Miami Vice

DarqueKnight

I went to see Miami Vice this afternoon. I knew the studio felt they had to "dumb it down" for today's audiences, but they went far too far. It had the potential for a good story, but everyone, the lead and supporting actors, the cinematographer, the director...all seemed to be just going through the motions. Now I understand why Edward James Olmos and Jan Hammer declined participation in the film.

Acting

The Crockett and Tubbs in this movie are not the cool, stylish, interesting, undercover cops from the late 1980's television series. This Crockett and Tubbs are two tired soldiers in the war on drugs. Maybe they were going for an interpretation of their characters as two dissociated war-weary vice cops. Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrel phoned in their performances. Both of them act like they want to read through their lines as quickly as possible and collect their multimillion dollar paychecks. There is no background information or character development for any of the main characters. The viewers are asked to accept everyone at face value.

The supporting characters are little more than walking, talking set dressing. Even the three love scenes were boring.

Direction

The story kept skipping from subplot to subplot. Just when you think something interesting might happen....click...switch to the next subplot. There was a rushed feeling at the end to tie all the loose ends together.

Cinematography

The picture is slightly blurred and out of focus in a lot of areas, particularly aerial shots taken in the daytime. A lot of the story takes place in dimly lit locations with a grainy look to the picture. I tend to overlook such things when I am engrossed in the story. No such luck here.

Sound

The sound quality was average to below average. There were a few places where dialog was difficult to understand.

Music

The TV series featured music from the top artists of the time. There is nothing memorable (at least not to me) about any of the music in this film. "In The Air Tonight", which is abrasively performed by some band I've never heard of, plays at the end of the film as the credits begin rolling.

If you want to see a decent movie about Miami vice cops save your time and cash and rent Bad Boys I and II. Better yet, buy seasons I and II of the original Miami Vice TV series that is available on DVD.

I rate it 1 star out of 5 (And that's being overly generous).

apc

I too noticed the grainy scenes. I saw it last night in a new theater with a digital projection and was surprised at the lack of quality in many scenes. This had to be done intentionally, but it detracted from the experience as opposed to being an artistic enhancement.

I liked the original series way back when and usually never appreciate the actors who portray characters we are already familiar with. That said, it wasn't as bad as some say, but to each his own. I thought it was pretty good entertainment and the sound quality of one of the long gun battles was outstanding in the surround sound theater I saw it.

Ricardo

I made the mistake of watching this today...OMG what a crappy movie.

MacLeod

Yeah, thats what I just keep on hearing.

I even thought of renting it a couple days ago but I think Ill wait til it comes on HBO and watch it between commercial breaks of House.

shawn474

My review of the movie (watched it today):

I had back surgery last week and in my recovery rented A LOT of movies to watch while laid up. My short and sweet review - I would have rather had another surgery than watch this piece of crap. Generic, predictable and poor acting. If it didn't hurt bad enough to get out of bed, i would have turned it off. :mad:

By the way, in seeing so may movies this week, here's one to check out. The Proposition - hadn't heard about it before but I liked it a lot.

Maurice

I actually liked the movie. I didnt expect it to be MV from the 80's, but an updated version like it is. It had alot of the same elements as the old series ie sweet ferrari, same type of camera shots, going deep undercover and bending the rules, even the untouchable villian like Calderon was in the old series. At least in this one you get a nice shot of Trudy's ****. I thought the movie was cool and left a great setup for a sequel.

wodom1

I made the mistake of renting this bomb tonight. This has to rank as one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The best part about it was hearing some Audioslave tracks I've never heard before. I'd like to get the last two hours of my life back...