Miami Vice
No alligators or jokes in this tough movie
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Thursday, 10, Aug 2006 11:16
Directed by Michael Mann, out now at cinemas, starring Colin Farrell, Li Gong and Jamie Foxx, running time 135 minutes.
In a nutshell.
Drugs. Guns. Bad guys. Designer stubble.
What's it all about?
Ricardo Tubbs and 'Sonny' Crockett are tough undercover cops with the Miami Dade police department. In a breathless opening sequence, one of their old contacts calls warning them that an FBI drugs bust is about to go bad. The upshot of those heart-pounding first 20 minutes is that the Feds have a leak and need Tubbs and Crockett to get in with some Colombian drug dealers to find out where the 'counter intel' is coming from. Posing as transportation experts they quickly work their way up the food chain, but both end up with a huge personal stake in the case.
Director Michael Mann is no stranger to the tough cop genre, having made the outstanding Heat, which was a hugely successful remake of his lesser known LA Takedown. Miami Vice shares its name and lead characters with the 1980s cop show that Mann created, but this is certainly not an adaptation. This is Mann's modern day undercover cop movie, most of which doesn't even take place in Miami.
Who's in it?
Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx must have had a great time making this film. They get to drive fast cars and even faster boats, fly planes, visit exotic locations, sleep with beautiful women and kill bad guys with machine guns. Farrell will always be limited and sticks to the one facial expression during the entire movie, but he's well within his comfort zone as tough guy cop Sonny Crockett. Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, who plays his partner Tubbs, could have phoned it in. He does get lumbered with some hammy lines, but also lands the best action sequences (see trailer park showdown).
The only other big star is Gong Li, who is huge in Asian cinema. After appearing in Memoirs of a Geisha last year, Li takes on the role of Isabella, the top drug lord's squeeze and Crockett's love interest. Fans of the BBC's Rome series will recognise shady FBI handler Agent Fujima, who is played by Ciaran Hinds, aka Julius Caesar.
As an example.
Deep in the heart of a Haitian ghetto and with a dozen automatic weapons pointed at their heads, our heroes are looking like they'll have problems negotiating with a top Colombian powerbroker. In order to tip the scales in their favour, one of Crockett's team tosses him a grenade. After he takes out the pin and threatens to kill everyone in the room, they get down to business.
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Probably quite slim. Miami Vice is fantastic entertainment and cinematically stunning but this is no Ali. The actors are never really stretched, the story is OK but the dialogue is, at times, a little cliched, as are some of the characters. The score is pretty good and if there was a "best final shootout" or "slickest film of the year" category it would certainly be in with a shout.
What the others say
"Bearing all the Mann hallmarks, this is visually enthralling, relentlessly stylish crime drama." Simon Braund, Empire.
"The coke-dusted bluster of Scarface with Collateral's urban bite. A little over-styled, sure, but easily the year's most grown-up blockbuster." James White, Total Film.
So is it any good?
Miami Vice the movie bares absolutely no resemblance to the 80s cop show. The title is little more than a franchise, which along with the decision to cast an extremely popular Chinese actress as the femme fatale, could be seen as a rather cynical marketing ploy. The two lead characters are also very different to their television namesakes. The designer stubble is there (on Farrell's Crockett at least) and they even bust out some flashy suits, but Crockett and Tubbs 2006 don't make jokes, don't even smile and certainly don't keep pet alligators.
This is a tough and sometimes brutal modern-day cop movie, with macho male leads putting themselves on the line to take down the bad guys. As far entertainment goes, Miami Vice is spot on and is well worth a trip to the local cinema if you liked Training Day, Traffic or Mann's excellent Heat.
7.5/10
Adam Barber