. I liked the driving. The big emotional scene is the big crash at the end. For a film that was so long in development there's a lot of scenes of talking to journalists. Isn't that lazy writing?

I loved the hair. Great to see McDreamy looking the part. Good for him.

I'm not sure the stakes are that gripping - "will I be able to maintain being a millionaire and keep rooting my younger mistress and give my surname to my son and escape culpability of this horrendous accident that killed people and children and aren't the media vultures for... reporting the truth?"

Michael Mann Top Ten

 1) Heat (1995) - easy choice

2) Last of the Mohicans (1992) - gets overlooked now but I always loved it

3) The Jericho Mile (1979) - superb TV movie

4) Manhunter (1986) - I used to read this script every year

5) Tokyo Vice pilot (2022) - so gripping that you don't know for a while not much is happening

6) Thief (1981) - not quite get there but still pretty good

7) Crime Story (1988) - the boldness of the storytelling impressed the hell out of me

8) Blackhat (2015) - I recognise this isn't a very good film but something about it compels me to keep watching

9) Public Enemies (2009) - kind of forgotten now, I remember liking it

10) Collateral (2004) - an excellent script and it was entertaining

Book review - "Life's Work: A Memoir" by David Milch

 Not sure if I've ever read a memoir by someone with Alzheimer's a lot. Milch has been through a lot - or rather, his wife has. I thought of her constantly reading this especially as she's not very well defined here - Milch's drug addiction, spending habits, gambling habits, temper. I guess you can forgive a lot with writing genius - maybe not blowing all their cash.

Milch wrote a highly readable book about NYPD Blue with Bill Clark which included a lot of stuff in this book. This of course fleshes it out - a not particularly interesting childhood (there's a lot of talk about someone called Judgy), an academic career (Robert Warren Penn) then rapid fame and wealth via Steven Bochco and Hill Street Blues. 

He had a number of flops - Brooklyn South, Bay City Blues, Beverly Hills Buntz, John from Cincinnati, - and these are recounted here along with the hits. The background to all these is interesting.

He's very magnanimous about David Caruso (their kids became good friends). I would've liked more gossip but that's not Milch's style.

Book review - "Heat 2" by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner (2022)

 Interesting. Some great scenes. Reads like a Michael Mann script at time - in terms of big print. Characterbios. Not a lot of interior monologue. We don't get to know much about any of the others in the gang - the driver, Tom Sizemore, the other guy... just Val Kilmer and some de Niro and Pacino.

There's a convenient horrible villain who spans time and characters a version of Waingro. Some thrilling sequences - tracking him down in Chicago, and then in Mexico, and then in LA. Actually that is very repetitive. No bank robbing.

Chris/Kilmer goes to Paraguay. That's cool. Lots of research about electronics - a hangover from another script?

It clearly uses research from other Mann scripts (esp 2006 Miami Vice, Blackhat).. without going into spoilers I'd say it's entertaining and worth a read, I'm not sure it would make a great movie (how would you cast it? de-aging tech?) esp as it lacks a core central relationship like the one between Pacino and de Niro in the 1995 film (Pacino/Hanna and de Niro/McCauley were in love with each other, Pacino/Hanna and Kilmer/Chris doesn't have the same resonance) and the plotting over-relies on a super duper convenient Waingro-type character, but there's some very exciting sequences and I would totally be interested in reading novels of Thief, The Keep, Jericho Mile and yep I'll say it Blackhat...

TV review - "Tokyo Vice - Ep One" (2022) ****

 Directed by Michael Mann, so I wanted to see it. Starts off great, thrown into story, with all this stylish photography and look and Ansol thingy looking like Chris Hemsworth looking like Val Kilmer looking like Peter Strauss. The authenticity is so powerful and it feels different that it's not until 40 minutes in the lack of story got to me. I mean, things happen, it compelled, I just sensed tap dancing towards the end. Will this hold for eight eps?

Movie review - "Blackhat" (2015) **1/2 (warning: spoilers) (re-viewing)

 Gave this another go. It looks great. Love the locations. I assume the technology stuff is accurate ish. Fantastic fights - knife fights and action. Love how everyone stands around looking cool with sunglasses.

It's flabby. No sense of urgency. I guess there is when Hemsworth is on the run. The girl character could be cut out of the movie in terms of story. Really she should've been combined with her brother. 

The most effective bit is when the rest of the team get wiped out leaving Hemsworth and the girl alone.

I like the actor who played the main villain - actually I like all the actors. Climax in Indonesia is different.

It doesn't work but it's interesting.

Movie review - "Un Flic" aka "A Cop" (1972) ***

The last film from Jean Pierre Melville, best known for Le Samourai.It's got a name cast - Alain Delon (as a cop rather than a robber), Richard Crenna of all people (Americans were popping up in French films around this time) and Catherine Deneuve.

