Miami Vice (2006)

One of my all time favorites.

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The groundbreaking 1980s TV series that Michael Mann executive produced was very much a product of its time and so it's hardly surprising that this 2006 reboot should be significantly different. This time around, the exploits of Miami vice detectives Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) don't feature the same emphasis on fashionable clothes, designer stubble or the distinctive music of Jan Hammer but instead present a darker, grittier and more serious account of their work as they attempt to identify and hunt down a ruthless drugs kingpin.A nightclub stakeout aimed at arresting a bunch of sex-traffickers has to be abandoned suddenly when one of Crockett's former informants contacts him to say that he's on the run because his role in an FBI sting has been exposed and he fears for the safety of his wife who has been taken hostage by a group of white supremacists. Crockett and Tubbs aren't able to do anything to prevent the hostage from being killed or her grief-stricken husband from committing suicide immediately after and so take an opportunity that arises to take part in a multi-agency undercover investigation into the Colombian drugs cartel who their informant had been gathering information about.In order to infiltrate the drug smugglers' organisation, Crockett and Tubbs attend a meeting with Jose Yero (John Ortiz) who is one of its leaders and posing as transportation experts, make a bid to take over the cartel's distribution work from the Aryan Brotherhood. A Chinese/Cuban woman called Isabella (Gong Li) is also present and it transpires that she's not only impressed by their pitch but also occupies an important role in the cartel as she's the top man's business manager and lover. In this capacity, she arranges for Crockett and Tubbs to have a face to face meeting with Arcangel de Jesus Montoya (Luis Tosar) who, on her recommendation, agrees for the two men to be hired.As well as coping with the normal dangers encountered in this type of operation, the two undercover cops soon have to deal with some added difficulties caused by Crockett entering into an affair with Isabella and the menacing Yero (who had never trusted them) colluding with the Aryan Brotherhood to kidnap Tubbs' girlfriend Trudy (Naomie Harris) and demand a ransom for her release which could compensate them for the loss of the lucrative contract that Crockett and Tubbs had been given. When this plan fails, Yero informs Montoya about Isabella's affair and takes her as his prisoner in an act that sparks the ultra-violent confrontation that quickly brings the undercover operation and the activities of the drug smugglers to a sudden and very definite end.Director, screenwriter and joint producer Michael Mann does a great job of delivering a visually impressive thriller which features a couple of well-choreographed action sequences, some brilliant location work and an exciting soundtrack that features some great tracks by Jay-Z/Linkin Park, Audioslave and Moby. The atmosphere is consistently tense because of the dangerous nature of the undercover operation, the obvious threats posed by some of the criminals and of course, the self-inflicted complications that Crockett encounters because of an affair which both he and Isabella recognise has no future.The movie's dialogue is its weakest feature as it is often jargon-riddled, delivered in staccato style and unhelpful in terms of exposition. Good performances by the entire cast however, ensure that the characters are all brought to life very vividly and the audience's interest is maintained at a high level throughout.

As a fan of the original series, I was beyond disappointed. When I heard they were making a 'vice' movie, I was excited. There's so much material and fertile ground to work with, that you have to really try hard to make a bad film based on Miami vice. The film makers succeeded in doing just that. First off the casting. You can't underestimate the impact Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas had in making the show such a huge hit. Even without great acting, just on visual appeal alone they were very intriguing. If you get that part wrong, you ruin the whole thing and that is what happened here. Apparently Jamie Foxx suggested this film to Mann after working with him in Ali. This pretty much guaranteed the part of Tubbs to Foxx, dooming this picture from the start. I think Foxx may be the most over rated actor of the past decade. While certainly not Oscar-worthy, he did do a decent job of portraying Ray Charles, but I have never been able to take him seriously as an actor and any time I see his face I keep waiting for some buffoonish punchline ala in living color or the Jamie Foxx show. He comes across as cheesy and fake and it is impossible to take him seriously in any dramatic role. With humor being his strong suit, you would think they would have given him a couple of jokes, as even the original Tubbs had his share of punchlines, but Foxx remains overly serious and stiff throughout. It was rumored that Will Smith was considered and he would have suited the role of Tubbs much better. Colin Farrell makes an equally bad Sonny Crockett. Part of Crockett's appeal was the fact that he was a plain spoken all American guy working in a vibrant international city. Put in a foreign looking guy with a foreign accent and it just doesn't work as well. Apparently Don Johnson himself suggested Ferrell. What was he thinking? Another element of the TV series appeal was the surrounding characters. Zito and Switek. Gina and Trudy. And of course Lt. Castillo. In the movie, these characters are completely under developed or nonexistent.As for the plot, it was throw away. Generic international smuggler routine taking us around the globe. The beauty of vice was it's focus on Miami. There's so much potential for juicy plot lines right there that there's no need to go overseas. The villains in the TV series, although stereotypical, were very colorful and more believable to the city. The Italian mafia goons, Cubano, Colombian and Jamaican villains that inhabited Miami in the TV series should have been reprised here. Instead they chose to go for a non believable neo nazi type. What white supremacist would ever live in Miami? the least white major city in America.While the cinematography was okay, it did not do the legacy of Miami Vice justice. The original Miami Vice was criticized for style over substance. The movie took away the cool style and left zero substance. What made Vice so iconic was the bright sunny Miami backdrops. Beach scenes, beautiful women, groundbreaking wardrobe and awesome houses cars and boats. They would do scenes right on Ocean Drive surrounded by highly recognizable Miami landmarks. They were known for using bright neon and art deco colors. In the film they went for low lighting and dark and grey color schemes. Gone are the neon cityscapes, bright south-beach scenes and the beautiful women. Take all that away and Miami vice just isn't Miami vice. The digital photography gave the film a feeling of a bad reality TV show. The Miami of the 80's was fast paced, dangerous, and is remembered as a mythical time. By setting the film in modern times it just becomes somewhat stale and boring, but even with a modern day setting it could have been way more interesting and entertaining than it was. The pacing and lack of action in this movie are inexcusable especially with 100 million plus budget. The great thing about the TV show was the high action. The fist fights, the shootouts, the car chases, the boat chases, the explosions. The movie overlooked these almost entirely and opted for blood and violence just for violence sake. While the TV show had a lot of killing, there was a lot less blood. More of the actual violence was left to the imagination.Overall, the movie is Miami Vice in name only. They very loosely follow the formula of the original in that it is set in Miami, there are smugglers to be caught and the bad guys get killed. But they do this without any of the charm that the show so masterfully employed in getting us from point a to point b. The eye candy and the danger of Miami at the time, laced with a little bit of humor, an authentic Miami feel, a clever twist at the end with some folksy cop wisdom of lessons learned by Sonny usually followed by a catchy phrase, beautiful Miami sunset and credits. I think part of this movies problem is that it takes itself too seriously while the series was somewhat tongue in cheek. They have done a great disservice to the franchise. People who never saw the show will think 'what was all the hype about Miami vice' and people who did see the show will assume the film makers were trying to distance themselves too much from the original. The film doesn't stand alone on it's own merits or in comparison to it's predecessor. It shows that Mann probably had little to do with the TV show's success. Then when it came time to do the movie he really had nothing. They had one shot to get this right as the 20 year nostalgia cycle was coming around and they completely blew it.Skip this movie, especially if you liked the series.

