Miami Vice Review (Sunday Business Post)

Miami Vice
Director: Michael Mann
Cert 18

In 1984 a younger and more happy-go-lucky Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral) produced a buddy cop television show called Miami Vice. When the series aired first it was considered by many to be cutting edge because of its innovative use of fashion and music against a glamourous backdrop. After over 20 years, Mann returns to the scene of the crime for a big-screen ‘remake’, but a lot has changed in that time, not least the director himself.
A high-level leak within the Miami police force is suspected after the death of an informant of two detectives, Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Rico Tubbs (Jamie Foxx). The two officers agree to go deep undercover to investigate, soon finding themselves dealing with global drug traffickers with bases in Cuba and Haiti. Problems arise when Crockett starts a passionate relationship with Isabella, the business manager of the crime cartel (Gong Li). As the stakes rise and the eventual stand-off looms, Crockett has to decide where his allegiances lie.
For better or worse, Mann’s remake of Miami Vice is no kitsch comedy a la Starsky and Hutch. This time round there are no pastel pinstripe suits, no suede loafers and no witty jabs from an impossibly well coiffed Don Johnson. In fact, Mann’s Miami Vice of 2006 shares so little with the original TV series that the title is a bit of a misnomer.
The mood of the entire film is dangerously sombre; always a risky move if the dialogue isn’t perfect – if too many lines fall flat and the whole thing can turn to a cheese fest. Miami Vice just teeters on the edge: “probability is like gravity. You cannot negotiate with gravity”, an earnest Sonny Crockett explains to a drug-trafficker in one scene. Yet while some critics may titter and sharpen their knives, corny doesn’t necessarily mean unrealistic. A single episode of reality TV series Cops can yield several pages of such lofty wisdom.
In fairness, if anyone has experience of what real police work is like it’s Mann and his cast. Farrell, Foxx and co spent a considerable time at shooting ranges in their 6-week long extensive training stint with the DEA, FBI ATF and other official bodies. This is evinced in the first half of the movie, where many of the scenes are littered with technical jargon, most of which will be lost on the average law-abider. It doesn’t matter though, because the story is simple enough. A little too simple for yet another bloated running time of 146 minutes.
Incredibly, Michael Mann’s last 6 films have an average running time of two hours and twenty minutes. It seems the director, who has suffered accusations of borderline insanity and obsessiveness from his crew during this film, just doesn’t know how to make a 90 minute movie. Were it 40 minutes shorter, Miami Vice might have been able hit all the right notes and scarper off stage before the audience had time to know what hit them. Instead, the plot rambles a little from its starting point and the initial complication of the turncoat agent is never resolved.
On the plus side, the film does benefit from some palpably tense action scenes, in particular when Tubbs and a team of SWAT officers attempt a hostage rescue in a trailer park. Foxx is strong as Tubbs but Farrell seems unfocused at times, not surprising in light of the recent news that he checked into a rehab clinic days after finishing the shoot.
Essentially Miami Vice will probably disappoint fans of Mann’s earlier work, but nevertheless stands on its own as a satisfying enough cop drama.