Miami Vice
Review by Fritz Esker
Would you like to meet us in person? No? You sure? Okay, okay, well...if you change your mind, James and I will be at Antigravity's Alternative Media Expo Sat. Aug 19th, starting at 4 p.m.
Miami Vice is a competent action film that, while it has many things going for it, does not always work. It is nowhere near as bad as its detractors will claim it to be. At the screening I attended, several people loudly complained about the film's lack of traditional action movie histrionics. Although, most memorably, an overweight yat woman loudly complained to the Times-Picayune's film critic that she did not get to see Colin Farrell's naked tush. At the other extreme, however, fans of writer/director Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral) will probably claim this is better than it actually is (like they did with Heat and Collateral).
Addressing the first complaint, Miami Vice is much more subdued and low-key than average action films, even if much of its final act is dominated by gunfire. For much of its running time, Mann's script seems more interested in interpersonal dynamics than chases and explosions. Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) are Miami-based undercover cops. An old informant (John Hawkes) calls them in a panic, saying he's a dead man, and that he was forced to rat out some undercover FBI men. Shortly thereafter, the informant is dead, as are the undercover FBI men.
Crockett and Tubbs then go undercover and find themselves involved in a complex plot involving the Aryan Brotherhood and Columbian drug dealers. Crockett finds himself falling for Isabella (Gong Li), the money manager for kingpin Arcangel Jesus de Montoya (Luis Tosar). Here is the film's biggest failing. The Crockett/Isabella relationship takes center stage in the film's second third, yet we never sense a real emotional connection between the two. While Mann clearly hopes to establish a doomed relationship between two souls who can never be together, in reality, it comes off as little more than pure, unbridled lust. Because the relationship never quite clicks, the film bogs down in its second third and robs itself of what could have been added emotional resonance at the climax.
Fortunately, Mann does a better job at conveying the loyalty Crockett and Tubbs feel towards each other and their fellow undercover officers (28 Days Later's Naomie Harris and The Baxter's Justin Theroux are the most notable cohorts). Perhaps most critically, Mann creates genuine tension in Crockett and Tubbs' interactions with Jose Yero (John Ortiz - a dead ringer for Sayid on Lost), Arcangel's sadistic lieutenant who is very suspicious of the Miami detectives. Movies of this sort depend a great deal on effective villains and Yero, Arcangel, and the Aryan Brotherhood members (who receive less screen time) come off as suitably intimidating. One needs only to watch the campy, jokey Lex Luthor in this summer's Superman Returns to see how much a movie can be hindered by an ineffectual villain.
Once again, Mann proves himself to be an expert at staging action scenes. The film's two climactic shootouts (one an assault on a trailer, the other a Gunfight At the OK Corrall-style standoff between the Miami detectives and the Columbians/Aryan Brotherhood) are both filled with tension. While some audience members were complaining afterwards about the dearth of chases/action scenes, many audience members audibly gasped and cheered during moments of both of these shootouts, so it would appear that audience opinion on this one is mixed.
Aside from the Crockett/Isabella relationship, there are a few other minor quibbles with the film. One involves Mann's decision to shoot the film on digital video. While the DV looks gorgeous in some shots, in others it is so blurry that it made me think I was a child again, struggling to get good reception from the rabbit-ears antenna on my parents' non-cable TV. Finally, while the film is largely entertaining, one wonders why it needed to be called Miami Vice. Yes, it is set in Miami and yes, it features characters named Crockett and Tubbs, but there is really little resemblance to the TV show, which is a shame. It would have been genuinely interesting to see a filmmaker like Mann do a cop movie set in the '80's.
Despite its flaws, Miami Vice is only the second action film this summer (after X3) to be considered entertaining or even passable. It may not be Mann's best work, but it will hold your attention from start to finish.