(Drug deals, double-crosses, forbidden love, but not a single pair of white pants - imagine that…)
CAST: Jaime Foxx, Colin Farrell, Gong Li, Naomie Harris, Ciaran Hinds, Barry Shabaka Henley, Justin Theroux, Luis Tosar, John Ortiz, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Domenick Lombardozzi.
DIRECTOR: Michael Mann
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and compelling reasons both for and against moving to Miami - straight ahead…
IT’S LIKE THIS: In a big-screen adaptation of the popular TV series, Miami detectives Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jaime Foxx) are tasked with bringing down feared South American drug baron Archangel Luis Montoya (Luis Tosar). Montoya is very talented at two main things: (1) flooding the world with drugs and getting rich because from it; and (2) killing informants and their friends and families. Not exactly someone you’d snitch on lightly, our Montoya. No, sir. We find that out when one informant and what seems like his entire immediate family is wiped out in the first fifteen minutes of the movie. Realizing they have to go deep, deep, deep, deep undercover for this one, Crockett and Tubbs fly to South America to pose as drug movers - and offer their services to Montoya’s middleman, the slimy asshole Jose Yero (John Ortiz).
Yero falls for their schpiel (that was easy) and before you know it, our heroes are on Montoya’s payroll as undercover agents. If that’s not playing with fire, I don’t know what is. Speaking of fire, things get complicated when Crockett finds himself falling in love with Montoya’s number two. She is Isabella (Gong Li), an icy-yet-fiery Chinese-Cuban financial whiz who handles all the cartel’s money matters. And being a half-breed, she’s drop-dead gorgeous. And she looks smashing in both a business suit and an evening dress. Not that Crockett (or his cock) cares what she wears - he’d rather see her in her Birthday Suit. Then there’s Tubbs’ cop girlfriend Trudie (Naomie Harris), who gets pulled into the fire despite his best efforts to keep her the fuck out of it. Just another day in Miami, I guess…
THE DUDE (OR DUDETTE) MOST LIKELY TO SAVE THE DAY: It’s the Crockett And Tubbs Show - all the way. Like you expected this award to go to anyone else.
EYE CANDY MOST LIKELY TO FIRE UP A WOODY: Colin Farrell and Jaime Foxx are pretty dashing as our two cop heroes. Naomie Harris as Trudie is pretty fetchin’ herself - which is probably why she got picked to be the next Bond Girl in the new Bond film, SKYFALL. Technically, though, Gong Li as the mysterious Isabella is more beautiful than all of them combined, but I can’t give this award to her because she looks too much like my mother. Just like I couldn’t give this award to Harrison Ford in AIR FORCE ONE because he looks too much like my dad. Talk about a conflict of interest.
MOST INTENTIONALLY EXCITING SCENE: The climactic gun battle at the shipyard when Crockett and Tubbs get their cover blown. As opposed to just getting blown. If you know what I mean.
MOST UNINTENTIONALLY EXCITING SCENE: Tubbs fucking Trudie - then pretending to cum too soon. Then he yells “Just kidding” and goes on fucking her. Ha ha ha. Love it. Too bad that usually happens for real in real life.
