Miami Vice: Plenty of Action But Dull Characters

Starring Jamie Foxx (Ray, Stealth) and Colin Farrell (The New World, SWAT), Miami Vice is great for thrills and chills. Its got the recent, patented Michael Mann look, and the old campy TV series has never looked better. Where you might have seen Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas playing Rico and Sonny who throw out the rules, and bust drug dealers their own way, you won’t be disappointed with the Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell performances in their roles.

Det. Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs (Foxx) and his partner, Det. James “Sonny” Crockett are two highly respected officers in the vice squad of Miami. They bust or kill bad guys. They have no reserve in blowing their brains out all over walls. They don’t care about the rules. They just care about doing the right thing. Everything goes south for Rico and Sonny when a friend spills everything about himself and the truth about working with the FBI, and throws himself in front of a truck.

Rico and Sonny are flirtateous men who love women, and get quite a few to sleep with them. It’s their only weakness. They seem to be able to dodge bullets and reaction with the same snake-like reflexes of a cat. But, when Sonny falls for an oriental woman working for one of the biggest drug lords in history, things just get worse.

They make their deal. They move a few shipments for the drug lord. They travel to one of the worst places in the world. They gain the man’s confidence with a few tricks. But in the end, it all comes down to a stand off between the dealers and the vice squad. It’s a long, realistic gunfight that looks like it belongs on the TV show Cops.

Michael Mann, best known for his brilliance in Heat, Collateral and The Insider takes the campy early ’80s TV series, and makes it into a modern day Lethal Weapon. The problem is Colin Farrell’s Sonny and Jamie Foxx’s Rico are not Riggs and Murtaugh. You hardly see any emotional drive from either character. It’s as if they were drawn up just to look cool. And – they do, compared to the Don Johnson tall, square shoulder suits, the modern Sonny and Rico look exceptionally cool. But, that’s nothing when there’s no personality to the roles.

All-in-all, Miami Vice is an exciting action-thriller. It boast some great shoot-em-up action sequences that makes anything that’s come out in the last 10 years look meek. But, it misses what most great action films hit on target. It’s missing heart and soul.