Reviews

I cannot bring myself to watch this episode let alone Season 10 of this long drawn-out, well past it's sell by date series.

"The One with Phoebe's Wedding" epitomized everything that was wrong with the decision to continue this franchise. I thought I really cared about these characters after watching the entire series from the beginning but obviously not enough as I have now officially denied the existence of season 10 and maybe 9, so I can remember the series as it was, which was a highly enjoyable, entertaining and hilarious show.

In this episode, the date has arrived for Phoebe and Mike's wedding, so tensions are high between both Phoebe and Monica (her maid of honor). So high in fact that during the rehearsal dinner, Monica gets fired for being too controlling. Rachel has her own problems after being forced to decide between both Ross and Joey as to who gives her away at her wedding. Eventually, Monica is rehired but a heavy blizzard jeopardises the chances of the wedding, but Rachel has the idea of the simple wedding she always wanted in the snow and Mike and Phoebe get married.

It's makes me wonder about the writers of the show, that did they think we completely loved these characters enough to ignore how annoying they had become, especially Monica who's extra weight was definitely showing (I know she was pregnant) meaning the quirky and lovable Monica was gone yet she acted the same way, and to be rewarded for her actions in this episode of bossing Phoebe around and acting all smug the entire time to getting rehired, definitely something wrong there.

Overall, an embarrassing episode and a weak season 10 which really didn't do the overall series justice.

This movie was a bit of a mess. At first I thought it was trying to highlight how cruel and unnecessary torture is when dealing with an innocent man taken off the street, and was on the verge of being tortured to death all in the name of diplomacy. This could have sent out quite a powerful message and I have to admit that I thought he was innocent. But wait..

He was guilty. So the torture was necessary, but really got me thinking up until the point he admitted his involvement. And portraying Meryl Streep's character as a real bitch when in reality, being a kind of anti-hero performing a necessary evil added another dimension to this movie that it really didn't need.

So I guess it was a slightly confused, average pro-torture movie.

I cannot stress how bad this movie is people. Mann should be ashamed of himself, churning out this rubbish, after creating a masterpiece such as Heat, and thoroughly enjoyable movies like collateral, Last of the Mohicans, The Insider and Thief.

Firstly, I'll mention about the character progression. Wow, hold up. What Character progression? As far as Michael Mann is concerned we know and love these characters already from the TV show in the 80's where Mann was an Executive Producer. OK, someone tell Mann that there had been a gap of 16 years since the show ended and the when this movie was made. The action takes without any back story (hence no character progression), so young fans never had a chance. Just for the older die-hard fans I suppose.

And yes, I am old enough to have seen a few episodes and found Don Johnson (Crockett) and Philip Michael Thomas (Tubbs) a lot more engaging. It epitomized the 80's with the clothes, the hair, the cars, the women and the fabulous weather you came to expect from Miami. Got to warn ya, all gone in the movie (Weathers OK).

The plot basically evolves around (wait for it), drugs (couldn't of seen that one coming), and how Crockett and Tubbs have to go undercover to infiltrate a gang of Cuban drug lords. Easily done I might add.

That brings me to the two leads in this film. Now we have Colin Farrell as Sonny Crockett and Jamie Foxx as Ricardo Tubbs. As far as Colin goes, it was a very wooden performance (Surprise, Surprise. He does try so very hard). He wasn't helped by a poor script but he's not exactly Oscar material. On the other hand, Jamie Foxx is,(winning for "Ray" in the biopic of Ray Charles and Oscar nominated for another Mann film, Collateral)and his performance wasn't much better either and as a pair, their was no chemistry, and at times, you could be forgiven for thinking these characters just met.

With the supporting cast, which could only be described as dead weight, you have Gong Li as Isabella who's parents were Asian who emigrated to Cuba. She was the undoubtedly the worst character on show, who was only more than willing to betray the people she worked for and start a relationship with Crockett (Farrell)and give him all the information he needed (no plot twist here then). The Chemistry between these actors was awful, and the sex scenes felt so awkward and messy and really slowed whatever progression the plot had left. One thing I cant understand is how Crockett could have been so unprofessional as to have a relationship with her, even ignoring advice from his "Partner" to ease up. More evidence that the new Crockett and Tubbs couldn't care less about each other.

Naomi Harris seemed to play a very masculine character, who had been through the wars in this film and nearly didn't make it in the end. She was beaten,blown-up and nearly shot by her own man. Big who cares. I had my fingers crossed that she would be killed. She really went down a notch in my estimation after this annoying performance (again, bad script), but was saved by a good performance in Pirates of the Caribbean: DMC.

As for the rest of the cast. Not worth mentioning. The soundtrack was poor (with exception of Linkin Park, but used poorly), shoot outs were badly executed which all added up to a boring and very frustrating evening for me and the people I had come to see this with.

There is one good thing to come out of this though (yes, one). I really thought the cinematography was beautifully shot, especially some scenes that took place at night.

Doesn't save it though, and I'm glad it bombed at the box-office which took in a mere $63 Million as opposed to costing $135 Million to make. Complete waste of money.