Miami Vice

Miami Vice is back with a bang on to the big screen with this updated and ultra slick crime thriller from director Michael Mann. Miami Vice follows the undercover detectives James 'Sonny' Crockett (Colin Farrell, S.W.A.T.) and Ricardo 'Rico' Tubbs (Jamie Foxx, Ray and Colleteral) as they go in to take down the ultra crime lord Archangel de Jesus Montoya-Londono (Luis Tosar).

Back in the 80s when Miami Vice was a TV series it was full of fast cars, fast women and fast boats. The 2006 movie more than lives up to the series bringing the ultimate in speed into the hands of the detectives to help them crack the multi-million dollar drug smuggling empire of Archangel de Jesus. Not an easy task when you consider how good the show was.

Putting something like Miami Vice on to film would probably be considered difficult and impossible to do however Michael Mann has pulled it off perfectly. The movie is non-stop just like Miami, club scenes, drug running, evading the Coast Guard, and FBI as well as gun battles with a little Salsa dancing and romance along the way. Crockett plays dangerously when he becomes romantically entangled with Isabella (Gong Li, Memoirs of a Geisha) who helps run the cartel's business.

This movie has an edge to it and a look that will make it unmistakable in years to come and that is why it earns a Red Eye Classic mark. While the scenes have the look so do the characters, there is a distinct lack of emotion and associated baggage throughout the movie allowing the characters get on with the job at hand. The no nonsense approach makes for a clean and clinical undercover operation.

Mann is well regarded for his accuracy within his movies, during Heat he employed ex-SAS soldier Andy McNab to get the street battle scenes as accurate as possible. In Miami Vice nearly two dozen consultants were used as well as sending Farrell and Foxx out with DEA and tactical trainers. The result is that Miami Vice is a slick, polished and very confident movie however while watching it you can't help but remember Heat and how fantastic that was.

There's that feeling of "je ne sais quoi" when it comes to what Miami Vice could have had extra. The public have voted though and in its opening day Stateside Miami Vice outsold Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and too nearly 20% more on the box office. This is two hours you will not be disappointed with.