Director: Michael Mann
Stars: Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Li Gong (Full Cast)
Studio: Universal Pictures
The Plot: Vice detectives James Crockett (Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Foxx) take on the Florida drug world.
THE BUZZ: A teaser trailer is available at the loud, unsexy website BacardiLive.com ... The based-on-a-TV-series pandemic moves uncomfortably into 80s territory, attracting top-tier filmmakers and spendy stars. This is a bad sign, especially with a Dynasty feature looking more and more certain. Or maybe the reports of bad blood and budget problems on the Vice set may make studios think twice about developing, say, Knight Rider (an outside chance this one might happen, too) or Family Ties projects. (Though, David O. Russell and the Keatons would be kinda good.) Essentially, if S.W.A.T. can make over a hundred million, there's no reason Vice shouldn't double that take. But this still doesn't answer the question of why Michael Mann didn't just create his own, new police drama with this cast, and miles away from the Vice brand.
:::>^..^<::: ~*~The Journey is more important than the end or the start~*~ :::>^..^<:::
In a way, this night is one long commercial. It's synergy reaching overboard - NBC spending three hours promoting a movie from its corporate partner, Universal.
We'll forgive that, though, because it includes one of TV's happier accidents - the original "Miami Vice" pilot.
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Handed the notion of "MTV cops," Michael Mann, a gifted writer-turned-producer, worked miracles.
In the sleek city of Miami, two cops zoom around in sports cars, chasing crooks while rock music booms.
Now Mann has written, directed and produced the "Miami Vice" movie, with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx as Crockett and Tubbs, opening Friday. They'll host this night and show lots of clips. It will be one long commercial, but it will include the original pilot; that should be fun enough.
NBC to revisit Tubbs and Crockett in original 'Miami Vice' pilot
Tom Dorsey
Ho hum, another Saturday night full of reruns. But NBC has a real golden oldie tonight.
That network will show the original 1984 TV pilot for "Miami Vice" from 8 to 11 in a joint effort to boost its parent company's debut of a "Miami Vice" movie in theaters next week.
The newest Hollywood film to remake an old TV series stars Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell as undercover vice cops Tubbs and Crockett. Those characters were played by Philip Michael Thomas and Don Johnson on TV more than two decades ago.
The new "Miami Vice" is being made by Universal Studios, which is now part of NBC-Universal, so it's an all-in-the family promotion with Foxx and Farrell showing clips of the movie during the rerun of the 1984 TV pilot.
The big question is whether those two guys can make the kind of drama, fashion and music statement that the hot NBC show did in the '80s.
In those days NBC entertainment chief Brandon Tartikoff dashed off a memo saying what the network needed was a pair of "MTV cops" to snare younger viewers. The result was this slick, sometimes comic, often brutal tale of drugs and mobsters in Miami.
Crockett was a guy who made beard stubble macho. He lived on a sailboat guarded by an alligator named Elvis, and he crashed around town in a Ferrari. Tubbs was an ex-New York City cop on a mission to get even with whoever killed his brother. The twosome crossed paths and joined forces when they were both after the same drug dealer.
Besides its dark plots, "Miami Vice" made it safe for guys to go sockless and wear T shirts under pastel sports coats and loose pants. The Italian look that Johnson and Thomas sported became the fashion trend of the time. The music scores attracted rock legends of the era such as Phil Collins to join in.
The series also was known for introducing guest stars that would make it big later, such as Bruce Willis, Jimmy Smits, Ving Rhames and Dennis Farina. It won an Emmy for Edward James Olmos.
The show was produced by Michael Mann, who is also doing the new movie. He's widely known for his intense dramas, such as "Manhunter" and "Heat," so it's probably a safe bet that his big-screen edition of "Miami Vice" will be a winner.
Moby, Goldfrapp on 'Miami Vice' Soundtrack
July 20, 2006
Listen to Nonpoint's cover of the Phil Collins track, "In the Air Tonight," the soundtrack's lead single.
Moby, Goldfrapp, Nonpoint, Mogwai, and Patti LaBelle are among the artists contributing tracks to the upcoming Miami Vice soundtrack. Set to hit stores on July 25 (three days before the movie, which stars Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, arrives in theaters), the 17-track set is led by Nonpoint's cover of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight." Elsewhere on the disc is a collaboration by Moby and LaBelle ("One of These Mornings") and a track by India.Arie ("Ready for Love").
