CORPORATE LINE: Ricardo Tubbs (Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx of Ray, Jarhead) is urbane and dead smart. He lives with Bronx-born intel analyst Trudy, played by British actress Naomie Harris (28 Days Later, upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean II and III), as they work undercover transporting drug loads into South Florida to identify a group responsible for three murders.
Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell of S.W.A.T., The New World) ]to the untrained eye, his presentation may seem unorthodox, but procedurally he is sound] is charismatic and flirtatious until-while undercover working with the supplier of the South Florida group-he gets romantically entangled with Isabella, the Chinese-Cuban wife of an arms and drugs trafficker. Isabella is played by the Chinese actress Gong Li (Raise the Red Lantern, Memoirs of a Geisha).
The best undercover identity is oneself with the volume turned up and restraint unplugged. The intensity of this case pushes Crockett and Tubbs out onto the edge where identity and fabrication become blurred, where cop and player become one-especially for Crockett in his romance with Isabella and for Tubbs in the provocation of an assault on those he loves.
Miami Vice, as a large-scale feature film, liberates what is adult, dangerous and alluring about working deeply undercover…especially when Crockett and Tubbs go to where their badges don’t count…
THE REVIEW: This isn’t the Miami Vice that filled the television airwaves with neon suits and alligator shoes from the ‘80s. Surprisingly, Michael Mann, who wrote and directed this version of Miami Vice, made a movie that is a completely different and goes where a lot of gritty modern cop movies. There are still the same big explosions, cigarette boats, sexy woman, fantastic action, and the duo of Crocket and Tubbs. But that is all that is leftover from the television era.
Miami Vice is a gorgeous movie. Mann hasn’t gone just for the spectacular—he made sure not to waste the gorgeous scenery that Miami has to offer. Then again, Mann may have bitten off more than he can chew by writing and directing. It seems he didn’t bring anyone in for quality control over the script. Too much of the script is lifted from other modern cop movies. Sure, it doesn’t follow the normal Miami Vice blueprint—but it sticks too close to the modern films.
FRANKLY: Who would have thought Miami Vice would be good? The trailer never offered hope that the partnership of Farrell and Fox would work. The idea of bringing television shows to the silver screen has been a death sentence the last few years and this seemed like another movie to pile on the trash heap. Finally someone got it right. Miami Vice is the surprise of the summer.
+ Charlie Craine
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.