I went to the movies last night expecting so much from Mann. After such masterpieces as Heat and Collateral, I was so disappointed, you just can't imagine. The film starts in 2006 with two cops in tieless suits chasing the bosses of a prostitution business. Or so I understood because from the first moment you just hear some loud music and two actors mumbling. Then comes some police informant fearing he's going to be killed, whose wife has been killed and says he gave up a pair of FBI agents to some drug dealers and then he throws himself in front of a truck and dies. At this point, we see some FBI boss asking for help to the two tieless cops because the ongoing operation to stop this really mean drug czars went out of control. From this moment on, we see a couple of actors (Foxx and Farrel, fine actors I might add) just riding fast boats, having sex, flying jets, coming and going from and to South America and displaying the most macho attitudes I have ever seen. As under covers, they get into the drug business masquerading as transport agents for drug cartels. The plot just gets dumber as Foxx's girlfriend is kidnapped, Farrel REALLY falls in love with the drug traffic bad girl Isabella and the movie ends with a gunfight in which you better just pay attention to the music because sadly, Mann doesn't even allow you to see who's shooting at who. From a creator such as Mann, I'm sorry to say, I never expected such a lousy movie. The beautiful scenes of Miami just can't compensate for the lack of chemistry between the actors and the poor dialogues in which you see how expendable the so-called partners are from each other. Let me make myself clear, I LOVE music, and this movie's soundtrack is as good as it gets but I definitely can't appreciate the fact that the spectator doesn't even get to listen to the actors' mumbling as they try to communicate. Mann loses in this movie the essence of the Miami vice series: the tight friendship between the two main characters and the humanity that made them everybody's favorite for over four years and still does. It doesn't matter whether you are 20 or 50, the original series where something special, something that Mann was not able to recreate in this multi-million dollar Hollywood production.
Review of Miami Vice
