Customer Reviews

Miami Vice [VHS]

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

Michael Mann has always been in the forefront of experimenting and trying out new film techniques and styles to tell his stories. His last film, 2003's Collateral, was a veritable masterpiece of directing modern, urban noir. He even made Tom Cruise very believable as a sociopathic character. It is now 2006 and Michael Mann has followed up Collateral with another trip down the darkside of the law and crime. Taking a concept he made into a cultural phenomenon during the mid 80's, Mann reinvents Miami Vice from the pastel colors, hedonistic and over-the-top drug-culture Miami to a more down, dirty and shadowy world where extremes by both the cops and the criminals rule the seedy, forgotten side of Miami.

Michael Mann's films have always dealt with the extremes in its characters. Whether its James Caan's thief character Frank in Thief, the dueling detective and thief of Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, up to Foxx and Cruise's taxi driver and assassin. They all have had one thing in common. They're individuals dedicated to their chosen craft. Professional in all respect and so focused to doing their job right that they've crossed the line to obsession. These men have an obsession to doing their jobs to the point that its become like a drug to keep them going. This theme continues in Mann's film reboot of his TV series Miami Vice. The characters remain the same. There's still the two main characters of Vice Detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. This time around these titular characters were played by Colin Farrell (in a look that echoes Gregg Allman more than Don Johnson) and Jamie Foxx. From the first second all the way through to the final fade to black in the end of the film the audience was thrust immediately into the meat of the action. Mann dispenses with the need for any sort of opening credits. In fact, the title of the film doesn't appear until the end of the film and the same goes for the names of all involved. I thought this was a nice touch. It gave the film a stronger realism throughout.

The film's story was a mixture of past classic episodes rolled into one two-hour long film with the episode "Smuggler's Blues" being the main influence on the story. The glamour and glitz that were so prevalent in the original series does show up in the film, but it's not used too much that it turned the characters of Crockett, Tubbs and the rest of the cast into caricatures. The glamour seems more of a thin veneer to hide the danger inherent in all the parties involved. These people were all dangerous from the cops to the criminals. There's alot of the so-called "gray areas" between what makes a cop and what makes a criminal. Mann's always been great in blurring those lines and in showing that people on either side of the line have much more in common than they realize.

Miami Vice's story doesn't leave much for back story exposition for the main leads. Michael Mann takes the minimalist approach and just introduces the characters right from the beginning with nothing to explain who they were outside of the roles they played --- whether they be law-enforcement or drug dealers. The script allows for little personal backstory and instead lets the actors' performance show just what moves, motivates and inspires these characters. Again, Jamie Foxx steals the film from his more glamorous co-star in Colin Farrell. Farrell did a fine job in making Crockett the high-risk taking and intense half of the partnership, but Foxx's no-nonsense, focused intensity as Tubbs was the highlight performance throughout the film. The rest of the cast do a fine job in the their roles. From Gong Li as Isabella the drug-lord's moll who also double's as his organization's brains behind the finances to Luis Tosar as the mastermind drug kingping Arcángel de Jesús Montoya. Tosar as Montoya also does a standout performance, but was in the screen for too less a time.

This film wouldn't be much of a police crime drama if it was all talk and no action. The action in Miami Vice comes fast and tight. Each scene was played out with a tightness and intensity which prepped the audience to the point that the violence that suddenly arrives was almost a release. Everyone in the theater knew what was coming and when the violence and action does arrive it goes in hard and fast with little or no tricks of rapid editing, slow-motion sequences or fancy camera angles and tricks like most action films. Instead Michael Mann continues his theme of going for realism even in these pivotal moments in the film. The shootouts doesn't have the feel of artificiality. The gunshot inflicted on the people in the film were brutal, violent and quick. The camera doesn't linger on the dead and wounded. These scenes must've taken only a few minutes of the film's running time, but they were minutes that were executed with Swiss-like precision.

