Miami Vice

Rating: R16 – Contains Violence.
Duration: 113 mins.
Genre: Action & Adventure.
Actors: Ciaran Hinds, Naomie Harris, Jamie Foxx, Justin Theroux, Colin Farrell, Gong Li, Barry Shabaka Henley, John Ortiz.
Director: Michael Mann.
Release Date: Available Now.

Written and directed by Michael Mann, Miami Vice was full of promise. For one, it was based on one of the best TV shows to come out of the 80’s, and it was being written and directed by the very same Mann that helmed the TV series as well as The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider and Collateral. It should have been a sure fire hit.

But it wasn’t.

Instead of being an action flick, which is what its pretence is, it tries so very hard to be cool.

What Mann forgets, is that the audience has grown up since Miami Vice hit the TV screens.

The audience now wants one of two things – either a really well written thriller along the lines of Mann’s own Collateral, or a kick arse action flick like JJ Abrams Mission Impossible 3.

Just trying to be cool won’t cut it.

Maybe, and this is just a maybe, it would have worked better if he’d made it into a camp comedy with Foxx and Farrell strutting there stuff in pastel, with a huge soundtrack of 80’s hits. Throw in a cameo by the Wedding Singer Adam Sandler and you might just have a huge cult comedy.

But no, Mann wanted to be cool, try and resurrect an 80’s TV show into a movie, without adding any action to take care of the longer run time and shorter attention spans.

The only redeeming feature of this DVD is that it comes with a teaser trailer for Hot Fuzz.

Food for thought:
Can an 80’s TV show ever be properly re-done?

Rent or Buy?
Neither, rent Mission Impossible 3 .