Miami Vice (2006)

Lack of good storyline.

Good movie but grossly overrated

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The groundbreaking 1980s TV series that Michael Mann executive produced was very much a product of its time and so it's hardly surprising that this 2006 reboot should be significantly different. This time around, the exploits of Miami vice detectives Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) don't feature the same emphasis on fashionable clothes, designer stubble or the distinctive music of Jan Hammer but instead present a darker, grittier and more serious account of their work as they attempt to identify and hunt down a ruthless drugs kingpin.A nightclub stakeout aimed at arresting a bunch of sex-traffickers has to be abandoned suddenly when one of Crockett's former informants contacts him to say that he's on the run because his role in an FBI sting has been exposed and he fears for the safety of his wife who has been taken hostage by a group of white supremacists. Crockett and Tubbs aren't able to do anything to prevent the hostage from being killed or her grief-stricken husband from committing suicide immediately after and so take an opportunity that arises to take part in a multi-agency undercover investigation into the Colombian drugs cartel who their informant had been gathering information about.In order to infiltrate the drug smugglers' organisation, Crockett and Tubbs attend a meeting with Jose Yero (John Ortiz) who is one of its leaders and posing as transportation experts, make a bid to take over the cartel's distribution work from the Aryan Brotherhood. A Chinese/Cuban woman called Isabella (Gong Li) is also present and it transpires that she's not only impressed by their pitch but also occupies an important role in the cartel as she's the top man's business manager and lover. In this capacity, she arranges for Crockett and Tubbs to have a face to face meeting with Arcangel de Jesus Montoya (Luis Tosar) who, on her recommendation, agrees for the two men to be hired.As well as coping with the normal dangers encountered in this type of operation, the two undercover cops soon have to deal with some added difficulties caused by Crockett entering into an affair with Isabella and the menacing Yero (who had never trusted them) colluding with the Aryan Brotherhood to kidnap Tubbs' girlfriend Trudy (Naomie Harris) and demand a ransom for her release which could compensate them for the loss of the lucrative contract that Crockett and Tubbs had been given. When this plan fails, Yero informs Montoya about Isabella's affair and takes her as his prisoner in an act that sparks the ultra-violent confrontation that quickly brings the undercover operation and the activities of the drug smugglers to a sudden and very definite end.Director, screenwriter and joint producer Michael Mann does a great job of delivering a visually impressive thriller which features a couple of well-choreographed action sequences, some brilliant location work and an exciting soundtrack that features some great tracks by Jay-Z/Linkin Park, Audioslave and Moby. The atmosphere is consistently tense because of the dangerous nature of the undercover operation, the obvious threats posed by some of the criminals and of course, the self-inflicted complications that Crockett encounters because of an affair which both he and Isabella recognise has no future.The movie's dialogue is its weakest feature as it is often jargon-riddled, delivered in staccato style and unhelpful in terms of exposition. Good performances by the entire cast however, ensure that the characters are all brought to life very vividly and the audience's interest is maintained at a high level throughout.

Plot In A Paragraph: Two MDPD detectives Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) go undercover to find out who was behind the murder of a snitch and smash a drug trafficking operation. The theme of identity and how yours is influenced by (and influences) the people around you is here, and it was also very evident in Manns last two movies, especially Ali. So with the theme there, it's surprising the movie lacks identity, it's almost like it doesn't know what it wants to be, or even what decade it's set in.It's overly complicated, If feels much longer than actually is. At one point I was a bit bored, and was amazed to see it had only been running for 49 minutes. For the first time watching a Mann movie, I wasn't blown away with the performances. Even The Keep had some interesting performances. That said it does have some impressive action set pieces, and it does try, but it just doesn't come together. With a domestic gross of $63 million, Miami Vice end of the year as the 43rd highest grossing movie of 2006.

I agree with many of the other reviews that gave this movie a low rating.It was a rare occasion where the wife and i said enough an hour in and just turned it off. We do that for less than 1 out of every 100 movies.The characters are uninteresting. Nothing in this movie makes you care about them or feel like you know them or even if you care if they succeed. To be honest, The main characters could of been killed off in the first 30 minutes and i wouldn't of even noticed.I tried following the ploy, but it skips around constantly. Somewhere a long the way it got butchered to the point of being a non functional plot. To demonstrate how the plot is: Rip every 3rd page out of a book, then read the book and you have the plot of this movie.The plot is boring. Its been done literally 1000 times. And 999 of those have been better than this rendition. The main characters have sex with pretty much unknown characters. Since you don't care about the main characters nor the support characters, the sex scenes are even more worthless. We actually treated the sex scenes like commercials, they were that bad. Actually commercials would of been more entertaining.The audio is terrible. The characters mumble a lot and its dark a lot in the movie so you cant even read lips or facial expressions that well. My wife is British, and worked as HR for 4 years in tampa and she was struggling hard to understand the dialogue. She is use to dealing with a lot of different accents, so what does that tell you? Its like The entire film crew were college freshman. I imagine the uncut version was much better, and then it got butchered. This movie isn't even worth watching for free, i definitely wouldn't pay for it.

Miami Vice is a very mediocre movie with a poorly developed storyline and a talented cast that sadly couldn't save this. The storyline believes that it is complicated, exciting and original, but it is really nothing different from any other crime film, it fails to differentiate itself and that is probably the weakest aspect of this movie, based on a very successful television series. The cast is definitely the best part, everyone tries their very hardest, Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx are both great in it and you can see from the trivia that they went very method for their performances, it's just a shame that these two great actors couldn't have been paired for a better film. It also tends to jump away from its story far too often, there are several scenes that provide no input or character development of any kind, this is fine for comedies, but for drama, particularly crime drama, you would want every scene to be important and to keep the plot moving. Miami Vice is beautifully filmed and well acted, but it sadly isn't enough to save the poor story and mediocre character development, and because of this I couldn't recommend it. Two detectives team up to take on a drugs ring, but one of them finds himself increasingly conflicted. Best Performance: Colin Farrell Worst Performance: Eddie Marsan