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It seems like I spent the early part of the Summer looking at the popular slate of movies being released and finding their true power coming from the subtext of the story rather than the razzmatazz special effects and whatnot. But now it looks like we’ve entered new Summer territory. Last week, I encourage you to see Lady in the Water. I found the movie to be incredibly entertaining and moving despite story-telling shortcomings that were impossible to ignore. Well I can say the same thing about Miami Vice really.
“Miami Vice” in the 80s was a cultural juggernaught, and much of the reason behind that was the unusual setting, the sweaty sexiness of its leads, and the vision of series Executive Producer, Michael Mann. Mann has a unique eye and ear for unearthly crisp dialogue, intense action, and macho plotting that has really benefited his career. From his unique take on Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon—Manhunter, which introduced Hannibal Lecter to the world, through Last of the Mohicans, and exciting period piece that manages to be both epic, sexy and romantic, to recent hits like Collateral, which had the filmmaker experimenting with new digital filmmaking techniques and challenging his cast to be unexpected.
With Hollywood totally consumed with remaking, re-imagining, and re-inventing every property it can lay waste to, it was only a matter of time before some over-eager suit in loafers made from baby seal decided it was high time to create a wacky version of Miami Vice that made light of the show’s over stylization and now trademark use of music and mood. Mann, probably fearful that Miami Vice would become like Starsky and Hutch (a show he worked on), decided to take the reigns of the Miami Vice movie.
This couldn’t have been an easy task. Imagine some project you were really into 20 years ago. You’ve moved on, and now you have to sit down and breath new life into something that was basically dead and buried. It seems like it would be a no-brainer, since he helped make Miami Vice what it was, but it’s hard to recapture those moments that made the original show so interesting and groundbreaking. So instead of loyally adapting his own show for the big screen, Mann decided to shake things up a little by giving audiences a Crockett and Tubbs for a new era.
Fortunately, despite the fact that the movie is a real mess in some areas, Mann manages to do exactly that. Miami Vice is an exciting and visceral ride through a world that is so exotic it would almost make George Lucas jealous, and these places are real. The movie does everything it can to punch a hole in the original series, and suck out the meat that made it unique. Like the original show, you have fast cars, boats gliding over impossibly beautiful Caribbean waters, dangerous adversaries and cryptic dialog. The movie manages to be over stylized like the TV show, but in a new way.
The first major departure, and probably the most interesting, was the decision to turn Ricardo Tubbs into a lean, mean (yet still sensitive) fighting machine. Tubbs definitely gets the more aggressive re-imagining in this movie, and as you can imagine Jamie Foxx does a fantastic job with the character. Prone to say things like, “Takin’ it to the limit one more time” or other cheesy platitudes, Foxx manages to invest some life into Tubbs and flesh out his character a little more clearly than what would have been on the written page. Foxx even makes movie history in Miami Vice with, weirdly enough, a crowd pleasing sex scene that had the audience I saw the movie with go batshit with laughter.
Colin Farrell's Sonny Crocket, on the other hand fails to enlighten audiences. Although if there were an award for best performance by eye brows in a Summer action movie, Farrell would definitely bring home the gold. I am not sure how to begin counting the ways in which this version of Sonny Crocket is a crock. First, Colin Farrell is a talented guy, but I am not sure he has the ability to convey the laid back charm and grit that Don Johnson brought us in the TV Show. He isn’t downright awful… just seemingly lost. A major storyline of the movie has Crocket falling for the dreaded Montoya’s exotic wife, but the chemistry between them is infinitesimal. And for much of their time together, Farrell will magically tie his eye brows in knots while she looks irritated at his stupidity. I hate to second guess casting, but how come real life Don Johnson alien clone, Matthew McConaughey didn’t get an invitation to this party?
Another lame reinvention is Castillo, who was brought to vivid life by mumble talking Edward James Olmos. As portrayed here by the portly and stone faced Barry Shabaka Henley, Castillo seems constipated rather than mysterious. Fortunately, Henley’s performance is balanced by the nuanced work of Luis Tosar as traditional Miami Vice heavy, Arcángel de Jesús Montoya, and the femm-tastic performance by John Ortiz as José Yero, who manages to be one of those interesting doppelganger villains. He presents the darker side of the intelligence efforts Crockett and Tubbs are expert at. Montoya and Juan are both pretty interesting bad guys, but the white supremacist bad guy reminded me more the bearish guy we all know from the office that looks really weird and alternative from the outside, but everyone knows he’s really gay.
Where the movie really comes to one-upping the original series, is with the whole escapist idea behind the show in the first place. “Miami Vice” seemed to be tailor-made for sofa-challenged warriors who spent more time on their commute each day than engaging in anything really interesting with their lives. The show was all about being really bad and somehow being rewarded for it. Not only rewarded, but being a good guy! The ultimate fantasy where you get to fly cool planes, drive fast cars, boat around the Caribbean, and seduce privileged woman, AND you are doing it all to keep the streets clean. You’re a damn miracle! Maybe sofa-challenged is the wrong word. Perhaps penile-challenged would be better. The TV Show made the life of Crockett and Tubbs into an allegory of how American men couldn’t live their lives, but the movie takes it to the limit one more time. I am not really interested in defining why men feel the need to overcompensate with flashy toys and pretty girls, but Miami Vice sure does make it look fun. In fact Crockett, is so incredibly good that a woman weeps tears of thankful joy to be with him! How many of you guys have prayed for that?
Mann manages to bring this high octane world to incredible life using digital photography like he did on Collateral. I wasn’t really a fan of the technique in that movie mainly because some of the night time shots were grainy enough to look like I filmed them. Sure they had a realism we rarely see in movies these days, but on a personal level I was bothered by it. I never really understood why until I saw Miami Vice. While some aspects of the movie are filmed and really benefit from the digital work over, the night time shots reminded me more of an episode of COPS: MIAMI than a summer blockbuster. It works here though and that probably has a lot to do with Miami as a location. You can almost feel the humidity coming off the screen.
Mann also excels at several quick, but potent action scenes, but that is no surprise considering his past work in films like Heat and Last of the Mohicans. The action starts to lose it’s creative steam after one hell of an exclamation point of an action scene that begins with a minor siege on a battered trailer park, but I never found myself bored with the proceedings. Some of the assaults and action have a near menacing level of violence, which was a pleasant surprise for a popcorn movie like this one. The audience I attended with let out audible gasps during several gruesome scenes.
Wow, reading over this review, I realize I only really disliked one thing. Colin Farrell, but if I really disliked him so much, why did it leaving me wanting to see more? Because much like a really good pilot episode for a TV show, Miami Vice gives you just enough characterization for you to yearn for more. Unfortunately with a TV show, you have years to formulate the characters, and here you have two hours. While some of what Mann does really clicks, his biggest irresponsibility was underwriting Farrell’s Sonny Crocket. But even with that fault, I still think Mann has a lot to be proud of in updating his own creation with this explosive and beautifully filmed movie.
