VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

seymourblack-1 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.

jmosser-99099 As a fan of the original series, I was beyond disappointed. When I heard they were making a 'vice' movie, I was excited. There's so much material and fertile ground to work with, that you have to really try hard to make a bad film based on Miami vice. The film makers succeeded in doing just that. First off the casting. You can't underestimate the impact Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas had in making the show such a huge hit. Even without great acting, just on visual appeal alone they were very intriguing. If you get that part wrong, you ruin the whole thing and that is what happened here. Apparently Jamie Foxx suggested this film to Mann after working with him in Ali. This pretty much guaranteed the part of Tubbs to Foxx, dooming this picture from the start. I think Foxx may be the most over rated actor of the past decade. While certainly not Oscar-worthy, he did do a decent job of portraying Ray Charles, but I have never been able to take him seriously as an actor and any time I see his face I keep waiting for some buffoonish punchline ala in living color or the Jamie Foxx show. He comes across as cheesy and fake and it is impossible to take him seriously in any dramatic role. With humor being his strong suit, you would think they would have given him a couple of jokes, as even the original Tubbs had his share of punchlines, but Foxx remains overly serious and stiff throughout. It was rumored that Will Smith was considered and he would have suited the role of Tubbs much better. Colin Farrell makes an equally bad Sonny Crockett. Part of Crockett's appeal was the fact that he was a plain spoken all American guy working in a vibrant international city. Put in a foreign looking guy with a foreign accent and it just doesn't work as well. Apparently Don Johnson himself suggested Ferrell. What was he thinking? Another element of the TV series appeal was the surrounding characters. Zito and Switek. Gina and Trudy. And of course Lt. Castillo. In the movie, these characters are completely under developed or nonexistent.As for the plot, it was throw away. Generic international smuggler routine taking us around the globe. The beauty of vice was it's focus on Miami. There's so much potential for juicy plot lines right there that there's no need to go overseas. The villains in the TV series, although stereotypical, were very colorful and more believable to the city. The Italian mafia goons, Cubano, Colombian and Jamaican villains that inhabited Miami in the TV series should have been reprised here. Instead they chose to go for a non believable neo nazi type. What white supremacist would ever live in Miami? the least white major city in America.While the cinematography was okay, it did not do the legacy of Miami Vice justice. The original Miami Vice was criticized for style over substance. The movie took away the cool style and left zero substance. What made Vice so iconic was the bright sunny Miami backdrops. Beach scenes, beautiful women, groundbreaking wardrobe and awesome houses cars and boats. They would do scenes right on Ocean Drive surrounded by highly recognizable Miami landmarks. They were known for using bright neon and art deco colors. In the film they went for low lighting and dark and grey color schemes. Gone are the neon cityscapes, bright south-beach scenes and the beautiful women. Take all that away and Miami vice just isn't Miami vice. The digital photography gave the film a feeling of a bad reality TV show. The Miami of the 80's was fast paced, dangerous, and is remembered as a mythical time. By setting the film in modern times it just becomes somewhat stale and boring, but even with a modern day setting it could have been way more interesting and entertaining than it was. The pacing and lack of action in this movie are inexcusable especially with 100 million plus budget. The great thing about the TV show was the high action. The fist fights, the shootouts, the car chases, the boat chases, the explosions. The movie overlooked these almost entirely and opted for blood and violence just for violence sake. While the TV show had a lot of killing, there was a lot less blood. More of the actual violence was left to the imagination.Overall, the movie is Miami Vice in name only. They very loosely follow the formula of the original in that it is set in Miami, there are smugglers to be caught and the bad guys get killed. But they do this without any of the charm that the show so masterfully employed in getting us from point a to point b. The eye candy and the danger of Miami at the time, laced with a little bit of humor, an authentic Miami feel, a clever twist at the end with some folksy cop wisdom of lessons learned by Sonny usually followed by a catchy phrase, beautiful Miami sunset and credits. I think part of this movies problem is that it takes itself too seriously while the series was somewhat tongue in cheek. They have done a great disservice to the franchise. People who never saw the show will think 'what was all the hype about Miami vice' and people who did see the show will assume the film makers were trying to distance themselves too much from the original. The film doesn't stand alone on it's own merits or in comparison to it's predecessor. It shows that Mann probably had little to do with the TV show's success. Then when it came time to do the movie he really had nothing. They had one shot to get this right as the 20 year nostalgia cycle was coming around and they completely blew it.Skip this movie, especially if you liked the series.