The look of the film was where Mann's signature could be seen from beginning to end. He started using digital cameras heavily in Collateral. He used it to great effect to give the film a sense of "in the now" realism. His decision to use digital cameras for that film also was due to a story mostly set at night. The use of digital allowed him to capture the deepest black to off-set the grays and blues of Los Angeles at night. Mann does the same for Miami Vice, but he does Collateral one better by using digital cameras from beginning to end. Digital lent abit of graininess to some scenes, but it really wasn't as distracting as some reviewers would have you believe. In fact, it made Miami Vice seem like a tale straight out of COPS or one of those reality police shows. Again, Michael Mann stretches the limits of his mind and technology could accomplish when working in concert. Mann's direction and overall work in Miami Vice could only be described as being as focused and obsessive over the smallest detail as the characters in his films. This is a filmmaker who seem to want nothing but perfection in each scene shot.

Michael Mann has done the unthinkable and actually made a film adaptation of a TV show look like an art-film posing as a tight police drama. Everyone who have given the film a less than stellar review seem to have done so because Mann didn't use the 80's imagery and sensibilities from the original show. There were no pastel designer clothes and homes. There was no pet alligator and little friendly banter and joking around. Mann goes the other way and keeps the mood deadly serious. This was very apropo since the two leads led mortally dangerous lives as undercover agents who could die at the slightest mistake. The fun and jokes of the original series would've broken the mood and feel of this film. I, for one, am glad Mann went this route and not paid homage to the original series. This some saw as a major flaw, but I saw it as the main advantage in keeping Miami Vice from becoming a self-referential film bordering on camp.

Miami Vice was not your typical action-drama for the 2006 summer blockbuster season. Like Collateral in 2004, Michael Mann forgo large effects and drawn out action to sell his film, but made a finished product thats smart, stylish, and innovative crime drama. This was a film that people would either love despite some of the flaws, or one people would hate due to not being like the original TV series. Those who decide to skip watching Miami Vice because of the latter would miss a great film from one of this generation's best directors. Those who do give this Miami Vice a chance would be rewarded with one of the best films of 2006.

Okay, okay, so we all know now Michael Mann's dark, brooding reimagining of his own cultural classic is not your father's "Miami Vice" of the mid-80s (or, not your ten-year-old self's "Vice" at any rate). Gone are the pastels, Elvis the alligator and almost all back-story of our cops on a personal level (or any level really). As the movie begins the viewer is immediately plunged into the middle of Sonny Crocket and Ricardo Tubbs on the job. Crocket gets a phone call and within minutes the plot of the film is set in motion and we are off and running. No introductions, no set-ups; the viewer is just thrown into a ride-along as these two undercover cops take on their next case.

This "Miami Vice" is clearly meant to be something of an examination of undercover work, as opposed to any kind of conventional storytelling in your standard action film. But then Michael Mann is no standard action filmmaker. How he has evolved from his work on "Vice" in its TV heyday to now is like night and day, but the core of what made him a visionary talent even back than has not changed. While this "Miami Vice" may tone down the colorful, hedonistic aspects that the show is remembered for, Mann still remembers to portray, not only Miami, but Cuba, Portugal and host of other global locations, in all their vibrant cultural allure. Crocket and Tubs still take advantage of being undercover by trolling around in designer clothes, expensive cars, and fast boats.

But this is all painted on a much darker palate this time. I'm not sure we ever glimpse Miami during the day and there are no scenes of women roaming the beach in skimpy bikinis. Crocket and Tubbs speak to each other in the same monosyllabic, one word sentences they speak to the bad guys in; rarely do they joke or have any long, buddy-copish conversations about life, love, their pasts, the job, or even where the other is going when they decide to run off for two days. They always look stoic, serious and focused constantly on the job. They don't even stop to reflect that 'holy s**t, I'm driving a Ferrari at 160 miles per hour!'

Yes, this film is all about the 'vice.' Mann wants to throw us into the undercover world and game. As a procedural examination of that world "Miami Vice" is rather fascinating. I could gripe that really exciting undercover cop movies would include more personal drama for our heroes, ala there are more close calls where they are inches from having their cover blown, or a scene where they are discovered and how are they gonna get out of it. But "Miami Vice" isn't trying to be a typical undercover cop movie. It may lose some suspense and opportunities for more action sequences because of this approach, but the idea here, I guess, is this is just one case in a string of them that these guys tackle every day. We are just watching them do their thing on this particular job.

