MIAMI VICE
A Deeper, Dangerous and Sexier Undercover
"Vice"
PopcornReel.com Film Review: "Miami Vice"
By Omar P.L. Moore/July 25, 2006
Business and style undercover of
darkness: Colin Farrell as Det. James "Sonny" Crockett and Oscar-winner Jamie
Foxx as Det. Ricardo Tubbs, in Michael Mann's "Miami Vice."
(All photos: Frank Connor/Universal Pictures)
"Miami Vice" is best described as a
film that is an operation rather than a story. Like its director Michael
Mann, the film is detailed and highly thorough. "Miami Vice" is also
vivacious, alluring and supremely stunning to look at, thanks to the brilliance
of cinematographer Dion Beebe and his technical expertise with high-definition
and digital cameras which see far deeper than any cameras have a right to.
The story is the undercover operation that Crockett and Tubbs are in too
deep on -- an operation that goes wrong from the start. When two prior
undercover narcotics Fed agents are assassinated in voyeuristic style (which
makes their slayings so very real) it marks the beginning of an uphill climb for
Miami-Dade County Police, whom it turns out, were never part of the proceedings.
After a tense introduction the partners infiltrate their way into drug middleman
Jose Yero's operation -- drugs can be moved in a matter of minutes and lives can
be over in even less time than that. To complicate matters, when the bad
guy's lady Isabella (Gong Li) is a shrewd businesswoman who Crockett falls for,
the stakes are raised higher. "Miami Vice" is about upping the ante and
raising the temperature of death, even before the question of stripping away a
true identity comes into question.
As Ricardo Tubbs and Sonny Crockett respectively, Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell
have surprisingly little dialogue between them -- but that seems by the
director's design. The point is that the two know each other as detectives
so very well that little needs to be said. Any chemistry that occurs is
through instinct and experience. One of the lines delivered by Mr. Foxx to
Mr. Farrell crystallizes "Miami Vice": "there's undercover, and then there's
which way is up." The nearest element of tension between them comes just
after Mr. Foxx delivers the line "I never doubted you for a second." He
gives Mr. Farrell's Crockett an abrasive glare as he walks off in the night.
Mostly, Mr. Foxx has the better lines and is an expert at delivering comedic
lines during the tensest of situations. He did much the same for Mr. Mann
in "Collateral" in their previous collaboration in 2004. Mr. Farrell,
though receiving second star billing behind Oscar-winner Foxx, has the lion's
share of the action in the film, and in the end credits roll his name tops the
list. Mr. Farrell is supremely convincing as a tough-talking, confident,
and instinctual cop undercover, while he also brilliantly manages to maintain
what some bad guys might call a look of "cop's eyes", making him tough and
vulnerable. His performance is noteworthy. He speaks in mild,
smooth, stilted and essential tones -- providing the most distilled information
about drug operations with an economy of words, almost a shorthand that is
precise beyond measure.
Precious love,
dangerous love: The edge of undercover as discovered by Colin Farrell (far right
with Gong Li), and left, the precious love between Jamie Foxx and Naomie Harris
in "Miami Vice."
Mr. Mann narrows his focus to this undercover operation, and while relationships with the opposite sex are defined early on in several sensual scenes as in his previous films ("Heat") we know that when business and pleasure mix, it will be business that ultimately prevails. Mr. Mann's screenplay is solid, with searing dialogue from a real world of undercover, or U.C. Some parts of the Mann script have a gap or two, but nothing of major distraction. Again -- there isn't an essential story in "Miami Vice", it is the operation that is the story -- that is the whole movie, in fact. And it is the level of layered detail in the way the participants in the drug trade on all sides speak that is astounding. Several standout characters are Jose Yero (John Ortiz), stateless plutocrat and drug overlord Jesus Montoya (Luis Tosar) and on the undercover side, actor Elizabeth Rodriguez as sharp-shooter Det. Gina Calabrese, who has a couple of taut, direct lines when encountering a white supremacist who has kidnapped Trudy (Naomie Harris) the intelligence analyst and girlfriend that Tubbs lives with. Mr. Ortiz is tremendous as Jose Yero. At one of several high-priced nightclubs he owns he sarcastically intones, "I am a disco king." The expression on his face as he says this line is more than understated. Mr. Foxx has another line that snaps from his character Tubbs during a tense situation with Yero: "we can close each other's eyes right now, real fast."