Here is the track list for Miami Vice: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack:
"In the Air Tonight" - Nonpoint
"One of These Mornings" - Moby featuring Patti LaBelle
"We're Not Here" - Mogwai
"Sinnerman (Felix da Housecat's Heavenly House Mix)" - Nina Simone
"Auto Rock" - Mogwai
"Arranca" - Manzanita
"Ready For Love" - India.Airie
"Strict Machine" - Goldfrapp
"Pennies in My Pocket" - Emilio Estefan
"New World in My View" - King Britt
"Sweep" - Blue Foundation
"Anthem" - Moby
"Blacklight Fantasy" - Freaky Chakra
"Mercado Nuevo" - John Murphy
"Who Are You" - John Murphy
"Ramblas" - King Britt & Tim Motzer
"A-500" - Klaus Badelt & Mark Batson
I loved the series. Really like Jamie Foxx and think Micheal Mann is an awesome director (Heat, Last of the Mohican's, Collateral, that cigarette/60 minutes movie I never can remember the name of ).
I can't stand Colin Ferrel, but the guy does look cool and greasy with the mustache.
From what I have read so far, it's not going to be like the series, with trendy clothes and hipster scenes, but a serious drama, dark and dirty. Still, I have a positive feeling about the movie, hoping it will be halfway decent.
Miami Vice, the television series, had a phenomenal impact on pop culture, especially fashion, introducing American men to no socks, and two-day’s growth. Those elements, now so strongly associated with the eighties, would seem dated today so director Michael Mann has wisely gotten rid of then in Miami Vice the movie. The problem is he didn’t replace them with anything more interesting.
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The plot is like an episode of the TV show. Miami Vice Detectives Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) go deep undercover to infiltrate an international drug trafficking ring. That’s about all there is to it.
The added dimension is their attempts to keep their personal lives and real identities separate from the world that they have to become intimately involved in. In Sonny’s case that intimacy includes an affair with Isabella (Gong Li), the Chinese-Cuban wife of an arms and drugs trafficker.
Ditching the pastels, Mann (who also directed the TV series) has gone for a grittier feel, an extension of the look of Collateral. Shot on HDV, the footage captures the heat and sweat of Florida and the Caribbean, yet makes Miami feel disconnected and unfamiliar, like L.A. did in Collateral. Frequent use of a hand-held technique also adds to the nervous immediacy of the scenes, as Crockett and Tubbs continually find themselves in tight situations that could blow up at any second.
Miami Vice has none of the summer action movie clichés, like car chases or huge explosions. Mann saves his flair for violence for the shootouts that are perfectly crafted. And expect some speedboats. It is, after all, Miami Vice.
The chemistry between the two detectives is reminiscent of Lethal Weapon series, with Crockett being the brash one, and Tubbs being level headed. Colin Farrell is a dead on casting choice as Sonny Crockett. Had the movie come first, Don Johnson would have been pegged as a cut-rate Colin Farrell. Jamie Foxx won’t be getting any Oscars for his version of Tubbs, but he doesn’t overplay it like Colin Farrell does sometimes.
Of the rest of the cast Gong Li stands out most, bringing a dimension to her relationship with Sonny that moves beyond the rather obvious plot development that it is. Naomie Harris is less successful in the role of Tubbs’ girlfriend, a part that doesn’t leave her much of purpose other than being someone who gangsters can threaten.
So many things go right here, and still something is missing. If it weren’t for the marquis value of the Miami Vice name, this would be any one of a hundred cop/buddy movies, stylistically different from, but no more remarkable than, Bad Boys. The dated elements of the Miami Vice series are not so easily replaced, and after seeing this version you wonder how Miami Vice might have been better served by a spoof, like what they did to Starsky & Hutch.
Miami ViceB+
A triumph of style over substance, "Miami Vice," Michael Mann's noir-crime drama based on his popular TV series, is B-level narrative wrapped in a visually sumptuous and exciting A-level package. Indeed, the movie discloses a huge gap between the quality of the text and writing (also by Mann) and the quality of the filmmaking and craftsmanship.
A companion piece to Mann's "Heat" and "Collateral," though not as impressive or intriguing as either, "Miami Vice" provides Mann the opportunity to further explore the noir domain, of which he has become the most prominent advocate in American cinema.
Unfortunately, the big-screen adaptation of the TV series "Miami Vice," which ran for five years under Mann's tight supervision, is a high-concept (though not popcorn) movie, marred by routine storyline of drugs and guns, and characterizations that leave a lot to be desired. As such, "Miami Vice" the movie demonstrates the dilemma that Mann, like Scorsese, has been facing: Finding the right material to which he can apply his considerable skills.
