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Crockett & Tubbs are Back! by Mike-oh

Drug dealers beware! Crockett and Tubbs are in the house.

Miami Vice. Twenty-two years ago I was still dating my then soon to be wife. We had a standing Friday night date at Godfather's Pizza that included Miami Vice on the big screen with beers and pizza. The pizza was the Texas Special – sausage and jalapenos. The beer was Lite Beer from Miller – tastes great, less filling. And the Miami Vice episode was always a stylish synthesis of music videos and drug busts. What a great combination. What a great regular date. Needless to say, we were sad when Miami Vice was taken off the air.

When Miami Vice first hit television, it thrilled viewers with it's use of popular music played in length as a backdrop to wildly romantic scenes of hot sports cars racing down the highway at night, hot speedboats racing across the ocean under the Atlantic sun, and hot women making out with Crockett or Tubbs in some super stylish and trendy urban Miami bedroom. Artists like Phil Collins, Tina Turner, Ted Nugent, and Sheena Easton had their music incorporated into each episode. Some artists, like Glenn Frey, even made appearances on the show as supporting cast members.

It was a clear indication of how powerful MTV's influence had become on pop culture. It was also a clear indication of how creative and innovative Michael Mann would become as a writer and a director. Mann's work after Miami Vice has included such incredible films as The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, and Collateral. And now a feature length film titled, Miami Vice, that plays like another episode of the popular televison show.

This time we find Rico and Sonny hanging out in a Miami nightclub getting ready to bust some flesh peddlers when they get a disturbing call from one of their snitches. Apparently this guy was on loan to the FBI when his cover was blown and his wife kidnapped by the drug dealers. His wife is killed and he commits suicide, compelling Crockett and Tubbs to join the fight with the FBI to bring their snitch's killers to justice.

Now the intrepid vice cops go undercover as a pair of drug runners applying for a job with the drug dealers in question. They convice these dangerous villains that they are capable and worthy vendors to their cause and start moving massive amounts of drugs into the United States from South America. Along the way, Crockett makes time with the drug dealer's right-hand woman during a sidetrip to Cuba while Rico's lady gets nabbed by the drug dealers and used as a pawn against our dynamic duo. She is nearly blown to bits right before the climactic showdown between the desperate drug dealers and the daring detectives. During the ensuing battle, Crockett's identity is exposed and his romance with the drug moll ended while Rico gets to splatter the man responsible for his lady's torture and near death all over the wall of the warehouse where the final shootout winds up.

It is a familiar plot. Of course, it was written by Michael Mann. He demonstrates no loss of connection with his original creation despite the passing of over two decades since he first started the series. It feels like there was no passing of time at all. And I am convinced that despite the change in actors as well as several aesthetic changes, that these guys, Crockett and Tubbs, are the same guys doing the same job in the same city that we ate pizza and drank beer and thrilled to every Friday night way back in 1984.

Miami Vice is an outstanding film that honors its television roots while it easily leaps over the raised bar demanded of a feature length film. Mann makes the leap by casting top notch actors in Colin Farrell and Jaimie Foxx and using a variety of more contemporary film styles to bring the franchise into the twenty-first century such as grainy film scenes that have the feeling of video footage regularly seen in the real life escapades of the policemen featured on the reality TV show, COPS. And this film also includes location footage that would have stretched the TV show's budget too thin, especially that of the head drug dealer's home which sits on a cliff overlooking a giant chasm of a hundred waterfalls creating one of nature's most awesome spectacles in the heart of the South American jungle.

While most of the differences between the film and the television show have represented improvements, not all of the changes have been for the best. Most notable is the absence of music video type segments built around popular music by well known artists. While there are some musically driven scenes, they seem like hopelessly traditional film soundtrack compositions and nothing like the exciting and creative musical interludes that made Miami Vice worthy of recognition back in the day.

Of lesser importance was the casting of Barry Shabaka Henley as police chief Castillo. In the original series, this role was played by Edward James Olmos who brought an incredibly gritty edge to the show just by his presence alone. With Olmos, Castillo helped remind us that these were serious cops involved in a serious business despite the pretty boy looks of the principal characters. Henley, on the other hand, is not able to transcend his doughboy demeanor and even in scenes when he's supposed to be a total badass, he seems too much like a poorly casted actor. It's a shame becasue it's a role that represents a real opportunity for an actor to steal a good portion of the film away from Foxx and Farrell and at the same time, deliver more entertainment and excitment to those of us in the audience.

Despite thes shortcomings, Miami Vice proves worthy of its namesake and provides outstanding entertainment for fans of the television show as well as the average moviegoer who is in search of a contemporary police drama. Might I suggest that the experience may be improved ever so slightly with a little pizza and beer before, after or during the show. Enjoy.

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ABOUT OUR WRITERS

Disgruntled Dan
Old Danny Boy is not happy. Not happy at all. The state of comics, movies and video games is falling way short of his expectations. Check out Disgruntled Dan's
Letters of Discontent here — new letters every month.

Afro Thunder
A man with crazy Kung-Fu abilities and even crazier hair. But please, don't confuse yourself into thinking he's Jewish, or Arabian, or anything other than a curly-haired, half white, half mexican ninja. He also gives the whole low-down on games and movies, but avoids reviewing comics (he's loves 'em, but can't tell you what he thinks of 'em).

Mike-oh
Mike-oh works for an advertising agency which explains his need for all of the escapism he uses to soak up his spare time. At least he spends some of that time sharing his thoughts with us on his various distractions.