The cocaine cowboys of the '80s are gone,but Miami's Casablanca allure,the undercover cops and the attitudes of Michael Mann's culturally influential television series have been enhanced by time in the feature film version of Miami Vice.
The movie Miami Vice,a very gritty dark action film,is a big screen adaption to the very popular TV series that ran for five successful seasons on the NBC network from 1984 to 1989;a show that I loved and watched religiously on Friday nights.Back then,the TV show was one of THE most innovative,unique and powerful TV series of all time.The movie
starred actor Colin Farrell and comedian,singer and Academy-Award winning actor Jamie Foxx(pictured on the right) as detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs;roles that were played
by their TV series predecessors Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas (pictured below).
The movie was written,directed and co-produced by Michael Mann,who also directed the movies Collateral,Ali(based on the very funny,rugged,tough and talented 3 time former heavyweight boxing champion,the self-aggrandizing poet who really was "THE GREATEST",Muhammad Ali!) and was the creator and executive producer of the Miami Vice TV series back in the day.
I gotta give credit where credit is due right here.Jamie Foxx,in my honest opinion,is very talented and has certainly come a long way in his many years in the entertainment business.
.He was a stand-up comedian who in the early 1990s starred on the hilarious TV comedy series In Living Color playing many zany characters,including the unforgettable character Wanda (pictured on the right).
In 1996,
he later starred
in his very own hit TV show,which is one of my personal all-time favorite TV shows,The Jamie Foxx Show (pictured right).
When his TV series ended in 2001 and even up to now,he literally has blown up all over TinselTown (Hollywood) starring and appearing in several movies
,winning the Academy Award in 2005 for Best Actor portraying the late,great music icon,Ray Charles in the 2004 movie Ray (pictured right).Not to mention,he's a great singer.How can anybody in the world forget him singing co-lead vocals on the Kanye West mega-hit song "Golddigger"?He recently released his own album with his own material called "Unpredictable".I mean,THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THIS AMAZING MAN'S TALENTS!!! In the movie,Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) is urbane and dead smart.He lives with Bronx-born intel analyst Trudy (Naomie Harris),as they work undercover transporting drug loads into South Florida to identify a group responsible for three murders.
Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) is charismatic and flirtatious until, while undercover working with the supplier of the South Florida group, he gets romantically entangled with Isabella, the Chinese-Cuban wife of an arms and drugs trafficker.Isabella is played by the Chinese actress Gong Li.
The best undercover identity is oneself with the volume turned up and restraint unplugged.The intensity of this case pushes Crockett and Tubbs out onto the edge where identity and fabrication become blurred,where cop and player become one, especially for Crockett in his romance with Isabella and for Tubbs in the provocation of an assault on those he loves.
Miami Vice,as a large-scale feature film,liberates what is adult,dangerous and alluring about working deeply undercover...especially when Crockett and Tubbs go to where their badges don't count.
This was one of those movies that I had to go see for a number of reasons,both personal and nostalgic.Despite the very dark tone that was projected and portrayed in the movie,which was a very far cry from the TV series,it was very,very good.
Like I stated before,I watched Miami Vice when I was growing up as a teenager and that show set the tone for pop culture in the mid 1980s and the whole decade of the 1980s as far as I'm concerned.The clothes,music,colours,cars and interior was truly fantastic.During the 1980s,you had Pac-Man,Rubik's Cube and Miami Vice.ABSOLUTELY 1980S POP CULTURE!!!
The undercover cops Crockett (Don Johnson) and Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) opened our eyes to a whole new world of pastel colours and clothing brands. When the series became popular even huge masculine guys with chest-hair were allowed to wear “smashing” cloths. They even focused on the famous Art deco style buildings in Miami which gives it a complete style.
As a matter of fact,back in the day,I used to have and I used to wear one of those Miami Vice pastel-type sports jackets.The sports jacket was blue in color.If you had or even wore one of those Miami Vice-like sports jackets and could somehow,someway carry it off wearing it like Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas did;trust me,you were the shiznit on your block!
Even the music on that TV show was off the chain!I totally loved the music that was featured on Miami Vice!You had the classic,original TV theme instrumental by Jan Hammer.You had Glenn Frey with his songs "Smuggler's Blues" and my personal favorite "You Belong To The City".Last but not least,the unforgettable "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins.Prior before I left my house to see the movie,I was going through my mass of music CDs and cassettes and I found my cassette of the 1985 TV soundtrack to the TV series "Miami Vice".I remember getting this from my mother back in Christmas of 1985 as a Christmas present.Listening to that great music on the way to the movie took me back bringing so many great memories to me,also when I was watching the TV show.
It seems that the Miami Vice movie sunk The Pirates Of The Carribean:Dead Man's Chest off the top spot at the box office.During this past weekend,Miami Vice became the new #1 movie in the country taking in $25.2 million in total ticket sales.
In spite of the many mixed reviews the movie has received,I am so very happy for the movie's success.That within itself makes me feel very good knowing that a movie based on a TV show that I loved watching over 20 years ago is the #1 movie in the entire United States of America!
This movie is great,minus all the excessive and gruesome violence.The movie is rated R for violence,language and some sexual content.Personally,this is one movie I DO NOT want to take the kids to go see,believe me!
My advice to you is if you do not want to go and see the very graphic,gruesome violence that took place in this movie,I very strongly would advise for you not to go.However,on the other hand,if you were like me growing up watching the TV show during the adolescent teenage years back in the mid to late 1980s that is wanting to go see the movie as sort of a personal,nostalgic trip for yourself,then by all means,please do go!I highly recommend it!!!