There is a little bit of initiative to shake things up near the end when, due to the baddy's suspicions, a deal goes wrong and one of Crocket and Tubbs' colleagues is placed in peril. This scene includes a terrific "Dirty Harry" moment and is done so well you almost wish there were more of them. The flip side to that coin though is that then these moments would risk becoming somewhat rote and overtake the plot: too much of a good thing. As they are, they make for great surprises that stand-out in the midst of a movie that is ultimately more plot-driven and story-focused than action packed. So strict action-junkies beware: There's always, say, "Bad Boys" and its sequel if you want pretty Miami locals, lots buddy cop jokularity, and blow'em-up action and chase scenes. "Miami Vice" is not that movie - and it is clearly trying very hard to be anything but that movie.

But as usual with Mann, when the action kicks in, these scenes are better than almost any of their kind. No matter what you thought of Mann's "Heat," you have to admit that it includes one of the best shoot-outs ever captured on film. "Miami Vice" has a climatic shoot-out that, like "Heat itself in my opinion, while not as good, has many of the same great qualities. Where your typical director would stage such a sequence with lots of music or editing tricks to lead the audience, Mann keeps everything quiet, except for the deafening pops of gun shots. No editing tricks, slow-motion, etc, but Mann's expert camera work puts us right there. At one moment a camera is placed behind one of the baddies during the shoot out. He gets blown away by one of the cops and the camera runs left over to one of the other bad guys and positions itself behind him. Get it? The camera is us. There is also a chaos to the camera movements in these moments, further giving us the you-are-there feeling, trying to show what it must be like to be in the middle of such a war zone.

Mann also knows how to make a film look great. He shoots with digital cameras so everything almost looks superimposed over everything else. This is especially awe-inspiring when characters are on rooftops, shot against the night sky and the blinking city lights behind them. There are also sweeping cinematic shots of the sky, ocean, water falls, freeways and cityscapes. And when we delve into the drug dealing underworld or Miami nightclubs, Mann gives a the film a grainy, security camera voyeur look to the proceedings.

Yes, this is one great looking film. And an expertly made one. One of the best by both standards. But it is also well written and smartly executed. However, despite all of this, there a few things that, while not flaws exactly, at least leave a something to be desired. I get that the lack of character development was probably intentional. I guess we are just supposed to assume that everything we know about Crockett and Tubbs of yore remains true and we are simply catching up with them again and following them on one of their darker cases. Either that or who they are is rather perfunctory and moot given the proceedings and we are just supposed to be watching two undercover cops do their thing. You wonder if Mann would have even bothered giving them names if he didn't have to. But then why call it "Miami Vice" at all? I suppose hardcore fans would be forgiven for being a little let down that a movie called "Miami Vice" has very little to do with Miami itself or the characters they were looking forward to rediscovering. I'm sure they would all be fine with updating the proceedings and getting rid of some of the campier fare, but still would rather not feel like this movie could exist just as it is and never had been called "Miami Vice."

That is a minor quibble however, for myself anyway, because I was never the biggest "Miami Vice" fan - contrary to pictures my mom might show of me running around in a white sport coat with a water gun at seven years old. I guess I liked it then, but watching it now the show feels too much of its time for me to really get into. Not the show's fault by any means, and that is not to say it is not without its assets (again, credit mainly goes to Mann), but it just doesn't hold my interest. Cop shows have come a long way. So perhaps Mann's intent here is to bring "Miami Vice" that distance; to catch up to where cop dramas have traveled to in the 20 years since all things "Miami Vice."

I sympathize with those who think this isn't really much of a remake or update; or were looking forward to something with the high-octane style of the TV show - Was I the only one half expecting the movie to begining with the Universal logo (you know, that classic shot of the slowly spinning earth with "Universal" splashed over it) and then a shot zooming in on the U.S., then Florida, then Miami, as slowly the actual gulf coast is super imposed over the logo and then we pan and zoom further still into the heart of the city and then finally into a night club where Crockett and Tubbs are set up for action, or perhaps a freeway, or boat chase, already in progress? I still say its a cool idea (if I've explained it right). There's always the sequel. But again, that is not the "Miami Vice" this movie wants to be. - but speaking to those who are hoping for something completely different, or may be staying away because they didn't like the show, this film will satisfy you more than you would expect.