HOTTEST SCENE: Crockett and Isabella’s impromptu trip to Cuba for the weekend - which starts with her inviting him out for some Mojitos. Damn, Isabella… you could’ve been more specific and told him that bar is actually in Cuba. That’s okay, though - because you two make a pretty couple:
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: Will Crockett and Tubbs succeed in bringing down Montoya’s drug empire? Or will Montoya figure out who they really are - and not only wipe them out, but their loved ones as well? Will Trudie be endangered by Tubbs’ activities? Will Tubbs be able to rescue her when the inevitable happens? And speaking of the inevitable, will Crockett and Isabella’s forbidden affair endure? How can an undercover cop and a drug lord’s girlfriend possibly find love? Will this star-crossed romance survive? Will Crockett and Isabella survive? Will this gorgeous couple have a happy ending, marry, and have gorgeous half-breed kids? Speaking of gorgeous parents and equally gorgeous half-breed kids, here’s the most important question of all… see below:
If my dad looks like a combo of Harrison Ford and Richard Gere…
…and my mom looks like a cross between Gong Li and Halle Berry…
…and my big sister looks like an exotic blend of Famke Janssen and Sandra Bullock…
…and my late older brother and two baby brothers look like exotic blends of Jim Caviezel and Keanu Reeves…
…then someone please explain to me why the fuck I ended up looking like these two:
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH “MIAMI VICE”: If you liked the original TV series from the 80’s. And if you like Michael Mann’s sleek, seductive, intense blend of movie-making that juxtaposes beauty, danger, and moral ambiguity. A world where the line between right and wrong is easily blurred - and easily crossed. And if you worship Colin, Jaime, or Gong…
WHY YOU MAY NOT ENJOY “MIAMI VICE”: If you detested the original TV series. And if you don’t like sexy, intense action/thrillers. Then you might as well go watch a comedy with Kate Hudson or a Disney movie or something equally bubble-gum.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Director Michael Mann is best known for his crime drama HEAT, which is widely acknowledged to be a modern classic. HEAT’s poster tagline is elegant in its simplicity: “A Los Angeles Crime Saga.” And it’s a very apt one. As anyone who lives or has lived in Los Angeles can attest to, HEAT perfectly captures the feel and atmosphere of that city, and the setting was just as much a character as the men and women ensnared in the cops-versus-robbers-heist plotline. Bottom line: like his artistic kindred spirit Ridley Scott, Michael Mann is a director who knows how to use mood, visuals, and atmosphere to not only tell his stories, but also flesh out his characters. In fact, in a Michael Mann film, as in a Ridley Scott film, mood, visuals, and atmosphere are sometimes more telling than the words spoken by the characters.
Before he helmed HEAT, though, Michael Mann was executive producer for the Miami Vice television series from 1984 - 1990 starring Don Johnson. And if you watch episodes from the TV show and compare them to HEAT, you can see many similarities in style: the slick, glossy shots; the brooding, seductive atmosphere; the expressive, hypnotic visuals. Indeed, you can’t help but think that Mann’s tenure as a creative force behind the Miami Vice show trained him to tell HEAT’s story effectively. Essentially, when you get down to it, HEAT is a feature-length, grittier big screen version of a Miami Vice episode. Without Miami Vice, HEAT may not have come to be. Yeah, I said it.
So it’s only fitting that an actual feature-length, grittier big screen version of the Miami Vice show would eventually get the greenlight. When it came out in 2006, MIAMI VICE made a somewhat lukewarm splash at the box-office. In reality, it did reasonably well, but I think many quarters thought - nay, expected - it would reproduce HEAT’s earlier success. When this didn’t happen, it was quickly labeled a misfire or disappointment. The ironic thing is MIAMI VICE is almost as good as HEAT, but because it is a different type of action/thriller, it was compared unfairly to that classic. As a result, MIAMI VICE was viewed as inferior to HEAT, when the truth is that, despite some superficial similarities, they are different underneath.
In HEAT, we explored both sides of the law by following Al Pacino’s cop character and Robert DeNiro’s robber character. We saw them interact with their friends and family. We saw their personal lives and issues. We saw them make mistakes and score some goals. In short, we saw them as three-dimensional human beings. Indeed, HEAT’s complexity is one of the reasons I like it very much. Neither cop nor robber is the bad guy. HEAT essentially has two heroes - one on each side of the law. The ostensible bad guy is actually something of an anti-hero. The closest thing HEAT has to a true villain is a secondary character who spends most of the time off-screen anyway, so he’s not much of a threat. Because of this unusual structure, HEAT is less of an action/thriller - and more of an action/drama.
MIAMI VICE, on the other hand, while having many dramatic elements, is very much a thriller. There’s no question as to who the villains in this movie are: the vicious drug lord Archangel Luis Montoya played with chilly precision by Luis Tosar, as well as his psychotic subordinate Jose Yero played with a more explosive menace by John Ortiz. These two are very formidable baddies. Indeed, even when they are offscreen, their presence is felt like a phantom threat. That’s how powerful their drug cartel is: they have eyes everywhere - and if you cross them, you can run but you cannot hide. HEAT never had this sense of constant danger and menace. Then again, as we discussed, it was more of a drama.
