Miami Vice

Considering this movie is called "Miami Vice", Michael Mann's latest flick couldn't be further away from the innovative TV show he worked as executive producer on in the 80's. Gone is most of the things that made the show fun, including it's famous theme tune, leaving us with an undeveloped story and dry characters that really make this film one of the dullest action movies of the year. The "team" aspect of the movie is missing. Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) and Crocket (Colin Farrell) hardly speak two words to each other, indeed the former is virtually left out of the story as the second act begins. This is Crocket's movie and his story, which Farrell fails to carry. His acting is lazy and most of all lacking charisma which Mann has obviously tried to hide by giving him the most ridicolous looking mullet and tache in movie history. Mann has again shot his film in HD which worked well throughout Collateral but in Miami Vice it proved to be more of a distraction than anything else. Because of it, in some scenes it was difficult to hear the character's dialogue (not that it would have mattered, they were talking a technical cop language I couldn't understand) and the scenes were shot so poorly it looked like a tourist shooting a film on vacation. The end shootout scene in particular is hard to follow and looks more like a crappy ending to a made for tv thriller....and a bad one at that.

rating: 2

One of the most disappointing flicks of the year for me. If Mission Impossible III showed us how to do a "mindless" but ultra fun, cool and entertaining action flick then Miami Vice tells us exactly how to shoot a boring, dull and confusing one. This HD thing is not the "future of the industry" as Mann would like us to believe. I know I thought it was brillaint in Collateral but I feel like it suited the story he was trying to tell in that movie but with Miami Vice it felt forced.