Again, action junkies may be disappointed. It is best you view this as an undercover procedural, not a rock 'em, sock 'em action flick. But even as much as I recomend this film, I'd be willing to conceed that it could have used a little more adrenaline at times, or at least more of a sense of danger for our cops. For instance, Mann was able to sustain tension for 3 hours with "Heat" and gave us only one action scene per hour. But "Heat" maintained a feeling of constant tension between the cops and crooks, the crooks and crooks, the cop and his family, and the characters internal struggles. If "Miami Vice" fails to accomplish the same sense of empathy for its characters and their situations, it is because it is written as one half of "Heat." "Heat" is a character driven crime saga: you see the inner workings of their jobs as well as their inner workings. "Vice" is simply a crime saga. That may lose "Vice" some of the tension that comes with knowing and truly caring for the characters, but that it musters even half the greatness of "Heat" is still a huge feat.

And in a summer where every 'big' movie so far has failed to live up to even a fraction of its hype (to these eyes anyway), "Miami Vice" is, so far, far and away at the top of its summer blockbuster class.

Michael Mann does what he does best with Miami Vice, and thats directing a superior crime film.

Forget the show, however, besides the names and namesake city, several story elements from several episodes are used.

Instead of throwing a thousand clichés of "buddy cops" saying one liners and flying from action scene to action scene with guns that never run out of bullets, Mann has given us a cop drama that is certainly "anti-Bad Boys." Vice is far more realistic, mostly because things don't always work out right for all the characters.

James "Sonney" Crockett and Rico Tubbs have a relationship that I liked because they have a respect for each other that reminded me of Niel MacCauley's crew in Mann's 1995 masterpiece, Heat. We don't need any back story, because it would stick out and drag this particular story.

This may turn off some of Mann's fans, because character development is something hes great at.

Vice drops into the middle of a sting operation that quickly gets left for a desperate phone call from an informant who they haven't seen in months. From there, Vice begins a "blink and you'll miss it" type story of infiltration. Its a film that needs attention. Your either into it for the drama, the procedures, and wheelings and dealings, or you could be completely bored.

Mann is an acquired taste, and his films never force feed you information. I never found the movie confusing, because I was right there with the characters and followed along in with the breezy pacing. Some reviews have said the story is "convoulted." The realism is that things don't always go down like they're supposed to, and things change quickly.

Mann stays with a scene long enough to show us the point and knows when to move forward. The romance between Crocket and Isabella was right on the money. Not too pretentious or story stopping, but enough to add some conflict. Their quick getaway to Cuba was actually pretty short, and didn't slow the movie, as I thought it would.

The acting and dialogue were great. Colin Farrel actually impressed me and Jamie Foxx has already been impressing me (with Collateral and Ray.) Gong Li was also great. Even though English is her second language and some words seemed lost in the translation, she was easy to understand. John Ortiz and Luis Tosar were also great as the bad guys. They aren't the cliché bad guys who flip out at everything. They are relatively calm and act like regular people who are just doing business. They rest of the cops known from the show (Trudy, Gina, Switeck, and Zito) are simply just there as back up to Cockett and Tubbs. Naomi Harris was good as Trudy playing Tubbs girlfriend. Switeck and Zito don't have much to do. Gina, on the other hand, will win you over when she gets a gun in her hand. Shes awesome with her one scene that she steals.

The cinematography was also amazing. The HD does have a grainy effect, but, I think HD looks much better on my HDtv than it does at a cinema. However the night shots did bring the cloudy sky and city lights alive, although I did like Collateral's orange/blue look better. I guess Mann didn't want to have it look "exactley" like Collateral. The locations Mann found are amazing, even the plane flying through the clouds and the boat racing across the sea are unlike anything I've ever seen.

Bottom line: Not as great as Mann's Collateral and Heat, but, if you liked Collateral, Heat, Thief, and Manhunter, or even The French Connection and To Live And Die In LA, you will like Miami Vice. If your looking for Bad Boys or Lethal Weapon, you've come to the wrong place.

Quick, what year is it? -- because it sounds like some of you who are disappointed in the new MIAMI VICE movie haven't gotten rid of your parachute pants yet.