It starts brilliantly with a heist in a bank by the seaside during a wind-swept storm - how did they film this? There's another superb set piece in the middle - a heist on a train involving Crenna being dropped on board via a helicopter.

Crenna has the better role - because he gets to rob things, while Delon has to not catch him until the end (this is standard in heist movies though). So Delon walks around looking tough, bangs away on a shooting range, interrogates and later slaps a transvestite (I think) and hook up with Catherine Deneuve who has a small role as Crenna's moll (it's good to see her though - she suits these parts particularly when dressed up as a nurse and heading in to kill someone for Crenna).

Michael Conrad, the sergeant from Hill Street Blues pops up as a member of Crenna's gang and he's very effective despite his dubbed voice.

Like a lot of French gangster films it's a love story between two men, in this case Delon and Crenna who make eyes at each other over the table at Crenna's nightclub, with the woman in there to prove everyone's straight.

I wonder if this influenced Michael Mann's Heat?

Movie review - "Le Samourai" (1967) ***1/2

Famous action film which I've wanted to see for a while because it was so influential on the works of filmmakers like, notably Walter Hill and Michael Mann. You can see it all over this - the minimal dialogue, the wide framing, the taciturn hero.

I was surprised how much this seemed to borrow from This Gun for Hire - it's basically got the same plot: a hitman does an assassination, is chased by a cop, crosses with a girl, is double crossed by his bosses and goes looking for revenge.

The role of the girl is split between black Caty Rosier, a singer, and the seriously gorgeous Nathalie Delon. I feel this was a mistake and splits the film's focus.

The cops are very professional and solid.

I think I would have liked this more had it not been copied so much. Delon looks a little silly in his fedora and trenchcoat. It is a realised piece though - the whole film I mean.

Movie review - "Blackhat" (2015) ***

I enjoyed a lot of this movie - it looks great, with some genuinely different locations (Jakarta), a multi-racial cast, some excellent shoot outs, superb actors (Leeholm Wang, Viola Davis, Holt McCallany), that Michael Mann research, lots of scenes of people strutting around wearing sunglasses looking cool.

It's an odd sort of movie though. It's about hacking - but Mann seems to be continually hiding that fact with chase scenes, shoot outs, sex and fights. Really you didn't need any hacking in it.

Chris Hemsworth is handsome and charismatic and seems like a nice guy but isn't terribly convincing as either a hacker or someone who's spent a lot of time in prison.

The pacing of the movie is also odd - it kind of seems to amble along, in this airy fashion.

The romance between Hemsworth and Wei Teng gets very solid very soon - there's little time for urst, or tension, or drama... it's like they sleep together and get married, basically.

And for all the film is more diverse than the usual Hollywood action flick, it still features a finale where a couple of white guys slug it out surrounded by hundreds of faceless Asian extras who don't seem to notice what's going on.

Movie review - "Milius" (2017) ****

I think this is a revised version of the documentary - there's more stuff about the Genghis Khan project (did this prompt the recut? to get interest in that?), more footage of Milius post stroke. He's struggling a bit with his words, which is sad to see - but makes the film more epic, more moving.

The talking heads remain great, including Milius' old footage himself - George Lucas, Coppola, Spielberg, Michael Mann, Bryan Singer (weird to see him), Ed O'Neill, Sam Elliot, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

There's few women - his daughter, Lea Thompson,  Kathleen Kennedy. Not enough talk about how, frankly, the depiction of women in Milius films is shocking.  There's inclusion of a talk with a female executive around the time of Big Wednesday where he's berating her, which does not show Milius in a good light. We have lots of stuff involving his kids but no mention of his wives.

A very good documentary. Not uncritical - it mocks how he became a caricature - but very positive.

Script review - "Last of the Mohicians" by Michael Mann and Cris Crowe

It's a shame Michael Mann doesn't do more remakes, especially of older movies - he's got a gift for taking an old story and really revitalising it. This is a brilliant version of the old novel, done with pace, leanness and integrity.

I guess it is a bit 90s PC - the British are as bad as the Indians in many ways, responsible for slaughter of Indians and betraying the colonials, and being stuffy; Hawkeye points out the British and French Empire are Bad; Cora is Scottish not English; Hawkeye is white but raised by the Indians and is very right on.

And the story has repetitive aspects - the girls are rescued by Hawkeye and his gang three times - and flaws - the relationship between Alice and Uncas is very under done. Actually this was fleshed out more in the script - they had a love scene where Uncas realises half way through sex that Alice actually has PTSD.

But it's powerful and epic and doesn't stuff around - babies and kids are killed. Its well researched and very exciting.

