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MIAMI VICE (2006) Starring Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li, Luis Tosar, Naomie Harris, Ciaran Hinds, Justin Theroux, Eddie Marsan, Isaach De Bankole, Elizabeth Rodriguez.

Directed by Michael Mann.

Running time: 131 minutes.

Rating: 14A

Miami undercover cops Crockett (Farrell) and Tubbs (Foxx) infiltrate the deep underbelly of organized crime and its cocaine/crack/heroin dealing middlemen but something goes wrong which threatens their very lives and they have to improvise to make it come out right walking a very fine line between legal and illegal. They also find time to maintain turbulent love lives with the most inconvenient women possible. That is the same summary you could come up with for almost any episode of the original series it was based on that ran from 1984 to 1989.

In the 1980's NBC programming head Brandon Tartikoff wrote down a show concept on a piece of paper, the words read "MTV cops" and he shuffled it on down to series developers. It fell to producer/director Michael Mann to make the concept work and work it did. The gritty, ultra-violent cop show defined slick in the tv of it's time.

Often it looked like the disturbing film work of Costa Gavras, but still more often it looked like a long music video punctuated by top 40 hits from the time.

17 years after the series' demise, Michael Mann was greenlighted to make the movie version. In this age of Hollywood so dominated by movie versions of old tv shows it would appear that the cynical motives of entertainment executives have once again served Mann who got an estimated $135,000,000 budget to make it ($135,000,000?! What'd he do? Buy real drugs for added authenticity?).

This is much darker (without the pastels and gel it would pretty much have to be) than the show was and though there is more sex it is less sexy but it includes the familar characters like brooding Lt.Castillo (Barry Henley), delectable Detective Gina Calabrese (Elizabeth Rodriguez who is nowhere near as cute as Sandra Santiago was in the original series playing this role). Even bonehead vice cops Switek and Zito (Domenick Lombardozzi and Justin Theroux) make the transition.

Mann's cinematic touches include casting and here the gallery of faces is unforgettable. Gong Li as the femme fatale Isabella oozes sensuality. Luis Tosar radiates danger and unpredictability as the villain Jesus. Eddie Marsan almost steals the film with his role as the prisoner-turned-informant Nicholas.

The violence is noticeable by its' absence. The show was consistently criticized as the most violent of it's time but the movie is more about mood and foreshadowing which marks a departure from Mann's old style. As an auteur gets more experienced he realizes he can do more with less.

This was the best movie that came out in the summer of 2006 but that is not saying much.

Learn more about this author, Jason Daniel Baker.
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