Joe H. You know those movies that are so bad that they're good and you end up liking them?Yeah, Miami Vice is not like that.What do you want me to say. It's probably one of the most insipid scripts I've come across lately.It's full of what-the-f*** musical choices, American good guys and Mexican bad guys (of course), there are many intense existential close-ups of the lead actors in the shower interrupted by horny girlfriends, the color grading guys grained the SH**T out of every single shot to make them look grainy (because Miami is baaaaaaaaaaaaaad). You get to see soaked Naomie Harris and Jamie Foxx stripped to the crotch (hey, they gotta fund their movie).Let's not be negative here: there's some hope in the script in that one lead character's personal life falls apart while the other guy's personal life comes together and vice versa. Consider it a golden tooth in a messed-up jaw.And OH MY GOD was that a long movie. I started watching it in fast-speed halfway through it. And i still wouldn't see the end of it.

eric262003 Before he became a well-known director to such classic film as "The Last of the Mohicans", "Heat" and "The Insider", director Michael Mann's very earliest filmography was when he served as executive producer of one of the best crime-dramas the the 1980's had in store at the time, the always iconic "Miami Vice". It was a classic series that handled the style and substance quite proportionately. In 2006, Mann has returned to his early roots in a movie adaptation to the classic 1980's series self-evaluating what he's been taught to him over the past few years since the series cancelled in 1990. After watching the movie, there are a few things that didn't sit with me very well and one of the many gripes I had with this adaptation to the series was that at two hours and fifteen minutes, it goes on for much too long. If that's bad enough, it's not only too long, it is also quite hard to decipher what the plot is and at times it becomes very confusing at times. Mann is easily at fault here because he also handled the script as well. When scenes tend to look conventional, it's handled with a complete lack of a formal standpoint. He knows exactly which scenes needs more focus and which ones need to move forward. His scripts usually go beyond sublime, but it reflects just how it reflects towards its audience. And from Mann the performances are what keeps us intrigued. In the case of this movie, the principal characters (Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx) are not the once that provide the best characters in the film who replace Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as Detectives James "Sonny" Crockett and Rico Tubbs who are up to their dangerous anti-drug initiatives. While Foxx gives his all even though his demands are more subtle than crime-fighting partner Farrell. Farrell can't seem to measure up to the more suave performance Johnson portrayed when played Sonny Crockett in the series. Where's Jeff Bridges when you needed him?The supporting players are the once that dominate in their limited screen time and they're the ones who everyone wants to see more of. Barry Shabaka Henley as Sonny and Rico's superior Lt. Castillo (originally played by Edward James Olmos) looks very imposing and fearful, a man you simply don't want to anger with, with the exception of his sensitive eyes. Meanwhile, Luis Tosar who plays Montoya is the polar opposite to Castillo. He is a kingpin who dresses stylistically with a polite manner and a beard, but once again the eyes tell a different story as he's anything but a harmless man on the wrong side of the law. We can see something disturbing about him with those cold piercing eyes. His words from mouth about giving best regards to your family is sign that danger is lurking around. Mann really brings a very interesting perspective to the Montoya character, the kingpin our heroes want to defeat.In most movies,the most evil characters are cunning and colourful. In this movie, it's too laid-back and not very exhilarating. Montoya and his sultry girlfriend Isabella ((Gong Li) are in bed together, with his laptop going over their strategy of who to kill and the time it will be done. The feeling of discomfort comes into effect in Montoya's circle as people were coming into the organization with an over-the-top level of perversity. Montoya's loyal stooge Yero (John Ortiz) was a real piece of work as a grimacing,threatening,jokingly convincing evil-doer. The most noteworthy casting comes from Gong Li. Sure her English is not her best quality and that's understanding, but how she says her lines will make you break into a cold sweat. Sure she's running a South American drug cartel making her an outlaw, but her seductive manipulation towards Sonny is enough to make glasses fog up from the heat. Sure the there have been several chilling female antagonists, but Gong succeeds in keeping it powerful and only her vulnerability is shown through brief flashes. You are crazy if you mess with her mind.The story starts off as a sting operation situated at a nightclub and then it turns into an undercover job going horribly bad. An informant kills himself by getting run over by a truck and how does Mann handle the situation? While refraining from using shaky camera work or thrilling us with gore and carnage, he lets the truck move on with a trail of blood paving the lanes. Then we see baddies killing off people with their ammo towards people in their cars. By filming the scene in the car adds a more personal touch to the film. The cinematography goes way beyond picturesque. When the motorboat coming in from Havana is likely to put you in a romantic view, even for only ten seconds. There's a lot of disparate entities that's happening in "Miami Vice". The scenes involving Sonny and Isabella are just steamy fillers. There's a crime story happening, but it doesn't have much going for it and by the last minutes of the film, it doesn't hold together very well. Film critics have been overfed with a cornucopia of junk. But to see a person who knows the ins-and-outs of a film like this one went way overboard in self-praising himself for it. What I have to say is that it is an average film with some good and bad things about it.