Script review - "The Keep" by Michael Mann (1983) (warning: spoilers)

The odd man out in Michael Mann's filmography - this script is a lot easier to understand than the final film. It's a relatively simple story - Germans in 1941 Romania occupy a Keep, unleashing an evil force (Molasar) that starts killing them. An SS officer comes in and makes things worse; a local Jewish professor is tempted to let the evil thing run riot on the Nazis, and a mystery man, Glaeken, turns up from Portugal.

The fact the film's easier to understand doesn't mean it's free of problems. It sets up all this conflict between the Germans and the locals, establishing the contrast between lefty Captain Woermann and nasty SS dude Kaempffer... but this kind of gets thrown away in the second half and the film becomes about Glaeken. Glaeken has this super rushed romance with the Jewish professor's daughter, Eva, which is meant to have big emotional stakes but the relationship is too little too late.

There's neat stuff about Glaeken being Molasar's alter evil, but we don't find out that until towards the very end. And it's never clear what they are - what sort of beings they're supposed to be. It really would have helped if Mann had just said "they're vampires" then we would have known the mythology and gone with it. We've got all this other stuff to absorb.

Also I was unsure why it was a bad thing that Molasar might get out and start killing people. It was during World War Two the holocaust was about to happen. Molosar was against the invaders, not everyone.

Some of the dialogue is pretty ripe and the characters aren't that great - good Nazi, bad Nazi, mystery man, professor, professor's daughter. There are some interesting ideas and the setting is novel.

Script review - "Thief" by Michael Mann (warning: spoilers)

Mann's first feature as director is a character story more than a page-turning narrative - Frank is a professional thief who reluctantly goes to work for the mob and lives to regret it.

This version starts with Frank having a wife and a kid - the wife cheats on him so Frank pinches the kid and then goes and starts up a new relationship with Jessie. I think it was a good move to get rid of the wife and kid... it means there's more stakes on Jessie and their adopted kid.

There's some fantastic dialogue, it all feels real. The female characters aren't that much. It's interesting to see ideas and themes that would pop up in Heat - such as the importance of not caring, and leaving everything behind. Frank has come wonderful monologues - so do other people, like his former cellmate, and Leo the mafia dude.

In the script version the film ends with Jessie having tracked Frank down. I didn't buy it. The film's ending works better.

Movie review - "Heat" (1995) ****1/2 (re-viewing)

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Some random thoughts from re-watching this film

1) Al Pacino's hair is really outstanding

2) I've never eaten ham as finely cut as Pacino's performance in this film. Not a criticism. It's really outstanding ham.

3) Surely one of the best endings of all time.

4) I always totally forget Natalie Portman is in this film and has quite a meaty role.

5) The Dennis Haysbert subplot is brilliant and really holds up.

6) There are few more thankless support parts than the roles of Al Pacino's support crew. Unlike Bobby de Niro's three dimensional awesome crew, the non-Al cops just spit forth exposition and ask Al questions. If they weren't cast with Village People diversity (black man, Indian, white guy with moustache) I'd have trouble telling them apart. There's some random young guy who hangs out the back who looks like he's there on work experience.

7) The Waingro subplot is by necessity really dark and unpleasant but it still remains not-fun to watch.

8) So much stunningly good acting from everyone - I don't think Val Kilmer was ever better...

9) Al Pacino takes a hell of a risk shooting at Tom Sizemore. Usually when this happens in real life the kid ends up dead.

I've seen this film maybe ten times now. I do fast forward through some bits now. But what a masterpiece.

Script review - "Public Enemies" by Michael Mann, Ann Biberman and Ronan Bennett

I remember enjoying the film but reading the script a few years later I was disappointed. Maybe it's not as good as I remember - or I was distracted by all that Michael Mann style. It's a choppy, vignette-esque look at the Dillinger story which covers the greatest hits well enough - breaking out of prison, the shoot out at Little Bohemia Lodge, the final death at the Biograph - but isn't particularly bold or remarkable. The characters feel stock, for all the research Mann likes to do. I mean it's alright, it's just not sensational.

Movie review - "Milius" (2013) ****

A highly entertaining look at the life and times of one of Hollywood's most colourful characters, and top writers - at least during the first part of his career. Milius became something of a cartoon caricature of himself, as this film points out, but early on few writers could match him for lively, original work: Apocalypse Now, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Jeremiah Johnson. I've read these scripts and they're fantastic.

The quality of his output started to decline as he went into directing (not uncommon, unless the person in question worked with a co-writer) - but Milius enjoyed a decent amount of success as a director: Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn. His career started to go south in the late 80s - Milius blames this in part on prejudice against conservatives, which interviewees Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzeneggar poo poo... A more likely reason (as pointed out here) was the commercial failure of several Milius films, notably Farewell to the King and Flight of the Intruder - and also Milius' persona I think began to grate. He kept busy as a writer and director although never matched his old pals like George Lucas, Coppola and Steven Spielberg. Milius was never as good a director as he was a writer - the perfect director for him was Francis Ford Coppola; I also think it's a shame he never got to work with other operatic directors like Brian de Palma.

