Miami Vice (**1/4)

 Resembling director Michael Mann’s recent features like Collateral more than the 1980s TV series it’s supposedly based on, this ostensible thriller is nearly devoid of either action or real drama until its decent second half.

Apparently this movie has something to do with a TV series from the 1980s that had the same name, and main characters called Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs. The show’s executive producer, Michael Mann, has even written and directed its namesake. But it’s been almost 20 years since the series ended its run. Mann’s said he’s not interested in nostalgia, a weird thing to say when that’s the most obvious selling point of your movie. The series was often described as “MTV cops” and celebrated for its incorporation of pop tunes, glitzy aesthetic, and pastel-inspired fashion sense. But silence and quiet electronica replace the pop tunes, the pastels are gone, and the aesthetic is very much the dour one of recent Mann features such as Heat, The Insider, and Collateral. Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx are the 21st-century Crockett and Tubbs.

With no preamble, the two Miami cops go undercover trying to fix the mess the feds made on their drug-smuggling operation. There’s supposed to be some business with skinheads and Russians and so forth, but between the accents, the jargon, and the quiet talking, I had some trouble following the details. The first half of the picture is full of talk, but no action. The two cops barely speak to each other, so there’s very little character development. Crockett does find time to hit on the businesswoman (Gong Li) who’s financing the drug deals, observing two clichés of thrillers. One, if there is only one reasonably attractive female in a movie, the unattached male lead (Tubbs isn’t single) will pair up with her. Two, if there is a woman among a group of criminals, she alone will be portrayed with moral ambiguity. Li brings a lot of credibility to the role, and is arguably more interesting than the leads, but there’s still something of the perfunctory about her character. All this is by way of saying, Miami Vice has one of the plain dullest first halves of any major motion picture of 2006. In the second half, Mann’s realistic approach pays dividends. A hostage rescue sequence is genuinely thrilling, and the final shootout isn’t half bad either. Walk in an hour late and you really won’t miss much.

IMDb link