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Michael Mann's heavily retooled version of his trendsetting TV series from the 1980s, this Miami Vice is grittier, darker, and more violent than its small-screen inspiration. As undercover cops Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs, Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx lend much needed gravitas to the project, making their TV counterparts, Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, seem like poseurs playing shoot-'em-up. This time around, fashion thankfully takes a backseat, and Farrell's Sonny eschews pet alligators. Here, the duo is called in to penetrate the organization of the brilliant, ruthless drug smuggler Montoya (Luis Tosar). Sonny and Rico manage to worm their way into the gang, but their effectiveness is compromised when Sonny falls for Montoya's Chinese-Cuban lover (Gong Li). And that spells trouble. Writer-director Mann, whose arresting visual flair lends itself to noirish exercises of this type, reveals how the temptations of the drug trade effect both sides of the law. The moral and ethical ambiguities of the MV team are depicted more frankly -- and effectively -- than in the primetime-friendly television series. Farrell and Foxx work particular well together, although Hong Kong-based actress Gong Li nearly steals the show with her splendid performance, a tour de force of understated eroticism. And in a daringly successful move, Mann relocates much of the action to Cuba, ratcheting up the tension by placing the men in international harm’s way. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Writer and director Michael Mann updates the groundbreaking television crime series he created in the 1980s with this stylish thriller. Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) and Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) are two police detectives working undercover in Florida; Tubbs is smart, cool, and resourceful, while Crockett has his own way of doing things, though he stays close enough to the rules to stay out of trouble. Their latest assignment is to get the goods on Arcangel de Jesus Montoya (Luis Tosar), a local drug kingpin whose men are believed to be responsible for a handful of recent murders. In order to infiltrate Montoya's operation, Tubbs and Crockett pose as powerboat racers willing to use their talents to pilot drug-smuggling ships for the right price. The detectives' ruse works, but as they dig deeper into Montoya's inner circle, they become involved in a dangerous operation that will take them to Haiti and Cuba, where neither the Miami Police Force nor the United States government can help them if things go wrong. Crockett also begins walking a risky path when he begins an affair with Isabella (Gong Li), a woman high up in Montoya's organization. Miami Vice marked Michael Mann's third consecutive directorial effort with Jamie Foxx after Ali and Collateral. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 025192802324
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Time: 2:13:00
• Sales Rank: 35,230

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Jamie Foxx Film Collection
• Action Starter Pack

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