YOU MIGHT NOT RECOGNIZE THIS MUCH DIFFERENT `MIAMI'.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic `Miami Vice'' is so not the TV show, except in its operatic approach to doomed romance and reliance on on-the-nose rock anthems to express emotions. Director Michael Mann Michael Mann is the name of:
adj. Not found or located at a single, definable point, as pollution whose source cannot be ascertained. . On the other hand, the movie has no flamingos, no pastels and no pet gators, all of which is to the good. Colin Farrell as Sonny Crockett and Jamie Foxx Jamie Foxx (born December 13, 1967) is an American actor, singer, and stand-up comic. Foxx is possibly best-known for his performance of musician Ray Charles in Ray, and for his collaborations with director Michael Mann. as Ricardo Tubbs still drive Ferraris and wear sharp suits over T-shirts, but they're all shades of gray and earth tones. The whole movie wants to be a more realistic, detailed look at smuggling smuggling, illegal transport across state or national boundaries of goods or persons liable to customs or to prohibition. Smuggling has been carried on in nearly all nations and has occasionally been adopted as an instrument of national policy, as by Great Britain between the Americas as it really happens, and if you want to enter the trade of moving narcotics narcotics n. 1) techinically, drugs which dull the senses. 2) a popular generic term for drugs which cannot be legally possessed, sold, or transported except for medicinal uses for which a physician or dentist's prescription is required. , guns, laundered cash or whatever across the Caribbean, there is a wealth of information here to help get you started. But there is a difference between business school and a fun night at the movies, and this talky talk·y adj. talk·i·er, talk·i·est 1. Talkative; loquacious. 2. Containing or given to too much talk: a talky, boring play. exercise is more academic than not. While part of ``Miami Vice'' plays out as well- researched and credible, there's some mighty sloppy scripting. Mann's story starts abruptly during an already-in- operation prostitution sting at some high-end nightclub. That's never resolved because Crockett and Tubbs have to go on the roof and make phone calls regarding a DEA DEA - Data Encryption Algorithm setup of white supremacist dope dealers that's heading south. This is due to a mole somewhere in the agency who's leaking information to the group and their Colombian business partners. Which is why the feds have to borrow Crockett and Tubbs from Miami/Dade P.D. to pose as importers. But we never find out who the mole is. I know that kind of thing is standard-issue cop drama stuff, but jeez jeez interj. Used to express surprise or annoyance. [Alteration of Jesus1.] , if you're gonna use it, at least pay it off. Anyway, C&T head to Haiti to convince a superpowerful Colombian cartel that they know how to get dope into Florida better than anyone else. That's where the undercovers meet the preternaturally pre·ter·nat·u·ral adj. 1. Out of or being beyond the normal course of nature; differing from the natural. 2. Surpassing the normal or usual; extraordinary: cool kingpin Montoya (Luis Tosar), his untrustworthy underling Yero (John Ortiz) and Isabella (Gong Li), the operation's Cuba-raised financial brains and Montoya's occasional lover. She's so impressed by Crockett's droopy droop v. drooped, droop·ing, droops v.intr. 1. To bend or hang downward: "His mouth drooped sadly, pulled down, no doubt, by the plump weight of his jowls" mouth and twin-hull go-fast boat that she takes him home to Havana for a wild weekend. They fall in love, but of course he's not really who she thinks he is. Meanwhile, Tubbs' squeeze, a fellow cop played by ``Pirates of the Caribbean's'' Naomie Harris, gets in quite a fix with those white supremacists back in Florida. There are three violent action sequences in the two-plus hour movie. Frustratingly, only the first two are well-staged, although some have perceived a kind of ``Cops'' aesthetic in the unexciting, climactic shoot-out. If you ask me, the reality-TV approach got out of hand well before that. As with ``Collateral,'' Mann shot most of ``Miami Vice'' with super-sensitive, high-def digital cameras. But while the previous film set new standards for crisp, clear, nighttime depth-of-field, much of the night footage in ``Vice'' looks grainy grain·y adj. grain·i·er, grain·i·est 1. Made of or resembling grain; granular. 2. Resembling the grain of wood. 3. Having a granular appearance due to the clumping of particles in the emulsion. and murky, like bad video. The sunlit sun·lit adj. Illuminated by the sun. Adj. 1. sunlit - lighted by sunlight; "the sunlit slopes of the canyon"; "violet valleys and the sunstruck ridges"- Wallace Stegner sunstruck stuff -- water, jungle, tropical cityscapes, cloud formations -- is dazzling, however. And Mann creates an overall sense of unease that's as consistent as his scenario is scattered. He has, with some degree of success, turned a silly TV show into a serious movie. ``Miami Vice'' takes itself so seriously, though, that it's often goofy in a whole other way. Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com MIAMI VICE - Two and one half stars (R: violence, nudity, sex, language, drug use) Starring: Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li, John Ortiz, Naomie Harris, Luis Tosar. Director: Michael Mann. Running time: 2 hr. 12 min. Playing: In wide release. In a nutshell: Strangely dreary movie version of the pastel-poppin' '80s cop show. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Detectives Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx, left) and Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) go undercover to investigate the drug trade in this darker-than-its-TV-predecessor "Miami Vice." |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion