There are whiffs of that sentiment coming off the reviews. Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly says "Public Enemies re-creates clothes, but doesn't fully fashion the man who wore them." Which reads to us like the film is just another feat of stylish camerawork and deftly-applied new technologies (Enemies was filmed entirely in HD, for example). Schwarzbaum sends the film to critical no man's land by giving it a listless B-. What are we to do with a B minus?

There's no doubt that Mann is a supremely talented director—Manhunter is a plodding procedural picture that is probably the most adeptly faithful adaptation of Thomas Harris' often florid prose (Silence of the Lambs is too lovely and sad and mysterious and wistful—it's its own thing entirely). And Heat, well Heat is a crime movie to end all crime movies. There any dash of emotion and depth of feeling (thanks be to you, Diane Venora) was a welcome and surprising respite from what the film needed to be, which was grim and mechanical.

Manhola Dargis at the New York Times, one of our favorite film critics, gave Enemies a rave, but language like this still makes us worry:

The same holds true of "Public Enemies," which looks and plays like no other American gangster film I can think of and very much like a Michael Mann movie, with its emphasis on men at work, its darkly moody passages, eruptions of violence and pictorial beauty. Mr. Mann's digital manipulations, in particular, which encompass almost pure abstraction and interludes of hyper-realism, is worthy of longer exegesis, one that explores how this still-unfamiliar format is changing the movies: it allows, among other things, filmmakers to capture the eerie brightness of nighttime as never before.

See, there she is being dazzled by the same magicks that have left us feeling all dour and depressed after all of the most recent Mann pictures. Sure Collateral looked great, but where was the genuine tension, where was the human spark that should have made us care about Jamie Foxx's survival? Miami Vice had striking visual moments as well, but was otherwise cold as a fish flopping on a Key West dock. The whole "my partner got shot, oh my god" moments were swallowed up by Mann's turgid music, his gloomy, oppressive lighting. (And about that music. It's a semi-known fact that Mann is going deaf, but still insists on doing his own audio mixing.)

Lately we're worried that there really isn't anything else up Mann's sleeve but polished trickery. Public Enemies, what with the economy these days and all, could be a story of poor America bubbling over into revolt. And maybe it is! We haven't seen it! But from the ten or so reviews we've read, it sounds mostly the same as everything else. And yet he's still one of those few directors that thoughtful critics love to love. Because he shows them something gritty and dangerous and, most of all, cool, when most of the Good films they review these days are sparkling indies or message movies. Though it's not like there aren't other people making cannily-shot crime films—the sublime No Country for Old Men comes to mind. But there was something mysterious and existential and, well, deep at work in that movie that Mann has so far seemed unable to conjure.

What do you think? Can 66-year-old Michael Mann make a movie these days that's hinged more heavily on story and character than on technical craft? Do you care?

Image via Getty

Maher told Gawker that Staub claimed to have slept with Don Johnson. Which pretty much makes sense, given Maher's accounts of coke-fueled orgies in Miami in the late 1980s. Miami Vice shot on location there, and the woman Maher describes —the bisexual "paid escort" and stripper who was "messed up on cocaine"—certainly sounds like the type who might find a way to snuggle up to a nearby TV star.

We asked Johnson about the claim—like he'd remember!—and here's what he said:

Not every guy who drove a Ferrari and didn't shave was me.

So true. It could just as easily have been Philip Michael Thomas.

1. Miami Vice—$25.195 million
We were far from certain that Miami Vice would be the movie to end Pirates 2's record-shattering, first place tyranny, but here it is sitting atop the weekend box office chart with just over $25 million. Universal's research broke down Vice's audience as 78 percent male, "who wanted to learn how to speak in absurdly macho sentence fragments" and "were curious to see what new accent would be created by Colin Farrell's inability to hide his Irish brogue," while the movie's female audience cited the fact that they "were forced to go because their boyfriends went to Devil Wears Prada" as their primary reason for their ticket purchase.

2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest—$20.492 million
Pirates 2's 42 percent drop-off from last weekend's result might be a sign that it's finally slowing to an eventual take of over $400 million, but Disney plans on restoring the film's momentum by re-premiering it next Friday with an expansion to 10,368 theaters, boosting it back into first place with a $65 million take.

3. John Tucker Must Die—$14.075 million
More post-release research fun: Fox's lobby polls determined that John Tucker Must Die's audience was 100 percent teenage girls "who suffered major head trauma during the first season of Desperate Housewives, and whose last persistent memories are of Jesse Metcalfe removing his shirt and mowing the lawn."

