This post was published over 700 days ago and therefore may not represent current Outside Context thinking or opinion. Please, do not let that detract from your enjoyment of it! 
Now, I am a fan of Michael Mann’s work. Heat and Collateral are fantastic films is The Last of the Mohicans. To be extra sure, I went to the cinema with other confirmed fans and critics:
James (me): Film buff and philosopher. Huge Mann fan
Mr Bro: My younger brother, loves films. Big Mann fan.
Cesca: My wife, loves Jamie foxx. Mann fan.
Shirin: Mr Bro’s lady, loves films. Mann fan
Trip: Loves films, doesn’t follow them much. Gun fan.
You would think that with this audience that Mann could not fail to elicit a positive reaction. Well, even we didn’t like it. It has a great shoot out, cool gear, hot chicks, hot stars and beautiful style of direction.
But, well, no pace. Little in the way of proper story. There is no “journey” in the film and a slightly off performance by Farrell (who is no Don Johnson.) Also, a shock was that there was almost no music at all. I was expecting tons of music. Cool 80’s revive catchy stuff, like you find when you play the game GTA Vice City. It had none of that.
Other silly things was the location of the Über Badies lair; Iguassu falls in Brazil. One of the world’s major tourist attractions! No criminal could live there without having hundreds of tourists all around him; lol.
When it comes to gun porn, however, this film had everything.
I counted two LR300’s (seriously cool), upgraded M90, Remingtons, 50 cal snipers, G36’s, G3 long and a very unique viewing of the fantastic Patriot M4 as well as buckets of M4’s with all the extras.
In fact, no expense had been spared in the weapon stakes. Even when a trailer park kid pulled a knife it was a top of the range Spyderco Police model. Slightly out of character for someone living in a trailer park!
The final shootout was one of the best and most realistic I had ever seen; loads of people firing at each other and not hitting shit. People were using hold and flank moves and the shotgun guys went for the rush. Just like in airsoft!
It wasn’t enough. I will watch the film again on DVD, but as stands the final score from us was 6/10.
This entry is currently being rewritten after I saw the film again on DVD. The DVD release fixes the major issue with the movie (the sound) and I was actually able to get into it.
More soon