Come on, admit it -- you guys just couldn't wait to see a certain Sonny Crockett wearing the iconic white linen suit, the pastel henley shirt, and the sockless espadrilles again, right? -- and now you can't stand seeing an Irishman with a handlebar moustache doing the same role in dark colors. In the backs of your minds, you never gave it a chance.

You're probably the same kinds of killjoys who'll whine if the next James Bond film doesn't haul out each and every expected cliche from that franchise. God forbid if Bond doesn't purr his name at a baccarat table! Cry sacrilege!

It's time to wake up and smell the now.

Michael Mann, creator and mastermind of the highly influential Miami Vice TV series, has retooled his invention into an even sleeker, faster, more muscular, and thoroughly modern machine of a feature-length film. Those of us who remember watching the original series hoped for years to see a feature-length film of our favorite show -- and we knew it had to do things and take us places the show never could. And damn if the film doesn't do just that. It has all the style, attitude, sex, and violence of the series and then some, with the machismo turned up on afterburner. We jetset from Miami to Paraguay to Cuba to Colombia and back with all the ease of the rich and infamous. Miami Vice has never looked badder or slicker or tougher than it does on the big screen. The series almost looks like it's on a low flame by comparison.

The film begins without any preamble, stomps on the gas, and hardly lifts off until it's all over. There's little time for a breath, and even the contemplative scenes burn with a restless intensity worthy of the series' best moments. I expected the cinematography to be very carefully crafted, emphasizing beautiful, colorful shots -- but thankfully, it doesn't look overly calculated. There's a lot of handheld camerawork, mixing digital and film, and many shots almost look hastily, brazenly filmed, as though in a cinema verite style. An obligatory panning shot of our protagonists from a car's hood -- something else the series made iconic -- somehow looks astonishingly fresh and alive on the big screen.

One could definitely make quibbles about some of the decisions made for the film. After a while, some of the cheesier ideas of the series began to creep in. The meet with the cartel's operations man looks like a hundred similar scenes from the series -- although it has its potentially explosive moments. I would have liked to hear a little gallows humor, at least, but I could understand why Mann probably wanted to avoid being glib, like the series could be at times. I think Crockett wins over Gong Li's character, Isabella, far too quickly and not quite convincingly, but then that's not atypical of Miami Vice storylines. Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx both look comfortable in their roles, although I'm not sure they show enough chemistry together. I will agree that Foxx is pretty under-utilized, and the characterizations are a little too shallow for us to really care about them. For Gong Li, this might be her best English-language role to date -- helped by a lot of looping in post-production -- and she's able to show off her expressive talents, as always. She even rolls her R's like any good Spanish-speaker.

The film has a number of thrilling, boldly edited action scenes and surprise moments -- usually punctuated by blood-spattering violence -- including a showstopper of a scene that could have been pulled straight out of a Dirty Harry movie. A climactic firefight in a deserted shipyard -- although hardly original -- tops any staged for the series, and it's reminiscent of the gigantic bank shootout in another hard-bitten Mann film, HEAT. I was also quite impressed by how the end title was presented, which was a very brave creative decision.

This isn't a perfect movie, but it doesn't really try to be, either. It succeeds at being the baddest boy on the block, swaggering with attitude. MIAMI VICE has boatloads of it, and maybe that's too much for you to handle, pal.

****1/2

OK, I've read a lot of the lower-star reviews of this, and I'm completely floored by some of these comments. So please allow me to frame my review in the form of answering other people's opinions.