We’ve talked about how thrillers are only as good as their villains. But it is also necessary for the heroes to be worth rooting for. Otherwise, we won’t care for their survival - no matter how credible a threat the baddies are. In MIAMI VICE, Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs sidestep the pitfall of appearing to be nothing more than standard movie cop heroes, and register as believable human beings. And this has a lot to do with the charisma and skill that Colin Farrell and Jaime Foxx bring to the roles. Some of their dialogue is borderline-theatrical and posturing, the kind you wouldn’t hear anywhere but in a movie, but Farrell and Foxx sell the lines because of the conviction they bring to their roles. Both are playing intense characters, but Farrell defines Crockett with a certain brooding quality, while Foxx essays Tubbs as a more humorous personality.
As for the leading ladies, Naomie Harris is fine as Trudie, who nearly pays for her loyalty to Tubbs with her life. Trudie isn’t really given much to do in the script except tag along with Crockett and Tubbs in some of their earlier investigation, and then eventually get kidnapped and threatened. Nevertheless, Harris makes Trudie a tough and feisty presence, and never a victim - even in the last part of the film where she is definitely imperiled. Based on her performances here, in 28 DAYS LATER, and in AFTER THE SUNSET, I can see why Harris was cast as Eve, the new Bond Lady in the new James Bond adventure titled SKYFALL. She excels at playing strong women who are also refreshingly human.
The most interesting presence in the film, though, is beautiful Chinese superstar Gong Li as the icy and mysterious Isabella, who quickly melts when Crockett pursues her. I’m not sure if Isabella was always meant to be Cuban-Chinese, or if Mann wanted to work with Li so much that he tailored the character to her ethnicity. In either case, Li imbues Isabella with multiple levels of tenderness and uncertainty under her super-poised and frosty exterior. Considering Li is not fluent in English, she does reasonably well with her dialogue, as she did in MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (review coming). But an actor’s body language and expressions are just as important - if not more, sometimes - as their words. And Li uses her eyes and the rest of her face and body to convey a lot of what Isabella doesn’t (or can’t) say to Crockett. And she does it in a memorably riveting way.
There’s a lovely scene in Cuba where Crockett and Isabella are walking by a seawall, and she tells him about a fortune she once got from a fortune cookie. It read “Leave Now. Time Is Luck.” And Crockett uses this to try to convince her to leave the drug cartel behind and start a new life. The way Li plays Isabella’s pragmatic response to his plea - both her words and nonverbals - is a great example of how to express volumes of buried feeling through the smallest ways. Indeed, it is the forbidden romance between Isabella and Crockett that ultimately holds MIAMI VICE together. Without it, this movie would’ve lost most of its power. Because we want to see Isabella escape this life - and possibly have one with Crockett. But how can she when she’s neck-deep with the bad guys?
I also like how Mann tells Isabella and Crockett’s relationship through expressions and nonverbals. Watch for the scene in South America where Crockett is on a drug ship getting ready to sail, and Isabella catches sight of him from the dock as she‘s about to get into a waiting vehicle. Isabella is in cool, controlled, and poised business mode - and she just gives him a nod. Then she unexpectedly stands on the SUV’s door frame and leans forward over the roof to get a better view of him on the ship before it leaves - and gives him the sweetest, most child-like smile. And he smiles back the same way. And at the end, when Isabella has to leave the U.S. to stay alive, she stands on the departing boat’s deck while Crockett watches from the dock this time - an inversion of the earlier scene. Isabella moves all the way to the edge of the boat - to get a better view of Crockett. One last time.
Love these scenes. Breaks my heart each time. Especially the expressions on Isabella’s face. I can see why Michael Mann fought to cast Gong Li in this role. She makes it her own.
In the end, MIAMI VICE is nearly as good as HEAT. The thing to remember is this: HEAT was essentially a drama with action, while MIAMI VICE is basically a romantic thriller with action. MIAMI VICE may not have found an audience when it first came out, but here’s something to remember: neither did HEAT. While it was well-praised when it was released in the mid-90s, HEAT technically underperformed at the box-office. It was only when it came out on video that its following grew considerably - until it came to be regarded as a modern classic.
While I doubt MIAMI VICE will be eventually be thought of as a classic, I firmly believe it will garner its own following as time goes by. It’s a very good film that effectively combines a pulse-pounding action/thriller with a sensual and touching love story. And given how very few movies manage to do that these days, that is something to be thankful for.
And, to commemorate the TV series, please see a YouTube vid with the updated music theme. This piece is called "Crockett's Theme." Great music... Would've been perfect for Crockett and Isabella's dangerous affair...