For those who were around, in the 1980s, the TV series, from Anthony Yerkovich's concept and pilot script, was labeled by some "MTV Cops," since it sets fashion trends like the T-shirt-and-blazer look. It also made household names of its two leads, Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas
I mention that, because there is not much in common between the TV and big-screen versions other than the chief idea and the central characters' names, though not personalities. In fact, Mann has gone out his way to deviate from the thematics, stylistics, and tone of the TV show.
Hence, two decades later, the cocaine cowboys of the 1980s are gone. However, Miami's Casablanca allure, the undercover cops, and attitude of Mann's culturally influential TV series have been enhanced by time in this version.
Written, directed, and produced by Mann, the movie boasts a large and wonderful international cast, headed by Jamie Foxx, Colin Farrell, British Naomi Harris, Chinese star Gong Li, and Irish Ciaran Hinds.
Like all of Mann's movies, "Miami Vice" is a large-scale epic about the allure and danger, risk and cost of working deeply—really deeply--undercover. Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx, who won the Best Actor Oscar for "Ray" and Supporting Oscar nomination for Mann's 2004 "Collateral") is the urbane, dead-smart type. He lives with his Bronx-born analyst (Naomi Harris, of "28 Days Later" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" II and III"), and both work undercover to identify a group that's responsible for a number of vicious murders.
Colin Farrell (recently seen in "The New World" and "Ask the Dust") plays Sony Crockett, a man who seems and sounds unorthodox, though procedurally he's sound. Sony is charismatic and flirtatious until, while working undercover with the supplier of the South Florida group, he gets romantically entangled with Isabella, the Chinese-Cuban wife of an arms and drugs trafficker, played by Gong Li, who appeared last year the older, villainous geisha in "Memoirs of a Geisha."
This quartet is surrounded by Ciaran Hinds, as FBI Special Agent Fujima, the man who reluctably allows Crockett and Tubbs to penetrate further into the drug underground after their friends are killed; Justin Theorux, as the partners' fellow vice-cop Zito, Barry Shabaka, as Henley, their direct report Lieutenant Catillo; and Elizabeth Rodriguez, as sharpshooter Detective Gina Calabrese.
The villains are played by two splendid actors: Luis Tosar and John Ortiz. Tosar is cast as the Kingpin, Jesus Montoya, and Ortiz as the calculating drug runner Jose Yero who does operations for Montoya in Miami.
The TV series flaunted pink-flamingo visuals and art deco. But since the movie is set in such countries as Cuba, Paraguay, and Haiti, a different color palette and a different tempo dominate the screen. Collaborating again with ace cinematographer Dion Beebe (who shot the L.A.-based "Collateral" digitally and won an Oscar for "Memoirs of a Geisha") Mann shows his mastery over visual and sound details that captures the film's ambience much better than the story itself.
The film's weakest elements are exposition and characterization. For example, it's not entirely clear where the action takes place, since the transitions from one locale to another are rapid fire.
I have not read the screenplay, but for a two and half hour movie, it strikes me as overly scant, and, indeed, the most powerful sections are devoid of any dialogue but ridden with looks, gestures, sounds, and movements that define the characters more clearly than their verbal conduct.
Hence, "Miami Vice" could be described as adult-type entertainment (unlike "Superman" and the new "Pirates" movie) but not as a thinking man's actioner since most of the generated excitement is purely visceral.
Indeed, unlike "Heath," one of Mann's masterpieces and a highlight of 1990s Hollywood, in which the characters played by Pacino and De Niro engage in thorough moral, ethical, and professional dilemmas, here, Foxx and Farrell barely communicate with each other and seldom engage in any existential discourse.
In fact, though they often share the screen together, there's not much rapport or chemistry between Foxx and Farrerl, as characters and actors, unlike the ambiguously tense interaction that prevailed between Foxx and Tom Cruise in "Collateral." In "Miami Vice," Foxx actually plays a secondary role, even though he gets top billing, along with Farrell (It's one of the absurdities of the star system that in "Collateral," in which Foxx had a more sizable role than the one he plays here, he was billed and Oscar-nominated in the supporting league).
On the other hand, the communication between Farrell and Gong Li, works better, particularly when both are silent, a function of Mann's writing and the thesps' divergent acting style. Farrell's accent is not consistent (which is a minor problem) and it takes some time to get use to Li's heavy-accented English.
As is known, Mann's cinematic world is pretty much male-dominated, following in the footsteps of Ford, Hawks, and Peckinpah. Most of his pictures, from "Thief" to "The Keep" to "Manhunter" and "Heat," revolve around men, with women relegated to the periphery.