4. Monster House—$11.5 million
5. The Ant Bully—$8.145 million
Box Office Mojo reports that The Ant Bully's opening weekend gross is the "weakest start ever for a high profile computer-animated feature." This record might be short-lived, as Paramount's "Hey, check it out! Those crazy computer generated farm animals are talking!" feature The Barnyard is released next weekend.

• July 28-30, 2006 Studio Estimates [Box Office Mojo]

It was me and about 1,000 of Hollywood's finest D-bags at the Miami Vice premiere last night.

Some observations:

—The roughly 25% of the audience bedecked in their coolest 1980s white suits, neon shirts, fedoras and chest hair all hoping to savor somethrowback action South Florida buddy-cop action. The letdown was intense when it was clear after about 1 hour and 58 minutes into the two hour flick that this was a serious (and seriously depressing) Colombian-Haitian-Feds vs. local cops—border/culture-bending lovemaking-graphically violent effort of auteur filmmaking, and not a Starksy and Hutchesque joke-a-minute-when-we're-not-banging- Miami-Beach-club- skanks-and-playfully-arresting-pimps-and cigar rollers-kind of movie.
Not one piece of stray neon, hair product or goofy Don-Johnson replica smile made it into the movie.

—Eager fauxtuer Brett Ratner standing by the sink in the men's room waiting for his +1 to finish up at the urinal. The +1 was old and stooped and a guy, but it wasnt Robert [Evans.]

— Batshit-crazy Michelle Rodriguez looking extremely hot heading for the men's room before realizing the line of 10 dudes out the door meant it was probably the wrong place for her. She was probably hammered.

— Shaq standing tall and looking sharp. To any person of color who greeted him, a hearty fist bump, smile and quasi hug/chest bump in the finest hip-hop fashion.
To any douchebag white hollywood type attempting to connect on the "I feel you man, I'm a baller too, on weekends at Spectrum or SportsClubLA AND I watch the conference finals on my 95" flat screen AND know how it feels when you're grinding it out on the court because I watch you at Staples: No smile; no hug; no chest bump. But a quick flick of the eyes and a halfhearted fist bump (points to Shaq for not completely ignoring them with the luxury afforded to anyone who's 7-feet tall).

—Emmanuelle Chriqui from Entourage....smoking hot.

—After-party was on the uneven surface of a neighboring parking lot in Westwood (always seemed like you were walking up or down an asphalt slope). "Party under the stars"="Party in a parking lot next to Dede Reese in Westwood Village". Plenty of food and drink (Mojitos for everyone!). Only major misstep were the dozen or so dancers who were dressed in shimmering metallic miniskirts and tops and goofy looking masks. They were a cross between the Gimp in Pulp Fiction and Catwoman if she was white and wearing silver.

Other sightings: Josh Duhamel, Colin Farrell ducking into the after-party, Jamie Foxx holding court at the party and a few others who I'm sure will be dutifully reported by other secret correspondents.

Dessarae Bradford, alleged in a small-claims lawsuit that Farrell stalked her with inappropriate calls and text messages, but her lawsuit against Farrell was dismissed. [...]

According to other audience members, Bradford left a copy of her self-published book, "Colin Farrell: A Dark Twisted Puppy," on Leno's desk.

According to a studio audience guest, Farrell calmly walked Bradford off stage and then, as she was escorted off the set, she shouted, "I'll see you in court" and Farrell retorted, "You're insane."

It's one thing to pimp your "I strapped on a dildo and plowed a major, male movie star" exclusive at a sex convention. But interrupting a Tonight Show interview breaches an unspoken line few celeb stalkers are willing to cross. Even the most shameless of psychotic delusionals know when to turn down the crazy, particularly if it might step on Jay Leno's carefully rehearsed banter about "the difference between Irish and American girls."

• Colin Farrell Confronted On 'Tonight Show' Stage [AccessHollywood.com]
• Woman Confronts Colin Farrell on Tonight Show [People.com]
• dessarae bradford [MySpace.com]

The irony, in Mann's view, was that when the production moved to a relatively upscale area, a local man—a police officer—approached the set, got into a quarrel with a guard (one supplied by the Dominican military), and allegedly pulled a gun. The man was shot and wounded. "It was very scary," Mann acknowledges. "What if this guy has six brothers? What if they blamed us? ... All these questions rush into your head." He says care was taken to ensure that the cast and crew could leave the set safely that day.

