>>REVIEW
MIAMI VICE
STARRING Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx
DIRECTED BY Michael Mann
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One thing I will say for Miami Vice – it doesn’t show the contempt for its source material that the recent slag heap of other TV shows made into movies (Bewitched, Dukes of Hazard) have.
Still, like any other movies inspired by a TV show, you have to wonder who this will appeal to – at the screening, there was one guy wearing his best Don Johnson getup, who was a baby when the original series ended in 1989. Fans will excoriate it. For those looking for a straight-up, buddy cop flick, prepare to be disappointed as well.
Despite the well-publicized drama on-set during the making of the movie (actor infighting, civil unrest and blown budgets), everyone was willing to give director Michael Mann a chance – not only did he make the grand, crime operas Thief and Heat, but (despite his limited involvement with the original show) he created the original series’ cool mystique.
The movie bears little resemblance to the TV show, with half of it not even taking place in Miami (although in all fairness, the speedboats and helicopters need somewhere to go). Detectives Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) find themselves quickly drawn into an international drug ring after a close friend and informant’s family is killed. It isn’t long before the two meet the head of the organization, Montoya (an unsettling, creepy Luis Tosar) and become his main distributors.
Ah, but things aren’t so simple. Montoya’s henchman Jose Yero (John Ortiz) doesn’t trust the two cops, and Crockett has been taking Montoya’s accountant/lover Isabella (Gong Li) on boat rides to Havana for cocktails and steamy shower sex. Throw in some murderous Russians, white supremacists, Farrell’s greasy mullet and growl, Foxx’s avenging savior persona and you have the movie.
Ultimately, even Mann’s excellent, calculated direction and gritty HD (high definition) cinematography can’t rescue the film from its descent into weak camp. The dialogue is given short shrift and is muddled and clichéd, barely choked out by the leads. For all of Mann’s predilection for detailing the inner workings of law enforcement, the simple story is inundated with confusing nonsense.
The only thing done right is the operatic violence – done so well, in fact, that what little interest one has in the story is lost following it. Miami Vice feels like a disastrous version of Heat – a lame love story, no chemistry within the cast (which means no grand pathos when everything comes to pass) and misguided machismo. Proceed with caution. |
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