1. "It's called Miami Vice, but hardly anything happens in Miami." - It's called an international drug trade, people. That's why things take place in Haiti, Uruguay, Havana, Columbia, etc. These are the places that the drugs come from. In real life, the cops have to seek out these things at the source. Hell, if they were to just wait for this stuff to show up on American soil, they've lost half the battle.
2. "The action is boring and there's not enough of it." - Okay, it's not that it's boring, it's just shot and performed realistically. You people are so used to being spoon-fed flashy Hollywood action scenes, with jump-cut editing and unbelievably loud sound effects, that being confronted with an actual tactical gunfight, you don't know what to do. And as for there not being enough action, do you think undercover work is all shootouts?
3. "There's no chemistry between Farrell and Fox." - While they don't seem buddy-buddy, I think they have a realistic relationship. In their line of work, especially on the job, they have to be all business. Did you guys expect them to be cracking jokes and stealing each other's girlfriends? Along those lines, the number of people reviewing this that look back fondly on the "Bad Boys" movies physically disgusts me.
4. "It doesn't look like the show." - What the heck do you expect, pastels, pretty sunsets, and sailboats? Does it make you mad that Crockett's pet alligator doesn't make an appearance? The way I look at it, the original Miami Vice was Michael Mann's creation, so he can do whatever he wants with the film. The fact that he chose to make a movie that really digs into what guys like this do is refreshing, rather than putting on some glitzy "T&A and palm trees" spectacle.
5. "Gong Li looks horrible and her accent is bad." - First off, she is in her 40's. You don't have to look airbrushed at that age. Would you kick her out of bed? And as far as her accent, she speaks only Mandarin, so she had to learn all her lines phonetically, so give her a break!
6. People seem to have a problem with some of the terms the guys use. Listen, as hokey as it sounds, "go-fast boats" is actually a phrase people use to describe those watercraft. And as hokey as it may seem to hear things like "op sec" or "transpo", those are real terms used in this kind of work!

While people say they wish it looked like the show, I think what the real problem is that it doesn't look like that apex of bad television - "CSI: Miami". Here, there's no burnt-sienna skies, no cutaways to inexplicable helicopter shots of the Miami scenery or jump cuts to bikinis on the beach, no gaudily-lit police station shots. It actually looks like Miami, for chrissakes! I was sold on the look of this movie when Crockett walks out on to the balcony near the beginning and you see the amazing deep focus of the skyline and the night sky. The fact that this was shot on digital video enabled them to capture amazing things like the clouds. I mean, look at the boat race at the beginning - it's beautiful.

Now I won't say this is a problem-free film. I don't understand Tubb's overwrought concern for the prostitute in the club scene. And to me, John Ortiz's accent seems way to affected - it sounds like a white guy playing at being a Latino, even though John is hispanic. And yes, the fact that Colin and Gong Li's relationship is staring everyone in the face, and doesn't become an issue until later, is kinda dumb. And admittedly, a lot of inertia is lost in the middle when their relationship is being explored. But hey, every movie has problems.

Overall, this is a much subtler film than people expected. It's got a huge budget and it was a summer movie, so that fact that it went more for reality than glitz probably underwhelmed a lot of people. While it would rank it under "Heat" and "Collateral" in Michael Mann's ouvre, I still like it. And hey, any movie that stars Colin Farrell (who usually I can't stand and who I believe is one of the most egotistical actors ever), and is still watchable to me, has got to be quite an achievment!

I didn't expect much coming into the movie, but was pleasantly surprised to see how well Micahel Mann remade his intrepid duo, creating quite a different look and feel from the original series. Gone were the bright lights, deco colors and leisure jackets of the 80's. This was a decidedly more serious look at the world of crime that hits Miami like a tidal wave during peak crime season. However, Miami was less the focus than the fallout zone of this crime wave, as most of the action takes place in South American and Carribean locales like Haiti, Cuba and Paraguay.

Crockett and Tubbs go by Sonny and Rico in this movie. There isn't much non-chalance in Sonny's demeanor, as portrayed by Colin Farrell, who takes the lead in this movie. Jamie Foxx looks buff and very much in control as Rico, able to inspire much more confidence in the character than had Philip Michael Thomas. The Vice squad looks more like a SWAT team with their heavy arsenal and sophisticated surveillance equipment, as they take over where the FBI had failed in busting up an international drugs and arms cartel that stretches from South American to Russia.

Li Gong plays a Chinese-Cuban who is at the center of the cartel, which Sonny and Rico hope to break open. Always sensuous, Li Gong comes across as a soft target in this movie, as Sonny gets deeper and deeper into the mob activities. Jamie Foxx plays things closer to home in his love interest, Naomie Harris, who is part of the vice squad.

The movie is very intimate in its cinematography, shot mostly in the dark or in grainy daylight and interior settings. I don't think the sun shone once in this movie, as there always seemed to be a dark cloud floating overhead, with the flashing of lightning and crackle of thunder. It was more similar to Mann's Heat than it was his original television series. So, those expecting to see something of that 80's feel will be disappointed. But, it is well done if a bit too earnest in its approach. Just once I would have liked to see these guys crack a smile.