In this respect, "Miami Vice" represents a major departure, since the most intriguing and conflicted character is Gong Li's. As written and played, Li is perfectly cast as the noirish piece's femme fatale, combining effortless sexulaity with business-like toughness.
That said, I sensed discomfort in Mann's staging of the sex scenes between Farrell and Li. With the exception of one prolonged erotic encounter, the others (one in a limo) are brief and don't generate much heat.
"Miami Vice" suffers from other problems. It's way overlong for the story that it tells, and occasionally, Mann has problems with pacing, particularly in the saga's early chapters.
Perhaps aware of his need to deliver a movie that will please large audiences--and in the ruthlessly competitive summer season no less--Mann includes some uncharacteristically sentimental scenes, such as the one in the hospital, with Foxx and Harris holding hands, which is intercut with a major farewell scene between Farrell and Li.
Even so, there are at least half a dozen set-pieces that are truly breathtaking. Space doesn't permit me to dwell on all of them, but an early disco scene captures the right tone in minutiae detail. And there are at least two shootouts (in the film's second half), which are extremely brutal but exemplary of the control that Mann the craftsman exerts over every aspect of his picture.
Finally, a note about the ingenious casting and imaginative use of at least a dozen actors. I don't know of any other director, not even Scorsese, who handles so vividly yet economically such a large gallery of secondary roles. Arguably, the best part of "Ali" (Man's weakest film of the past decade) was the colorful ensemble of character actors (including Jamie Foxx).
Along with the aforementioned Ciarin Hinds (who is good with accents, as he showed in Spielberg's "Munich"), the cast includes Tony Curran, Eddie Marsan, John Hawkes (who made a strong impression as the father in the indie "Me, You and Everyone We Know"), Domenick Lombardozzi, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Justin Theroux, and Mann's troupe regular Barry Shabaka.
Arguably one of the two or three best directors working in Hollywood today, Mann is a master with lots of talent to spare. Even when his work is not entirely successful, it's still intriguing to behold from a physical and sensual standpoint. "Miami Vice" offers a visceral cinematic encounter of the first and highest kind.
Or it's not my Miami Vice, which premiered 22 years ago in my 19th year.
And it's certainly not Michael Mann's old Miami Vice, which Michael Mann never directed. (The pilot was directed by hour-long-pilot-directing king, Thomas Carter.)
Mann & Yerkovich's Miami Vice TV show was a show that started off as innovative and quickly was so imitated and analyzed that it was kitsch before its third season arrived. Miami Vice arrived three years into the run of Hill Street Blues, which had broken ground by being raw and handheld and very personal. Vice took cops who drank, farted, and suffered loss and then added pastel blue and pink paint, working the canvas of 1983's Scarface from the side of the undercover cop.
By 1995, Mann had delivered the best slick cops & robbers movie of all time, Heat. After achieving that, he seemed to be looking for a different kind of challenge. The Insider started showing a more rough-hewn style with rough close-ups, imperfect exteriors and, as always, brilliant acting. Mann broke out the digital camera for the first time in Ali, mixing film and digital in the fight scenes which, I still feel, are the best ever shot even if the story structure of the movie had a bit to be desired. Mann got the feel of the fight.
2004's Collateral was the first studio movie ever released that was shot almost all in digital. (Dion Beebe and others on the show claimed that 40% of the movie was on conventional film but later fessed up to the fact that it was almost all digital. Like Miami Vice, there are still a few things you simply can't get done digitally… though the list gets shorter every year.)
Mann took a fairly conventional piece of genre writing, a great gimmick and a major movie star combined with a budding movie star. And then he made it the way he wanted to make it.
And now, Miami Vice.
Miami Vice starts with a bang and rarely stops for a breath. Even when it gets quiet, those moments are packed with emotion or evil or sex.
Miami Vice is that summer movie that a lot of people have been waiting for, something for the adults to see, something that demands that you pay attention, something that doesn't pre-chew your experience for you and drop it into your beak like a mama bird, something with adults having relationships (with their clothes on and off) and dealing with some serious issues… and lots of guns & drugs.
There is not a single identifying thing from the TV series in the body of the film except for the character names and the fact that they deal with vice. The first thing that strikes you is the visual style, which is completely different. This is Mann & Beebe's Collateral-eyed view of the world, but instead of the dingy gray of Los Angeles, there are the bright skies, blue seas, and thick, clouded rainy atmosphere of South Florida, alternatively beautiful and ugly and magically real.