Apart from the immediate color and energy of
the film is the suddenness and randomness of the events that occur. One
minute we are in South Beach, the next in Uruguay, the next in the Dominican
Republic, the next in Brazil. At the same time, at one moment we view an
anguished informant who tearfully confesses that he has given up the undercover
officers in a drug buy, the very next a truck has blindsided him and as it
speeds away a trail of blood slicks the Interstate 95 highway. It is these
episodes that add realism, shock, and weight to the film. The editors
William Goldenberg and Paul Rubell (the latter edited "Collateral") are to be
thanked for cutting scenes at all the right junctures.
Naomie Harris as Trudy, a Miami-Dade police intelligence specialist, and Gong Li
as a Chinese-Colombian drug businesswoman, in "Miami Vice".
Right from the get-go we are in the world that Tubbs and Crockett are in --
Miami -- neon lights, grit, heat, the night -- none of the brightness or sunny
beach scenery visitors to South Beach are accustomed to. This is a Miami
that is hot, dirty, salacious and dangerous. Mr. Mann reprises several
scenes and themes from his prior films. First, nightclubs. The
expansive nightclub sequence at the start of the film is also similar to a
nightclub scene in "Collateral", where Tom Cruise does his dirty work as an
assassin in a pivotal sequence. And in "Heat", there is a nightclub scene
without all the bright lights and neon of the club scenes of the other two Mann
films. The second reprise are helicopters. There is a nighttime
helicopter sequence from the vehicle's perspective where we see the night lights
of Miami illuminated in the deep night beautifully by Mr. Beebe's
high-definition cameras. The nightlights were also clear and deep in
"Collateral" and "Heat", films focused exclusively in Los Angeles. The
third reprise is the nighttime car speeding early on in the film. Mr.
Beebe's camera picks up the night along Florida's Interstate 95. Signs for
Bay Biscayne appear overhead as we are introduced to Alonzo (John Hawkes), an
informant in deep trouble -- he speeds recklessly, weaving maddeningly through
traffic. This speeding on the freeway at night is reminiscent of that in
"Collateral", but more so in "Heat". Another reprise is a gun battle where
some of the dialogue, such as the word "go!" is shouted, just as it was during
the extensive gun battle in "Heat". Even the oceanfront house in which one
notorious drug dealer resides looks identical to the one Mr. De Niro's Neil
McCauley owns in "Heat".
There are also delicate camera slow motion moves that appear in the three films
("Heat", "Collateral", "Miami Vice") and the musical piece "Fate Scrapes" from
the "Heat" soundtrack as performed by Elliot Goldenthal, is reprised both in
"Collateral" and in this new Mann film -- each time signifying that someone's
fate has, or will soon be sealed. Apart from Spike Lee, no other American
film director emphasizes music as part of the mood and feel of his films more
than Michael Mann. Music is always a key ingredient and the soundtrack to
"Miami Vice" is no exception. Moby who contributed on "Heat" with his
classic "God Moving Over The Face of the Waters", returns here with his cool,
moody "One of These Mornings", sung wonderfully by Patti LaBelle, features
during and after the film's conclusion, into the end credits. Audioslave's
"Shape of Things to Come" and "Wide Awake" play during the lovemaking scenes,
while the late great Nina Simone sings "Sinnerman". India.Arie is smooth,
mellow and soulful on her song "Ready For Love." The only disappointment
on the movie's soundtrack is "In The Air Tonight" -- the Phil Collins original
that featured on the television series is absent -- instead here it is performed
by Nonpoint in a less-than-memorable cover version. The music score
soundtrack by John Murphy is a good one, adding poignancy when and where it is
needed.
By sea or by land: The boat chase filmed in High Definition, and the
conventional land transportation of the two protagonists in "Miami Vice."
Michael Mann's films are the kind that grow on you. There is such a high
level of detail and saturation -- some of it muted and some of it very dense --
that it leaves an impression far beyond the end credits. Typically, films
like his -- particularly "Collateral" and this latest spectacle -- require a
second viewing for greater depth, insight and appreciation. Some viewers
may find "Miami Vice" to be unremarkable as action films go -- perhaps because
this film isn't action-oriented -- it isn't really an action film, despite the
very blunt and realistic violence that emerges throughout. "Miami Vice" is
all about tactics and their end results, and in the end if an action sequence
takes place it does so purely out of the crescendo of non-options that dueling
characters have exhausted or are faced with. The action and violence flow
from these consequences, straight from the screenplay. "Miami Vice" is
also about trust, betrayal, and identity: who someone is that becomes so lost
they have forgotten who they are. Drug informants who once had their
identities as family men, as detectives who live on the other side of the law to
preserve the right side of the law -- at a most expensive price.
Though both Crockett and Tubbs and crew are
extremely proficient, Mr. Mann never stacks the deck against villains.
They too, as in prior films "Collateral" (Mr. Cruise) and "Heat" (Robert De Niro)
are proficient, if not more so than the dogged detectives who are pursuing them.
