Reviews & Previews - Miami Vice

Posted on Tuesday, August 08, 2006 at 06:00 PM

Miami Vice

By: S. Tran

Starring: Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li
Directed By: Michael Mann
Running Time: 134 minutes
Rated: R for strong violence, language and some sexual content

It's the Humidity That Gets You

Somethings do not need to be remade. At the top of the list of those things should be cheesy 80's T.V. shows followed closely by any T.V. show. The original Miami Vice was a show that valued style over substance and in that sense the movie follows the formula of the show very closely. Michael Mann has always done a really good job of creating that gritty urban look in his films and when he combines that with a compelling story and great acting you end up with the under-rated Heat. In this case he comes back with that distinctive look again but without the great story or acting.

Farrell and Foxx are Crockett and Tubbs, a couple of undercover Miami police officers who find themselves working with the FBI in an attempt to root out a mole in the FBI. After that promising set up though everyone in the film seems to forget that they were trying to find a mole and the film ends after the requisite shoot out. While the mole is safely hiding from our oblivious heroes they are busy doing the usual cop things, driving exotic sports cars, flying aircraft and racing along in nifty fast boats. Given all this its no wonder they have no time to actually arrest anyone or collect evidence which is maybe why they never do catch the mole.

Even though its based on the T.V. show Farrell and Foxx are as different from Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as you can get. Neither of them do a particularly bad job, but they also don't leave much of an impression either. While the movie has style these characters are pretty generic. I think the acting instruction they were given was "look cool" or in Farrell's case, "look cool and greasy". Both pull this off well. They look cool while driving, while shooting the bad guys, while looking over their stamp collection, you get the idea. Except for the occasional cliched cop movie outburst neither leads do more than talk in low, serious tones throughout the movie.

On the other hand Gong Li did leave an impression. To bad it was a really, really bad one. Li plays a Chinese money launderer working for a Columbian drug lord who gets involved with Farrell's character. I give Li all the credit in the world for taking on an English speaking role but sometimes you just have to understand your limitations as an actor and pass on the job. Li delivers all her lines in this movie as though she was taught each one phonetically. You could practically see the effort on her face as she regurgitated her dialogue and made a big smelly mess of it. Combine this with the complete lack of chemistry between her and Farrell and you get a subplot about as convincing as Michael Jackson's marriage to...well to anyone really.

The movie is a pretty bland experience that will leave people who knew the T.V. show disappointed and will leave those unfamiliar with the show wondering what all the fuss was about the show in the first place. As a director, Mann is talented and he could have made a movie like this in his sleep, that doesn't mean he actually should have done so. Save your money for the big screen remake of Married With Children.

2.5 stars out of 5.