It's no secret that Michael Mann's film adaptation of his time capsule-cool TV show "Miami Vice" was a troubled production (hurricanes, cutting deals with drug lords and gangsters will do that to a movie). It's also been no secret that the advance screenings generated all the buzz of a chainsaw underwater. But now, opening for the viewingpublic, how does Miami Vice (Universal Pictures) in the 21st century REELY fare?

Opening to a Jiggaman remix inside the energy and vitality of a South Beach club, Miami Vice introduces us to Miami-Dade County undercover cops Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs (Jaime Foxx) on the job. They're pulled off a prostitution ring sting and into an FBI investigation when one of their snitches informs them that the feds have been compromised. Due to their skill level and outsider status, Crockett and Tubbs go deep cover as expert drug traffickers, in order to set up Colombian drug lord Montoya (Luis Tosar), a dealer so successful and vertically integrated, he could have a ticker number on the New York Stock Exchange. As Crockett falls for Montoya's beautiful and invaluable Chinese-Cuban mistress Isabella (Gong Li), both he and Tubbs risk what semblance of real life they have for this boundary-blurring job.

A question comes to mind while watching two "go-fast" boats slice through ocean waves against a scary cool Miami backdrop in the dead of night: "Just how did a sixtysomething Man(n), who cut his teeth on TV in the '80s, become the arbiter of cool?" From the Ozwald Boateng suits to the $100,000 sports cars and beyond, Miami Vice is an adrenaline boost of pure style. Fast cars, slow love, hot women, cool attitudes...Mann and production designer Victor Kempster create a visual eye candy bar for the stylish.

In Michael Mann's agreeably and realistically multi-ethnic, multi-national world, I'd dare say Miami's never looked sexier, even with all the color drained out. Matching the serious tone of the lingo-laced Mann script, Vice puts to good use the night-black digital cinematography system he perfected while filming Collateral. The dark tone is justified, merely from the script's shady entanglement of white supremacists, Dominicans, Colombians, Cubans, even a Chinese-Cuban - all criminals, all of whom don't trust each other in a world where anyone can be bought for the right price (just depends on what kinda currency you're using). They speak with such casual knowledge of this ice cold world, they've inented their own language of frostbite, so much so you can almost catch freezer burn just watching. On top of all that, there is an INTENSE stand-off scene that's so frigid and fraught with emotional stakes, you kind of marvel slack-jawed at its violently elegant beauty-that rare violent film that is not gratuitous.

If there is any arena that suffers just a bit from over-chill, it might be the acting. The casting is great; what two better ambassadors of gritty, visceral excitement than the hard-livin' Colin Farrell and the hard-partying Jamie Foxx? With such a grave, dire tone all the time, Vice could use just a dollop of humor on occasion just for variety's sake; you can't know real drama without a touch of comedy-not to ingratiate itself to the diehard fans of the oft-times cheesy '80s TV hit, but just to give the viewer a dramatic intermission. As a result, you have Foxx squinting a lot at greasy, handlebar mustachioed Farrell, professing his utmost trust and faith in him without any real scenes in Act One or early Two to show us an example of this. Naomie Harris is fairly convincing with her Noo Yawk accented cop Trudy while Gong Li excels as the dramatic and emotional monkey wrench in Crockett's best laid plans. Does her English suck? Absolutely. But when you look that good, who gives a damn? Li is able to hold men's attention and sway their allegiances with a single, blankly desirous look; she's nothing short of mesmerizing.

Sexy, complicated, stylish, and Sub-Zero frosty, Miami Vice is an excellent police story procedural, like the country cousin to HBO's The Wire. But it's so much more. When the stakes get raised so immeasurably late in the second act that this goes from high-sheen Arctic lip gloss to something real and arrestingly dramatic, operatic almost, that's when it's time to take a trip down to South Beach-refrigerator-fresh Vice style.