But immediately after that incident, [Jamie] Foxx and his entourage packed up and left for good. "Jamie basically changed the whole movie in one stroke," a crew member says—and not, in his opinion, for the better. The ending that was supposed to be shot in Paraguay would have been "much more dramatic."

Asked about Foxx's departure, Mann doesn't speak for a moment and then says, "You hear the sound of silence."

While the Foxx story is certainly interesting and dishy enough, we were most fascinated by the sheer variety of ways that Mann's associates attempted to politely depict him as a borderline insane, control-freak asshole-genius who'll go to any length to get a shot, as in: "Sure, everyone was pissed that we were shooting in the middle of a Level 4 hurricane that blew the production office into the ocean, but the gales knocked down most of the sniper fire—hey, does anyone know if Jack the grip survived the gut-shot?—and I'll be damned if Colin Farrell's hair didn't look fucking great blowing in that 120-mph wind."

• Fleeing the Scene [Slate]
• Previously: Press Release Of The Day: "Miami Vice" Gunman A Poor Shot [Defamer]

Colin Farrell is being treated for exhaustion and dependency on prescription medication, his publicist said.

The medication was prescribed to the Irish actor after a back injury, publicist Danica Smith said in a written statement Monday.

The statement said Farrell had checked himself into a treatment center, which wasn't identified.

Using our handy Terse Publicist Excuse Conversion Chart, we might surmise that the double-barreled public admission of "exhaustion" and "prescription medication dependency," combined with the claim that he "checked himself into a treatment center" means that Farrell was hastily transported to some sort of unlicensed safe house in the trunk of a Jaguar, whereupon his arrival (slung over a beefy associate's shoulder), he was immediately jabbed through the breast pocket of his Sonny Crocket suit with a pool cue-sized needle full of black-market adrenaline. But that cynical vision is quite obivously one too many viewings of Pulp Fiction getting the best of us, and it will turn out that Farrell just decided he liked the taste of over-the-counter Tylenol with codeine mashed up in his whiskey a little too much.

• Farrell Treated for Medication Dependency [AP]
• Press Release Of The Day: “Miami Vice” Gunman A Poor Shot [Defamer]
• Michael Mann’s Miami Mutiny [Defamer]

We re told that since filming began in June, over 120 crew members have jumped ship, exhausted by [director Michael] Mann s famously obsessive demands, ceaseless revisions, and 24/7 schedule. One production assistant says that resignations are now being turned in on an almost daily basis, with employees typically citing illness or dying relatives. Few members of the original crew remain, the source says. [...]

And it s not just the key grips who are feeling mutinous. We re told Universal execs, watching the disaster unfold from Hollywood, are infuriated by the movie s ballooning budget and lagging schedule. The movie, greenlighted at an already obscene $120 million and set to wrap in September, has nearly doubled in costs and is still lensing in Paraguay and Miami with no end in sight, we hear.

The production appears to be taking an inevitable turn towards Lord of the Flies-style savagery; it's only a matter of time before remaining crew members raid the makeup and wardrobe trailers, only to emerge in warpaint and pastel suit tatters with boom mic spears in hand, shouting for the blood of their own above-the-title "Piggy," Vice's beer-boobed Colin Farrell.

• Of Vice and Mann [Radar Online]
• Previously: Press Release Of The Day: Miami Vice Gunman A Poor Shot [Defamer]

Shots Fired Outside 'MIAMI VICE' Filming Location — No cast and crew were hurt
On Monday, October 24, 2005, outside of the Plaza Maria de Toledo hotel in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where a Universal Pictures production crew was filming scenes for the movie "MIAMI VICE," several gun shots were fired. The cast and crew of the production were filming on the third floor of the hotel when it is believed that an individual fired a weapon outside the property, following an alleged altercation with the production's security. The security returned fire and the individual was shot. At this point in time, the individual's condition is not clear. None of the film's cast and crew was hurt. It is believed that an investigation by Santo Domingo local authorities is under way regarding the incident, and the production is cooperating with this investigation.

Universal has to be devastated. They paid good money to have Colin Farrell bumped off during filming outside of the States, knowing that a tragic death could bring huge opening weekend ticket sales, but knew they were taking a risk trusting the task to foreign, nonunion labor. Maybe they'll have better luck with the upcoming Miami "yacht accident."

• Shots Fired Outside 'MIAMI VICE' Filming Location [PR Newswire]