Miami Vice (2004)

Michael Mann’s film adaptation of his own executively produced eighties television series got a bit of a kicking on its release fifteen years ago. It’s a shame, because it could really do with a reassessment, not that I personally feel I need to give it one. Mann’s transfer between forms is excellent because it manages to capture the feel of the series without simply feeling like an expansion of a television episode. Although it might help to have some sort of knowledge of the original characters and layout of the show, the film is nowhere near as incomprehensible as some claimed. Mann, no fool when it comes to previous with police, FBI or DEA procedurals lays out the dialogue in a way that immerses you in the crux of the plot, not that that in itself is particularly complex. Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx take on the roles of Sonny Crocket and Ricardo Tubbs with low-key aplomb, toning down the extravagance and urgency of a single television episode and effectively incorporating key elements of Miami Vice into a full length Michael Mann film. There are especially shades of Collateral (2004) and not just simply the presence of Foxx; the digital shoot of the film captures Miami at its neon best, and the sheen is understandably similar to that of Los Angeles in Collateral. There are some outstanding sequences, most notably a shootout near the end of a film but also a tense sequence in a trailer park; it’s these action scenes where Mann really proves he’s a cut above. And speaking of Mann, his prequel/sequel to his magnum opus Heat was released last year in book form (enticingly titled 'Heat 2') and it's almost unbearably exciting to think he's currently working hard to bring it to the big screen on the back of finishing the upcoming Enzo Ferrari biopic. Enticingly titled 'Ferrari'. 7.8/10