Saw this one back in 2007, the theaters here in Brazil didn't seem to make money out of it so I waited until the DVD release. And now I just came from a unrated version that sincerely blew me away even more than the first time.You have to see it as more than a simple action flick and embrace the audacity of the cinematography - the noisy shots from pre-4k- cameras are a charm for themselves.The characters are also very strong and they are nothing like the heroes that we usually see in pure commercial-action movies. They are the heroes of Mann's world: strong, relentless, intense.The storytelling does not tell you more than the wide camera shots, the moody blueish noir, the sad and deep look from the actors or the amazing sound design. It is a movie that exists deeply in the details way more than it does in the surface.A hidden masterpiece.

Rating-5/10Miami Vice, the name conjures up fast cars and the 1980's, but this movie creates very different ideas. Yes Michael Mann(famous for "Heat" and "Ali" etc) makes a crime movie that really does pay, and not very well on that point. It's the kind of movie where intense listening is needed and maybe a very big liking for police movies or crime, because this is one film that really doesn't show either for me, in a well made way.The plot is big and full of things going on at once, this is both it's positives and it's negatives in one, on one hand we have good action and exciting things, on the flip side we have boring dialogue and romance that really gives this movie nothing extra. I feel Mann is not always to blame here for what I felt was an under average movie, but he does direct it in a way which means it is not only un-exciting, but also just not a watch that is needed.Mann writes this as well and although our main actors Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx deliver the lines well enough, it becomes almost too much of a jumble. On to the acting itself and it isn't bad, it is well cast and doesn't shy away from picking names we may not know, but my main problem was with the way it sounds. The actors voices are so low and the accents so incoherent it is hard not to have to strain your ears to know what is going on, they do well most of the cast but what they say at times is a complete mystery.Now the film is beautifully shot, the cinematography for me all in all is the very best thing about this, it makes it not only real but also gives it a feeling as if you are there yourself. Dion Beebe is the mastermind behind this and if you haven't seen it, then notice while watching how it feels more like some sort of documentary than actual film, but that style really pays off. And what of the area they shot in, well it is pretty glamorous at times, I mean what do you expect from drug kingpins boats to the beautiful city of Miami, the film is well located and the scene shots can be breathtaking.Is it like it's basis, the 1980's show Miami Vice? ,not at all in fact it couldn't at times feel more opposite. It is much darker, and that is in tone and themes, the dark underbelly of Miami remains, but the city never looked so ugly when Mann wants it to be. I felt that the movie in a way doesn't hark back to the memories so many fans have, yes it has it's cars and boats, guns etc but not the beautiful scores that the TV show had, not to mention the actual connection people had with the characters, which just doesn't come though here. If you want good crime movies with smart plots and good action too, I won't say don't give this a watch, but just find something else first because this can and I guarantee for some is a real snooze. The plot as I said is thick with things going on, but there's the problem it is too full and you can easily be lost in the way things are going. The main two characters Crockett and Tubbs have no real bond and in truth spend too much time not together in this movie.Overall it's not a movie for all, maybe for some, but probably won't please fans of the TV series. I felt it was as mentioned under average and I felt that because not only have we seen things like this before, Mann can't even make this a good kind of seen before and his attempt at remaking this just becomes not bad, but too near to being poor to be acceptable.