Michael Mann's 2006 cinematic update of the 80s-television show "Miami Vice" is gritty, violent, and nothing like the television show it is updating. Opening the movie during an undercover operation, we are introduced to the new Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs. We, the audience, are also introduced to the high-risk crime world these characters are a part of. Mann's picture is very detailed and seems to be more interested in being an undercover police procedural. That is until love connections of the two main characters are developed, trying to make these two characters more human and identifiable (and, in an all-too-calculated fashion make the high-risk world riskier). After the long-winded and uneven set-up arrives the movie's action set pieces, Mann's directoral specialty. But, what makes "Miami Vice" entertaining are its remarkable and impressive visuals. Michael Mann and cinematographer Dion Beebe, again, use the HD-digital camera and create a visual feast for the eyes (Some images making the movie seem better than it actually is). The beauty of exotic locales, a plane in flight, a boat traveling in the water, even the characters on top of building among the city's skyline are all gorgeously shot. Ultimately, it all adds up to an okay movie. Not close to the greatness Mann achieved in "Heat" or "Collateral". But, let's just say, its what "Bad Boys 2" (not a Mann picture) should have aspired to be.
Review of Miami Vice
