Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3137 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-11-27
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 146 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Bearing absolutely no resemblance to the 1980s TV series that helped to propel Michael Mann into big-time filmmaking, Miami Vice is the kind of serious, and seriously stylish, crime drama that Mann does better than anyone else. As written by Mann himself, this undercover sting thriller doesn't reach the peak intensity of Mann's 1995 classic Heat, and it lacks the tight, nail-biting suspense of Collateral, but that doesn't mean it doesn't occasionally pack a wallop. As Miami detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs (respectively), Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx don't have to do much but mumble their plot-thickening dialogue and look ultra-cool in the casual cop attire, and their partnership is rather lifeless on screen (perhaps owing to the fact that this was a troubled production, with an actual shooting that occurred during filming, and Foxx's refusal to risk his life on dangerous locations in South America). But once Mann shifts into high gear with a plot to foil a powerful drug kingpin (Luis Tosar) and his ruthless middle-man (John Ortiz), Vice pays off with the kind of smart, realistic action that Mann's fans have come to expect. With Chinese superstar Gong Li as Crockett's love interest on the wrong side of the law, Miami Vice covers territory that's a little too familiar, and one suspects Mann's screenplay might've been punched up with a polish or two. Still, this is an above-average crime thriller that demands and rewards close attention, with a climactic shoot-out that's pure Mann, worthy of the brooding drama that precedes it. --Jeff Shannon

Synopsis
MIAMI VICE follows the violent adventures of Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Tubbs (Jamie Foxx). With Miami at the centre of a global drug trade, their job of stopping illegal trafficking is hard and dangerous work, yet they are also rewarded with gorgeous girls and local celebrity. But their access to wealth, drugs, and power is tempting, and both men continually struggle with personal demons to stay on the right side of the law. In 1984, director Michael Mann made television--and fashion--history with his action-packed, neon-lit crime series, MIAMI VICE. The series was a hit for five years and became a cultural phenomenon. Now Mann, who has made quite a career for himself in Hollywood, with Oscar-nominated films including ALI, HEAT, and THE INSIDER, updates his small-screen hit for the movie going public, crafting a sparkling, roller-coaster ride of a movie that is perfectly complemented by its bright colours and kinetic movement. From a frenetic opening scene at a nightclub to an undercover infiltration of a South American drug cartel, the action barely lets up. And when Crockett meets the irresistible Isabella (Chinese bombshell Gong Li), the mistress of hotshot drug dealer Jesus Montoya (Luis Tosar), business mixes dangerously with pleasure, on dance floors and between sheets. As he did with the television show, Mann manages to make a guilty pleasure psychologically nuanced and politically charged--eye candy with depth. And despite the mesmerizing cinematography, the actors manage to be as striking as their surroundings, turning in strong, dynamic performances.

Customer Reviews

The most boring film of the year. Bar none.
I love realism in films. I love watching Colin Farrell. I love watching Jamie Foxx. Both are remarkably talented and versatile actors. So after the interesting opening and its highly authentic 'operation going wrong' drama I settled in for an exciting film. What I got was an extraordinarily slowly and languidly filmed relationship drama that centred needlessly and in enormous length on Farrell's pursuit of his stereotype drug dealer femme fatale target, lots of long glowering looks, minimal drama, overfast mumbled lines, and such an astonishingly dull film that by the last half hour I was actually sitting forward and forcing my eyes wide open to keep from falling asleep. Give it a miss. Unless you're tired. Then run out and hire it as fast as you can.

Outstanding Mann film
This is an outstanding movie, regardless of whether it's a remake, or resources original material, or is related to the 1980s tv show in any way. Michael Mann is an outstanding director fusing European art tradition with a blue collar contemporary command of thriller making. This is a very literate film and many of the reviews on Amazon are obviously by people unable to digest the attention to detail that went into this film.

The film is carefully textured, shot and constructed. The characters speak through performance and the subtleties of dialogue rather than simplistic action.

This is a film for anyone who wants to be enveloped in a three dimensional world of contemporary Miami told through the excitement and energy of crime and people who live outside normal rules (the feature that unites both the cops and the villains).

See it and be prepared to be carried beyond normal thriller story telling.

Miami Mice
This movie version of the eighties (ahem) classic TV series is a strange beast indeed because there is very little to link the two, aside location and main character names. The disastrous fashion crimes committed by Don Johnson would have surely made this a candidate for "Starsky and Hutch" style comedy treatment but - to the studios credit - they instead chose to make an atmospheric, straight played update. To a degree this tack works; the feel is a bit like the Miami Vice in Crockett's Theme mode and Michael Mann's direction is superb with most of the action taking place at night and reminiscent of his earlier - more satisfying film - Collateral, however the story is a simplistic affair, complicated only by impenetrable dialogue and you'll have forgotten everything - bar Colin Farrell's appalling disaster of a barnet - by morning.