I think that Michael Mann is way too underrated. He has made so many great movies and nobody fails to realize that he's a good director.

Just check out his movies here on Metacritic. All five results are in the "green" 60-100 range. That's pretty good!

I thought "Collateral" was very good and "Last of the Mohicans" great as well. I have to see more of his work but of what I seen, its really great.

Plus, Everyone fails to realize that he made a movie called "Manhunter" in 1986 about Hannibal Lector. People give Jonathon Demme all the credit for it with "Silence of the Lambs" Sure, Anthony Hopkins brilliant performance could never be replicated, but still, Mann should get more credit for originally doing the first Hannibal movie.

What are some other thoughts on Michael Mann?

You do know that Mann has been around forever. After his TV flicks ("Jericho Mile", etc.), he made the James Caan "Thief" which was pretty unusual, and "The Keep", which was completely unusual, but that was the first time I ever saw Sir Ian McKellan (21 years ago!) I think Mann's best flick is "The Last of the Mohicans", but I haven't seen "Collateral". I have seen ALL the others.

didn't he do "the insider"? that movie deserves more love than it gets.

Good call on Michael Mann, who is one of my desert island directors. I think his best film is LA CONFIDENTIAL with the famous scene where DeNiro meets Pacino on screen.

A real stylish director whose films always look good. Another one of his films I love is TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA, which starred the underrated William Peterson (who also starred in MANHUNTER). Peterson is a terrific actor and it is too bad he fell out of feature film making.

I think you mean Heat instead of L.A. Confidential, which was directed by Curtis Hanson. To Live and Die in L.A. is a Billy Friedkin flick.

Welcome to the site.

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Originally posted by mark f:
I think you mean Heat instead of L.A. Confidential, which was directed by Curtis Hanson. To Live and Die in L.A. is a Billy Friedkin flick.

Welcome to the site.

My bad. I'm getting my LA films confused. It was TO HEAT I was thinking of, though LA CONFIDENTIAL is also terrific. And TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. is terrific, one of the few good films Billy Friedking made after EXORCIST & THE FRENCH CONNECTION.

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ChrisFromAstoria posted:

Good call on Michael Mann, who is one of my desert island directors. I think his best film is LA CONFIDENTIAL with the famous scene where DeNiro meets Pacino on screen.

A real stylish director whose films always look good. Another one of his films I love is TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA, which starred the underrated William Peterson (who also starred in MANHUNTER). Peterson is a terrific actor and it is too bad he fell out of feature film making.

We may not agree on much, but at last I found something we might be able to agree on. It took me about six hours of self-contemplation and research to come up with a list of directors, and Michael Mann's name is on it - one of nine directors that are my all time favorite directors.

I thought 'The Last of the Mohicans' was mediocre at best, the ending was the only thing saving it from being a bad movie --incredible sequence by the way. I watched 'Collateral' and really liked the movie, Mann's visual flair saved it from being just another crime movie.

My pick for his best movie would be Manhunter.

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Originally posted by Mr. Fuffcans:
I thought 'The Last of the Mohicans' was mediocre at best, the ending was the only thing saving it from being a bad movie --incredible sequence by the way. I watched 'Collateral' and really liked the movie, Mann's visual flair saved it from being just another crime movie.

My pick for his best movie would be Manhunter.

Good call on MANHUNTER, but I've got to disagree with you regarding LAST OF THE MOHICANS. I thought that film was a terrific yarn and your comment has spurred me to dig out my laser disc - remember those? -- and take another look at it.

sorry I don't know laser disks. I do belive they predate me --I'm 18. as for last of the mohicans i just couldn't buy the romance between the two leads. it seemed fueled by lust for one another, a problem I find prevelent in most of these movies. I even have a problem with it in the works of shakespeare -romeo and juliet was just too condensed to ring as true love, it just seemed like two horny teenagers getting together- so as a result I turn off to the movie.

Maybe I should watch it again, the ending sequence is still quite stunning in my memory.

Well, when you're running around all over the place in The Last of the Mohicans, barely escaping death from all sides, you have to get it while you still can. (I've seen three versions of that book on film, and the two romances in each are played the same and even have the same dialogue.)

The same thing with Romeo and Juliet. That was forbidden love, which the teenagers knew would be stamped out by their families. The irony was that they died for each other, and ultimately, their families' sake. Very sad, but incredibly romantic.

Well, I did watch LAST OF THE MOHICANS and it held up pretty well. I hadn't seen it since '92 when it was released theatrically. The thing I remembered most about the film was its terrific cinematography and some of that was lost when I watched it on my low-resolution video screen.

It is a conventional movie designed for the undemanding suburban multi-plex crowd, but it still works very well. Daniel Day-Lewis was in full movie star mode and I always thought Madeleine Stowe was an interesting actress, though her faux Brit actress kind of came and went. I thought the Indian actors -- including non actor Russell Means -- were terrific. The actor who played the baddie, Wes Studi maybe -- was a terrific villain. And Steven Waddington as the fop who was Day-Lewis' rival for Stowe's hear didn't stand a chance once Madeleine caught site of Day-Lewis in his buckskins.

One scene that always stayed with me is at the beginning of the film when the soldiers are traveling over the bridge. It is a long shot and you see the space/air under the bridge and its reflection in the water and it forms a perfect circle. Kind of a neat shot.

I am a big Michael Mann fan(we'll see if that changes after Miami Vice comes out), and I my fav. of his is Heat. Not only is it a great cast, but I love the character studies and the smaller sub-lots, and the shootout after the bank robbery is second-to-none.

The trailer of Miami Vice looks sharp, crisp and starkly riveting. It's a new old look for Michael Mann and it's possible that this movie version of the television series will be high-powered, serious, and hard-hitting. Looking forward to how Michael Mann has handled this project.