In "Miami Vice" the character Jose Yero has counter-intelligence running on
Crockett and Tubbs, and still has a drug dealer's perceptive eye and instinct
that something just isn't right with "the Americans." The look Yero (John
Ortiz) gives Crockett and Isabella as they dance is a penetrating glare -- one
of his eyes wells up with water -- he is heartbroken -- he knows he is being
infiltrated and cheated on -- even if Isabella -- who is his right-hand
businesswoman -- is not his wife.
Both Crockett and Isabella know that their affinity for each other has its
limitations and when that time comes, Gong Li gives Isabella a tragic demeanor.
She is as a pigeon trapped between two dangerous worlds, being set free to fly
away. This sequence is as beautifully evocative and sad as anything that
Mr. Mann films in "Miami Vice". By contrast, less is known about the
boyfriend-girlfriend relationship between Trudy and Tubbs, but the sensuality
and playfulness between them speaks volumes. It is in these scenes between
Mr. Foxx and Ms. Harris (who is busy on screen right now in the smash-hit
"Pirates" sequel) that are most natural and convincing, more so than their
dialogue together, of which there is very little. Both of these actors
have natural chemistry together in their playful scenes of sensuality and it
shows.
Vintage "Vice": Style and attitude by Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx in Michael
Mann's film.
Michael Mann is very serious about getting his actors to really do the things that his characters would do. In "Miami Vice" there are shots of Jamie Foxx actually flying a twin-engine jet plane in one of the picturesque locations of the film. Mr. Foxx also landed and effectively lifted-off the plane during filming. Colin Farrell also drove down the streets and highways of Miami at night at speeds topping 120 miles an hour. The camera revels in making sure that audience members know that the actors and not professional drivers drove the vehicles, be they by land, air or sea. (Mr. Farrell also drove the Mojo boat seen in the film at high-speeds as it cuts through the Miami waters.)
Mr. Mann's canvas is spread across numerous
locations: dangerous neighborhoods in the Dominican Republic, as well as
locations in Uruguay, Brazil and elsewhere. Each has its own distinct
look, whether it is a glamorous shot of a plane splitting through near-perfectly
puffed-up clouds, or of the plane gliding over forests, or a view of the water
for as far as the eye can see -- all these vistas have but one thing in common:
they look good. There is an early shot of the lead protagonists on top of
a roof and in the distance the high definition digital cameras bring into sharp
and authentic focus the lights that illuminate the night. Even the
lightning that crackles in the Florida night sky is illuminated to vivid effect.
Barry Shabaka Henley, who plays Lieutenant Castillo (Edward James Olmos'
televison character), appears in a shot that is striking (the picture is
captured below.) Mr. Henley has appeared in prior Mann films ("Ali" and
"Collateral".) Chinese actor Gong Li brings her illustrious resume
("Farewell My Concubine", "To Live", "Raise the Red Lantern", "Memoirs of a
Geisha" among others) to this film and does a good job considering that she
plays a Chinese-Colombian business woman, and doesn't speak a lick of English or
Spanish in real life. There is a raw, untamed chemistry that flickers
between Ms. Li and Mr. Farrell in a litany of scenes that they share.
Good guys, bad guys in black: Barry Shabaka Henley as Lt. Castillo of the Miami-Dade Police Department; and John Ortiz as Jose Yero the Colombian drug middleman, in Michael Mann's film.
Comparisons to the television series of the same name, are inevitable -- Mr. Farrell carves out a new and distinct Crockett, a flirtatious risk-taker, and more macho and grizzled than Don Johnson's television incarnation. Mr. Foxx is a street-tough, street-wise, forcefully-intelligent, quick-thinking Tubbs, whose only remnants of Philip Michael Thomas' creation, is the swagger and bravado of Mr. Thomas in Tubbs. Mr. Foxx with this mannerism comes closest in the film to making an homage to the television series, which Anthony Yerkovich created. Mr. Yerkovich is an executive producer on Mr. Mann's film. (Mr. Mann had also directed and produced several episodes of the television series.)
People reading this extensive review who have always wanted to be in a movie, or
always wanted to be in a Michael Mann movie, don't even have to contact the
film's casting director Francine Maisler. They can simply take a trip to
their local multiplex and immerse themselves in Michael Mann's visually
scintillating "Miami Vice".
Copyright 2006. PopcornReel.com.
All Rights Reserved.
"Miami Vice" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for
strong violence, language and some sexual content. The film's duration is
two hours and 12 minutes. The film also stars Ciaran Hinds as an FBI Agent
Chief in Miami, and Justin Theroux as Det. Zito.