Reviews of Miami Vice

Terrible!

Posted : 7 months, 2 weeks ago on 21 April 2008 06:48 (A review of Miami Vice)

I had been eagerly anticipating the release of this film ever since I discovered that it was another action/thriller from director Michael Mann. Some of Mann's previous films, like Collateral and Heat, are in my opinion arguably among the best films ever made. But when I finally saw Miami Vice I was drastically disappointed. It is a long, drawn out and an incredibly boring film that I wish had never come to fruition.

Miami Vice is an update of the old TV show of the same name; this hard to understand film is basically about two cops whose professional and personal lives become dangerously intertwined. Then there's some convoluted mumbo jumbo about drug dealing with a bunch of unnecessary red herrings in addition to a bunch of horrible sub-plots just to stretch out the running time. That's pretty much all I got of it because not much other exposition is revealed.

The plot is about as weak and non-existent as my enjoyment of this film. The film is structured very unevenly, performances are mediocre, and the action was not at all exciting. I mean, I expected the action to be good (this is the director of Heat we're talking about here) but it's bleak, uninspired and just plain monotonous.

Miami Vice is also a crime film, and hence it is also very hard to follow. The poorly written screenplay included dialogue that is hard to understand and impossible to listen to. It seems that the dialogue is played so softly compared to everything else, so a scene heavy in dialogue did nothing for the film. It didn't make a lick of sense, and I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on.

Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx both deliver very poor performance here, which is a real shame because they've both been in some fantastic movies (Foxx was in Collateral, the film Mann directed prior to this mess). The film is also far too long, with my interest disappearing after the first few minutes!

Miami Vice is pointless, worthless and boring. It contains bad casting, bad editing, bad filming, bad sound, bland cinematography and bad directing. Heck, even the sex scenes were boring! It took me countless sittings to sit through this boring film. On incalculable occasions I started watching the film but had to turn it off only to begin watching it again another day. If only this torturous pile of rubbish remained on paper. One of the worst films of '06. Avoid.

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Miami Vice review

Posted : 11 months, 2 weeks ago on 20 December 2007 09:26 (A review of Miami Vice)

I had a joyful experience, when I viewed this film. Jamie Foxx, and Colin Farrell, did great jobs. The action scenes, were very entertaining. And the plot, was very exciting. This is an overall great film.

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Largely disappointing.

Posted : 1 year, 9 months ago on 12 February 2007 12:38 (A review of Miami Vice)

Considering this production had Michael Mann at the helm, I really expected something more, especially with his track record. The film suffered from several flaws:

1. Jamie Foxx is a talented actor, but he was left on the sidelines for most of this film. Tubbs was AWOL for most of the film in fact, only popping up here and there.

2. They never really got to the bottom of the case they're working on. They didn't catch the head honcho who they were hunting from the beginning and more importantly (though completely forgotten in the film) they failed to sniff out the mole in the police department that was responsible for the deaths of countless undercover agents.

3. I thought the love story was pretty trite, superficial and really not necessary.

The highlight for me was the gunfight at the end, with some extremely beefy sounding weapons (Mann trademark!) But that's a pretty miserable highlight when such a gifted director is in control.


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TV to Big Screen at its Best

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 27 December 2006 08:42 (A review of Miami Vice)

The remake was a little suspect, but Michael Mann's transition of his famed television crime drama to the big screen was a big success largely in part to his gritty camera angles and action sequences reminiscent of Heat. Although slow at some parts, the focus on the characters love lives really drew you into what the television show was all about. Colin Farrell and Jamie Fox were a dynamic duo of sorts and really captured the roles.

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