Miami Vice Review
by Tim Voon (winklebeck AT hotmail DOT com)November 28th, 2006
Miami Vice (2006)
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 2006 Timothy Voon
1 out of 5 stars
Cast: Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li, Luis ;Director: Michael Mann
This is one of the slowest, action dramas that I can remember to date. Most of the movie plods at a snail pace through mumbled dialogue and poorly lit sets which make you squint at what is happening on screen. This is the last thing I would have expected from a movie based on a fast paced, slick action TV series that did well in the 80s.
I would say that in the first half of the movie is a lot of talk between gangsters who all look alike and climaxes with a high speed boat ride! (Yawn). The second half of the movie picks up a little with sex scenes between Gong Li and Colin Farrell. The Chinese movie censorship board will be cutting these sex scenes out before it premieres in China. I pity those who will pay for a ticket to see this movie there, because there will be little to keep them entertained.
The only tense moment I can remember was when Jamie Foxx's on screen girlfriend is kidnapped in a trailer park. She is attached to a bomb and Fox has to take down the entire family of trailer trash, including the teenage boy with the sharp knife without letting the bomb go off. The final action sequence is very ordinary with machine guns firing in all directions. It is a bit of a blur and could hardly be described as exciting.
Colin Farrell plays Sonny Crockett, the role carried by Don Johnson in the TV series. Farrell comes across as a 'greasy' character on screen and I don't just mean the hair. He doesn't come across as 'cool' which was how I remembered 'Sonny' on TV. Jamie Foxx is Rico Tubbs his role in this movie seems minor compared to Sonny. Gong Li is an interesting choice as Isabella, the mistress of the crime boss. Her single syllable speech and answers, work to the effect that she is a direct no nonsense type of gal. However, she really needs a good language coach if she is going to break into main stream cinema. There is only so much emotion she can relay with her words when speaking in broken English.
Overall this is another disappointing remake of a popular TV series. Hollywood can't seem to get it right when it comes to transferring material from the small screen to the big screen.
Timothy Voon
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