What gives this film unexpected gravitas is the dimension of unexpected tragedy - his friends talking about how Milius became a caricature, his friend who embezzled from him, a stroke that meant he couldn't speak. By the end of the film he has recovered a little bit, but not a lot - he can shoot and move around but the filmmakers don't show him talking that much.

There are some excellent talking heads - Coppola, Spielberg, Schrader, Eastwood - plus some who don't really have a connection, but I assume agreed to talk for box office value (Stallone, Bryan Singer). Michael Mann is in there - Milius made an episode of Miami Vice for fun, although we only hear about it during the closing credits, just like we only hear about his contribution to UFC there.

There are other areas I would have liked to hear more about - his marriages (none mentioned), his female characters (only two women talk, Lea Thompson and his daughter), his production company the A team.

But these are outweighed by the positives: the depiction of the collegiate atmosphere of 70s film making, home movies of the young Milius, extracts from old USC student films, the talk of the stroke and ensuing battles, meeting his kids. A must for film buffs.

TV series - "Luck" (2011) ***

Something of an HBO dream team - Michael Mann directing the pilot, a cast including Dustin Hoffmann, Nick Nolte and Dennis Farina, David Milch head writer on an area he knows a lot about (horse racing). Its clearly made by people with talent and there are some impressive bits but to be frank... it's not that interesting.

The set up is: a gangster gets out of gaol and goes looking for revenge around a race track, there is plenty of atmosphere. But there are too many scenes of horses and horses going around the track, and stories which lack interest. Towards the end it perks up with gangsters moving in (Michael Gambon) and some violence - it could have done wiht more than that.

The group of problem gamblers who hang out with each other start out as engaging and fun but they soon got dull too because every time they earned money you'd know they'd blow it. None of the horse-related characters - vet, trainer, jockey - were that interesting.

Movie review - "Last of the Mohicians" (1936) ***1/2

In making his own version of the famous novel, Michael Mann paid tribute to Philip Dunne's adaptation for this one, saying he really knocked the book into shape. He did too, focusing the drama on the clash between Hawkeye and the Heyward, making the action flow logically, and creating believable romance.

I noted Mann made some changes - for instance, here the movie ends with Hawkeye and Heyward going to rescue Cora (both determined to die for her) and not the fight between Magua and Chingachook, and also here Heyward is allowed to live (so too is the colonel); this movie is a bit more sympathetic to that character and the British although the American-British tension is still shown. It also puts more emphasis on the Alice-Uncas romance.

It's a very exciting movie - I didn't expect to keep watching but I did. Randolph Scott is fine as Hawkeye (there's not much you can do about those fur caps), Binnie Barnes is bland as Cora but Herbert Wilcoxon is ideal as the stuffy Heyward, Robert Barrett and Heather Angel are likeable interracial lovers (as if they're going to be allowed to live) and Bruce Cabot a wonderful villain. Not particularly well directed - imagine if John Ford had been able to have a go - but great fun.

Movie review - "Thief" (1981) ***1/2

Michael Mann's first feature has many of his trademarks in place - scenes set with waves crashing in the background and in diners at night, wet roads at night reflecting shimmering fluro lights, an ex-con hero who lives by his own existential code, a thumping electronic music score, sense of realism, interesting array of character actors who look as though they've done a lot of living, stylised sex scenes. This was 1981 and the budget probably wasn't huge so some of the stylisation looks a little silly - many of the faces seem to have a hang over from the 70s gritty realism days, and there's lots of bouffy hair and bad fashion.

It's got great scenes like James Caan explaining to Tuesday Weld about his past (a diner scene), Caan talking to Willie Nelson (who's terrific, full of pain and age) through a glass window in prison, Robert Prosky (who goes from being cuddly to terrifying in lightning speed) telling Caan that Caan's child is his and he's leasing it out, Caan defying police who want a bribe, Caan kicking arse and taking names, the lawyer negotiating a bribe with a lawyer.

Mann's handling of action sequences isn't as assured as it would become in later years - when Caan goes on his rampage is perfunctory rather than expiring, and some bits (e.g. Jim Belushi being killed) seem over the top. The robbery sequences aren't that exciting - for all the research it mostly looks like welding. And the fashions and hair were really distracting. But it remains effective drama, and Caan gives one of his best performances.

Script review - "Manhunter" by Michael Mann (re-reading)

I find myself reading this script every year or so - the idea of a detective who can think like a serial killer was new then, it makes a terrific character, his dilemmas are strong. So many wonderful bits: all the detail, the way the cops deal with Graham, the opening scene where we plunge straight into it, the structure where we meet the blind girl in the last third. There's just something about it. It's spooky too - I always get haunted by visions of the serial killer breaking it. Great writing from Mann.