Review of Miami Vice (2006) by Thomas B — 29 Mar 2009

"This film is highly misunderstood. Miami Vice doesn't operate on the level of a typical cop drama. Exciting action sequences, detailed characterization, and a-typical one-liners are practically ignored.

Mann goes his own direction in creating a film about a never ending night life that consumes its inhabitant's lives. The only obvious homage Mann pays to the original television show is his injection of tough guy dialogue between Tubbs and Crockett.

In choosing to shoot in digital, Mann creates a dreamy and outwardly like atmosphere of twinkling city lights and grainy landscapes. It's a world that pulsates with excitement and moments of fleeting passion, but also casts a spell of extreme melancholy.

The world which these characters inhabit( a world that's immediately grabbing via underwater shots of a boat race or an abrupt opening inside a dimly lit dance club, depending on the version) is one that operates outside the realm of accustomed reality.

As Mann sees it, time has no bearing. Abrupt cutting and fragmented story line create an atmosphere of detachment and alienation. The underground night life of Miami Vice is both remote and cruel. Relationships and moments of enjoyment are brief and distant.

The characters receive little development and are given no real arc because they live in stagnation, never able to free themselves from the shackles of an entrapped existence. In a way, the only identities that they have are the ones in which they take on for the good of the job.

Violence in this film is shot with a cold bluntness. Death is just one of those things. The final score that Mann chooses to play is one that rings with sad repetition for the lives we desire but can never obtain.

" - Quoted from RT poster Moviemoose4, Monday March 30th, 2009.