...of a wonderful phenomenon. This film is one of the greatest undercover movies of all time and offers almost unparalleled realism. It is exactly what Miami Vice would and should look like today and is again another masterpiece from Michael Mann. If you expect a no-brainer action flick, please go see something else, if you like it light, please go see something else, and if you have a problem with intelligent stories, please also go see something else. Anyone who likes crime drama should love this movie, and it is certainly one of Mann's best works to date. Why so many people criticize him for it is beyond me, since I totally disagree with them. This deserves at least five stars as well as a sequel anytime!

After being disappointed by the flicks that were marketed to kickstart summer 2006 into high-gear (movies such as Mission Impossible III, X-Men 3, The Da Vinci Code, and the somewhat bloated Pirates 2) comes Miami Vice, the (in my opinion) the best and unfortunately the most unfairly received movie of the summer. And it really is a shame, because this one has so much merit lurking in the grainy high-definition universe Mann has rendered it in.

Michael Mann is definitely one of my favorite directors, so this review will sound biased, so I'll be as objective as possible.

When I went to go see this, prior to watching it, many people who had seen it already were grumbling about the movie, calling it crap and a waste of time, this could only mean one of two things. 1 - The movie is actually bad. 2 - It it too artistic and cinematic. And when the final reel ended, fortunately it was latter.

People slag Miami Vice either because it doesn't adopt the stylistic conventions of the universe it was born in. This includes pastel suits, shoes without socks, synth-heavy themes, etc... But here is the thing you have to remember, this is 2006, not the mid-to-late '80s. If anything we should be thanking Michael Mann for this. Mann successfully reinvents the show so as to fit into the modern times of Miami. The use of high-definition film, hand-held cameras, tense editing, and modern club-music and electronic, a tense world that exists in glarring overpowering white light, and deceptive and dangerous black shadows is created. From the first frames to the final fade we are fully submerged into this universe where it seems that something terrible is bound to happen. To simply go back to the '80s style would've basically been recycling '80s, and lets face it, the '80s are long over. I've had many people coming up to me after viewing this movie and saying how it is exactly like Miami in real life. To be able to portray and get the feeling of a real life setting and put it on screen and immerse the audience in it is a skill only the most talented filmmakers have.

The movie has also been slagged for being all talk and no action. People expected a big action movie where the buddies always have a big adventures, do death-defying stunts, get the girl in the end, and save the world (or the day) from something bad. But you should never judge a book by it's cover. Crockett and Tubbs are just two Vice Squad officers doing their jobs, not invincible heroes. Crockett is a brooding guy who's job has consumed his personal life and while working undercover falls in love with a member of the drug cartel (Isabella) which he is trying to bring down. Ultimately though, Crockett has to choose between his professional life with the Vice Squad, and his personal life with Issabella, who is high up in the drug trade. Tubbs has the same sort of conflict, falling in love with a fellow detective, giving him a major vulnerability in his line of work. Crockett and Tubbs are fully developed characters played perfectly by Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. The plot is at times hard to follow, but it is delivered in such a way that one discovers more and more with each repeated viewing. If you're looking for the typical action movie formula, you will probably hate this movie. Following suit of post 9/11 movies like Munich, Syriana, and Good Night and Good Luck, Mann chooses to take an uncompromising, unforgiving take on society and what's wrong with it. Because in real life, the good guy doesn't always get the girl, sometimes things don't make sense, and one is always facing some form of conflict.

This is just picking out the obvious from the film, but there are many more aspects of this movie which have yet to surface. Like any good movie, this one rewards the viewer on repeated viewings. Much more so than any other film Mann has ever released. This may not be Mann's best film, but it's by far the best major movie to come out of Hollywood this summer.

I wish I could say that this movie was B.S. that Michael Mann takes himself way to seriously and that didn't realize that people were making fun of the show back in the 80's. But I can't. I loved it than and I love it now. Admittedly, there are a lot of elements of the 80's show that are left out. Nevertheless, the cineamotography is beautiful; Tubbs and Crocket are super corny and American James Bonds at the same time; and the women characters rock. I can't explain it.

And while I am very much a fan of Colin Farrell earlier movies, think he is a modern metrosexual Marlin Brando, I never thought I would appreciate Jamie Foxx as a serious actor, even after Ray. But doggone it. He's done it. A kitchy classic I'm sure, but Miami Vice was brilliant.