There are many things about the 80’s which people would like to forget: the big hair, the way-too-bright colors worn by most musicians. One thing which won’t go away, whether folks like it or not, is the TV series Miami Vice. It gave us the trend of soft pastel colors for suits, shoes without socks, Edward James Olmos on a grander scale than we’d ever seen him, and of course a lot of Phil Collins music. The show was created by Anthony Yerkovich and Michael Mann, the latter who has gone on to do far greater things such as the movie Heat and its somewhat lesser counterpart, Collateral. Both have now teamed up, more than 20 years after the initial inception of their baby, to reintroduce it to the world all grown up.
The only things the new movie Miami Vice has in common with its decades-old progenitor, is that there are two cops named “Sonny” Crockett(Colin Farrell) and Rico Tubbs(Jamie Foxx) who work the vice squad in Miami…and the essence of cool which permeates the film. Other than that, welcome to the grown-up, darkly beautiful and ready to mix-it-up Miami Vice.
Michael Mann knows how to make beautiful looking films which give in to a sense of romance for their settings, no matter if the locale is the neon-lit city of Miami or the backwaters of Havana. His stories require patience: if you’re looking for your typical bang-bang/shoot-‘em-up actioner, look elsewhere. Mann demands you give your full attention to the story and character interactions. If your mind tends to drift and you lose track of what’s going on, it’s your bad—not his. While some reviewers have dubbed this film as “slow”, I prefer to think of it as “deliberate”. Miami Vice doesn’t just tell a story about good guys chasing bad guys and the visceral thrill of the takedown at the end. His and Yerkovich’s story is multi-layered; in this world, every character is a living, breathing person. They all have their motivations, whether for good or bad, and no one is ever just one or the other, no matter how clearly delineated their roles seem to be. And yes, there is a price to be had for deal-ing in darkness—whether you’re a “bad” guy or “good”.
As the story opens, Crockett and Rico(Mann and Yerkovich, obviously realizing after all these years how ridiculous and back-ward-thinking it is to have a black character named “Tubbs” in a dramatic role, refer to Foxx’s character only once by his last name. After that, it’s only Ricardo or Rico, and so shall it be here) are in a Miami night club, about to take down a drug lord they’ve been casing for some time. Their bust is interrupted when Crockett receives a call on his cell phone from an informant he hasn’t heard from in months. The informant relays a cryptic message, then cuts out. Firmly displaying how professional and slick Crockett and Rico are, Mann has them use every available bit of tech and federal aid at their command to track down the location of the informant in minutes. Once they find him, things go south from there. It turns out the poor guy was helping out some federal agents and some-how he was made. The drug dealers held his wife and children hostage in order to make him give up all info on any agents he had contact with. Luckily, he had the foresight to divulge all he knew except what he had on Crockett and Rico. Turns out now the dealers killed his family after all, and so the informant commits suicide in a very immediate way. To make matters worse, the agents he gave up are subsequently killed as well.
With this as a springboard, Crockett and Rico begin what seems to be an investigation into a simple bust gone wrong in a seriously bad way. Of course, this being a story by Michael Mann, things are infinitely more complicated. The executioners of the fed agents, white supremacists, are actually hired goons paid off by the notorious drug lord Arcangel de Jesus Montoya(Luis Tosar). Montoya himself actually works for an even worse drug master-mind on almost every federal agency’s most wanted list. With this bit of news as impetus—and at the behest of their boss, Lt. Martin Castillo(originally played in the series by Edward James Olmos, here by Barry Shabaka Henley)—our heroes set off to do their most dangerous undercover work ever. The type of work where, if your cover is blown, not only are you dead, but everyone you know as well. These drug dealers play for keeps, no holds barred.
But then again, so do Crockett and Rico. At their initial meeting with Montoya, at his first sense of something being not quite legit about the duo, Crockett proves the seriousness of their business by pulling the pin out of a live grenade. The point: we can either discuss business like gentlemen(with guns pointed at each other, of course) or we can all go down together. With the main kingpin’s kept woman, Isabella(Gong Li) acting as her man’s proxy, Montoya agrees to do business.
There are issues within the story which are only moderately addressed, but leave the audience with something to think about. One of these is: how deep in is too deep, and how much lesser evil should be allowed in order to accomplish a greater good? Crockett and Rico are in this to bring down a major drug kingpin, but must pose as drug runners in order to do so. In order to be convincing, they must accomplish several drug deliveries of sizable quantities successfully. Of course, we the audience realize at least on a subconscious level that the successful delivery of the drugs means millions more addictions being made by teens, preg-nant mothers, your standard junkies and others. On the other hand of course, we don’t want our heroes to get killed and we want them to get that bad guy. Therein lies one dichotomy of the story, typical in any film of Michael Mann’s. There is no clearly defined “good” and “evil”: everything is a shade of grey.
Very early on—almost too early, I thought—Crockett becomes involved with Isabella, prodded on by an intensely meaningful look she gives him as they part from one of their “meet and greets”. When Rico realizes exactly how involved they are, he tells him in no uncertain terms: “Remember that when this all goes down, she’s with them.” Of course, Rico has problems of his own: he’s dating a fellow vice officer, Trudy(Naomie Harris, currently seen in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest). Stupidly, he intro-duces her at one point to Montoya while at a club as “his girl”. Of course, Trudy is eventually captured, beaten and held hostage by the hired supremacist thugs. Her rescue by Crockett, Rico and their allies is a truly intense scene, exceptionally well directed and played out, and ends with a twist I didn’t see coming. Bravo.
There are a few other nifty surprises in Miami Vice, though on some levels the movie does share some of the same faults as its small screen sibling. For one, it’s now the new millennium, yet the story itself is mostly a showcase for the white partner. Thanks to his performance in Ray and his subsequent Oscar win, Jamie Foxx is now a major star in Hollywood, and the character of Rico should certainly have been given more to do except basically agree with his partner and provide backup. However, in the few scenes that do focus on Foxx, he owns them all. One important part of the story—even essential to some degree—is the fact that for the story to be set into motion by the betrayal of the informant, obvi-ously there must be a leak in one of the federal agencies. The characters even discuss this a couple of times. However, the informant is never revealed or captured.
Also, once the big shootout at the end does eventually occur and that part of the story resolves itself, it is only to a degree. The main drug lord escapes unscathed, and the movie simply ends. I’m still trying to decide if I like that or not, but I do understand why Mann did it the way he did. By not resolving all story issues in the obvious manner to which audiences have been trained by Holly-wood mandate, Mann has given us the idea that this place, this setting, these characters, go on even after the credits have rolled and the lights have come up. This Miami Vice, unlike the TV series, is its own self-sustaining universe. Whether or not there is a sequel is actually inconsequential and on some level, even unnecessary. Tomorrow, while you and I go to work or otherwise about our lives, “Sonny” Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs will be wait-ing for the sun to go down so they can go on the prowl for more criminals to catch, more vices to break. For them, there’s always going to be “something in the air tonight”.
And that’s not a bad thing.
Miami Vice
(Still cool after all these years...)
A new Vice for a new millennium. It's about time a remake of a TV series was done right.
He's no Edward James Olmos, but Barry Shabaka Henley does well in the role of Lieutenant Castillo.
Gong Li and Luis Tosar bring an air of sexuality and menace to their roles as Isabella and Montoya.
Like the TV incarnation, this Vice sets women as equals in battle--on both sides of the law.
Crockett begins a dangerous affair with gang moll Isabella.
Still cool after all these years...