The second big variation is the storytelling which, unlike MVTV, or really any television series, doesn't spend much time telling us where the ride is going. Basil Exposition is on permanent vacation… no need for Sir Ian here. Mann's characters - he wrote the script also - are people of actions, not verbosity. They live what they are feeling, thinking and doing on the screen. This may be a little jarring in the first 15 minutes, as you try to catch up with exactly what's going on. But you will catch up. And, by the third act in particular, the pay off will be that you feel like you are in the experience and not watching the experience.
Mann has dealt with sex before in his work. Most of his movies have an interesting sexual undercurrent. But here he lets his character get down to business. As a result, we get to learn a lot more about Jamie Foxx than I ever expected to in his scenes with Naomie Harris. (Seeing Mr. Farrell and Ms. Gong exposed is not such a surprise.) But in the Foxx scenes, we also get one of the most beautifully shot acts of intimacy to be shown on screen in a long time. Mann, as is so often the case, gets to the heart of getting busy without needing to reach for the more graphic imagery.
On the other hand, give the guy a gun, and he'll blow some holes in people.
My greatest surprise pleasure in this film was Mann's casting choices and the execution (figurative and often literal) of his actors. It's always fun to see Barry Shabaka Henley in Mann's projects. But here Mann came up with a whole new group of players. The brilliant Ciarin Hinds is here, subverting his Irish accent for a somewhat southern one. In fact, Mann has a bunch of English and Irish actors (Tony Curran, Eddie Marsan) playing Miamians. He also has Me, You & Everyone We Know's and Deadwood's John Hawkes on board. And even Domenick Lombardozzi, who is suddenly familiar after a multi-show guest stint on Entourage. Elizabeth Rodriguez is a terrific surprise as the Gina Calabrese character, neither brunette nor hisp-talian. She doesn't get a load of lines, but she can handle a gun and when she gets a line, she can handle that too.
But the biggest joys were, first, Gong Li, in what is easily her best, most raw performance yet in English. Mann didn't just want a beautiful woman, but he wanted a performance that stripped her to her freckles. And he gets it. It starts a little chilly and accent distracting. But as the movie progresses, this turns into a really lovely and intimate piece of work from this actress.
Even more surprising were Luis Tosar and John Ortiz as the baddest bad guys in the piece. Tosar is known more in Spain and Ortiz hasn't really gotten The Break before, but Mann's choices with both of them were to take characters that could have been over the top and ratcheted them down to dry, smart, scary performances. Tosar plays the Kingpin, Jesus Montoya, who doesn't move much, has a fifth level of hell beard and facial hair (the most powerful on-screen eyebrows since Belushi) and an absolutely terrifying calm. And Ortiz, who plays the Local Guy who runs operations for Montoya in Miami, has the showier role and works it with real glee, but never becomes an evil movie caricature. It really is a brilliant performance. Early on I was thinking, "I guess Bardem (who loved working with Mann in a tiny Collateral role) was busy." But by the end of the picture, I was glad that one of the world's greatest actors wasn't there because these guys were so brilliant and so unexpected.
Telling you too much about the storyline is not only a spoiler, but an irritant. You kinda know already. They go deep, deep, deep undercover in the most dangerous possible situation. Romance, guns, drugs, boats, planes, and trouble ensue.
In the meanwhile, Mann & Beebe get some exterior images that literally took my breath away. The digital look of the film becomes familiar within 20 minutes or so and offers imagery of the streets of Miami, South America, and Havana in colors that speak to the real beauty of those places, not the movie dream of them. You know you are the hands of masters.
The first acts drags a little, though I suspect on second viewing it will go down more easily. And then there is the great feeling I had walking away from the screening room. This movie will play and play and play and play.
No, it's not quite Heat. I do look forward to Mann working in this digital format with stars as iconic as Pacino and DeNiro. Foxx is solid as a rock here. And Colin Farrell, who gets a little clumsy when he has to do speeches with his American accent, gives Mann exactly what was needed when we feel the moment in his eyes or gestures.
For me, this a big step from Collateral, which was a gimmick movie… a good gimmick, some good actors, a great visual styling (the digital production is not the gimmick I mean), but ultimately it is a clock film with a forced relationship that has to stick to that clock and a massive movie star playing an ice cold killer. Miami Vice is more free to roam. And because of it, the box office might not be as strong. On the other hand, it might be stronger, because this, to me, is a much more interesting, challenging, better movie.
I kind of expect it to split critics and audiences. But I also expect it to age really well over time. And that is the price that Michael Mann so often pays for being Michael Mann. Thank goodness he is willing to do it for all of us.
04-11-2006 04:25 AM
