|
| Miami Vice |
|
  (7/10)
|
Runtime: 135 |
| Public Rating: 7.79 (14 votes) |
Director: Michael Mann |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Crime/Drama |
Year: 2006 |
| Writer(s): Michael Mann, Anthony Yerkovich (TV series) |
| Distributor: Universal Studios |
| Reviewed by: Mel Valentin |
| |
Additional review(s) by:
Friday and Saturday Night Critic [10/10] (view).
|
Written and directed by Michael Mann (Manhunter, Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Collateral), Miami Vice is loosely based on the 1980s television series that made ultra-slick production values and pastel-oriented costuming all the rage. Although Michael Mann didn't create the television series (Anthony Yerkovich did), Mann was instrumental in controlling the look and feel of the series, including a top-40-heavy soundtrack that, for its time, had a lasting effect on television production (and cross-media marketing). But update a television series that captured and (arguably) shaped the 80s “me-first” zeitgeist?
Hard to say, but Mann had little interest in paying homage to the series, instead taking the characters and premise and updating them for contemporary audiences. What does that mean? It means full-on, realistic violence, plus two sex scenes (tastefully directed, but a rarity in today's Hollywood). If Mann wanted to craft a meditation on the moral and ethical complexities of working undercover (mixed in with gunplay, firefights, and sex), he almost, just almost succeeds. Unfortunately, a self-indulgent tangent into an underwritten, unconvincing romance, one too many genre clichés, a convoluted storyline, and the nearly impenetrable argot used by undercover agents and drug dealers eventually undercut Miami Vice’s entertainment value.
Longtime partners James ‘Sonny’ Crockett (Colin Farrell, sporting a blond-streaked mullet and a Tex-Mex mustache) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) get pulled into an undercover operation when a sting involving a joint federal-state task force goes awry, leaving three undercover agents dead. The trail leads back to a sophisticated, Latin American drug and arms trafficking organization. Crockett, Tubbs, and their support team, take the assignment. Crockett and Tubbs set up a meet-and-greet with Jose Yero (John Ortiz), a middleman in the cartel. Yero immediately distrusts Crockett, but Isabella (Gong Li), a Spanish-speaking Chinese woman who works for a cartel, pushes a deal through. Crockett and Tubbs agree to transport merchandise for the cartel in exchange for a hefty fee.
After a successful run, Crockett and Isabella make moves on each other, mixing business and pleasure (even love) in Cuba. She takes Crockett’s offer to the coolly detached, mercenary leader of the cartel, Arcángel de Jesús Montoya (Luis Tosar), who lives in an isolated mansion near an equally isolated waterfall. Meanwhile, Yero hovers in the background, voicing his suspicions, jealous of Crockett and Isabella’s relationship, and planning a radical change to the status quo. Tubbs has a romantic relationship too, with Trudy Joplin (Naomie Harris), a member of his undercover team (she’s both his real-life and undercover girlfriend).
Where does Miami Vice go wrong? Good question. Part of the answer can be found in the formulaic storyline and the predictable action and emotional beats. The undercover narc getting compromised is a standard plot device (e.g., Donnie Brasco), as is the family or lover put in harm's way due to the undercover agent's secret life seeping into his personal one. After all, someone, somewhere, has to get rescued through the use of massive firepower, right? Someone does, of course, in the second-to-last action scene. No points for guessing whom needs saving and how it happens. Either way, the rescue scene is one of the best put on film this year (matched only by the last action scene in a shipyard).
Miami Vice also gets lost in mid-film longueurs that could have been easily eliminated through tighter editing. Worse, Mann's dialogue fails him at time, partly due to the impenetrable argot the undercover narcs speak. The argot is meant to add authenticity or verisimilitude (it does, but only partially). The slang-heavy dialogue isn’t helped by the from the Latin cast’s accented delivery (and Gong Li’s, of course). More importantly, when Mann reaches, often reaching hard, for profundity or emotion through dialogue, he falls short. The dialogue scenes involving Crockett and Isabella or Crockett and Tubb’s quiet moments together feel forced (because they are) and add little emotional shading or depth to the characters.
Technically, Michael Mann continues incorporating high-definition (HD) video into his visual style. Mann first used HD video for his short-lived 2002 series, Robbery-Homicide Division, to add realism and immediacy to an otherwise ordinary cop show. Mann next used HD video in 2004’s Collateral, a crime/drama starring Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise. For Miami Vice, Mann uses HD video primarily for night scenes, but often mixes film stock and video in the same scene. Mann’s motivation for mixing or remixing film and video shots is almost as hard to decipher as the jargon the agents use. Using HD exclusively for night scenes or for the shoot-outs makes sense, but using it sporadically for daytime scenes or within scenes turns out to be an unnecessary distraction.
Ultimately, although the longueurs and dialogue slip-ups drag Miami Vice down, Mann's signature set pieces and visual design bring it back up several notches. Miami Vice may be less than the sum of its parts, but it's still worth a view, especially for fans of Mann's oeuvre, albeit a minor film from a master filmmaker.
© Mel Valentin, 28th July, 2006
|
+ Return to top to view additional reviews
 Printable Version
|
Do you agree/disagree with this review of Miami Vice? Let your opinions be heard in our forum.
|
Buy the Poster of Miami Vice (Click Here)
|
|
|
|
