Miami Vice

I never saw the show while growing up. I’d of course heard of it, but I never watched an episode during its run during the mid to late 80s. It was only in the last few years that I learned that my favorite director, Michael Mann, was actually one of the creative geniuses behind the conception of the show, and that he served as the show’s executive producer.

His influence can definitely be felt!

When I first learned that Mann was going to direct a feature film based on the show, I was at the same time ecstatic and dubious—ecstatic because my favorite director was going to release a new film on something that he happened to have worked on in the past, dubious because of the casting (I’m sorry, but he could have done much better than Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx). To prepare for my seeing the movie, I rented a DVD of the show from Netflix. I decided to watch the pilot and a few first-season episodes, just to wet my whistle a little (even though I’d heard that the movie would little resemble the show).

Being a fan of Michael Mann, I right away started looking for his influence, his style, when I first popped in the pilot episode. Though I think I was sidetracked by the laughably dated feel to the opening shot of the pilot—Tubbs sitting on a dark New York street late at night, inside one of those ugly mid-80s Buicks that’s about the size of a U-boat. (The poofy hair didn’t help much, either.) But gradually as the episode went on (it was a 2-hour show, which I should have figured, given that it was the pilot episode), Mann’s cool style ever so slowly became more evident—from Crockett’s classic Ferrari to his sleek white suits to the sexy beach scenes . . . even right down to the background music! The music was, of course, mid-80s, but the pieces fit their respective scenes so perfectly! Like when Martin Ferraro dressed in drag is walking up the beach to kill a very young and almost unrecognizable Mykelti Williamson (I think he’s become a serious Michael Mann regular), I can’t quite recall what music was playing, but it really hit the scene dead on.

One of my favorite scenes from the pilot, which so perfectly reflects Mann’s style, was when Crockett and Tubbs were with colleagues (and love interests, I gathered) Gina and Trudy at the outdoor club, talking about finding the gangster Calderone. And damn, but do you get immersed in 80s culture! The band on stage is playing “All Night Long” (which I hated for years, until I heard it in the context of this show, and thankfully reassociated it for me), Trudy and Gina’s hair couldn’t be any more poofy, and I can’t even describe the clothes except to say . . . “80s”! But then Tubbs turns around and sees Calderone raising his glass to them (because he’s just bought them a bottle of bubbly), and when Tubbs walks through the crowd of dancers against the trademark trumpet fanfare of “All Night Long”, that look of absolute death on his face . . . that’s pure Michael Mann, baby!

And it wouldn’t be right of me not to mention the legendary “In the Air Tonight” scene of Crockett and Tubbs driving to their supposed final showdown with Calderone, and Crockett wanting to say some sort of goodbye to his ex-wife. You know, I should probably let the scene speak for itself here, for I surely couldn’t do it justice in my own words.



Here and now in 2006, after several of Mann’s movies and maybe 2 episodes of Miami Vice, his style is old hat to me, but nevertheless savory filmmaking. In 1984, though . . . Mann was way ahead of his time.

Which now brings me to the 2006 film version of Miami Vice.

As I said earlier, I was very dubious when I heard who would be filling the roles of Crockett and Tubbs. Let me state here and now that I do like Jamie Foxx as an actor, but I think he’s seriously milking his Oscar win for much more than it’s worth, because he’s now turning into a latter-day Samuel L. Jackson by being in damn near everything. In doing so, he’s wearing out his welcome for me. He was awesome in Ray, though I was puzzled by his Oscar nomination for Collateral (I think if anyone deserved an Oscar nomination, it should have been Cruise for playing a stunningly convincing bad guy), though with seeing Foxx in Miami Vice, Jarhead, Ali, Any Given Sunday, and now Dreamgirls, he’s getting a bit old. And his contribution to Miami Vice was minimal, at best, because the character of Tubbs was given very little screen time or relevance, other than just “being there” overall.

Colin Farrell, having already earned a reputation with the ladies in Hollywood and as being a somewhat unconvincing actor (at least for me), didn’t give me hope for him to adequately fill Don Johnson’s shoes as Sonny Crockett. The film very clearly revolved around him as Crockett—and to a lesser extent, his relationship with Isabella—and didn’t give any real focus to his partnership with Tubbs. To date, the only thing I’ve liked Colin Farrell in was Minority Report.

But getting back to the film version of Miami Vice, it did have several good points. The Mann style was very firmly there, with the cool cars, designer suits, ladies in bikinis, and even the speedboats (I think it was noted as being the only holdover from the original series). There was a kick-ass gunfight somewhat reminiscent of the legendary bank heist and subsequent firefight from Heat (Mann’s masterpiece, in my opinion). There was quite a lot of gore (e.g., blood spattering all over the wall when someone’s brains got blown out), as the action came pretty rapid-fire without any lingering or slow-motion camerawork—probably more reflective of real life, actually! But I think the focus here was on style, and not so much on story or character. What made Heat a masterpiece was that it perfectly blended style with a character study, made you care about and really understand the two main characters (who just so happened to be Al Pacino and Robert De Niro). With Miami Vice, it was an overabundance of style and an underabundance of character. For the people (unlike me) who grew to know the original Crockett and Tubbs inside and out, I think they would have benefited from more character development—not to mention better actors. (As a side note, I was a little disappointed that they played a guitar-heavy remake of “In the Air Tonight” during the closing credits rather than the original Phil Collins version. What can I say—I’m a purist.)

For me, I’d have to give the movie 7 out of 10, but that may be partially due to my love of Michael Mann as a filmmaker. Because as was evidenced in this recent addition to his filmography, even at 64 years young, the man (or should I say, the Mann) has still got it!