Miami Vice

Ah, those were the Eighties: money, synthesizers and pastel fashion. I was a fan of Miami Vice; I probably watched most of the 111 episodes, I even recorded some of them on my brand new Betamax VCR, I listened to Crockett’s theme over and over again. At school I even dared to raise the sleeves of my jacket, and when I traveled outside Europe for the first time in my life, it was in Miami that I set first foot. The year was 1988, I was barely 18 and the future looked great. I was relieved however when the 90’s finally came. The current 80’s revival fills me with horror though. I was glad I survived the 80’s glitterkitsch and, except for Miami Vice, I hoped to never see anything of it back again.

Miami Vice (USA 135′) Dir.: Michael Mann. With Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li | My rating: | Official site

Good memories are like you’re cryonised parents: once you try to revive them, they are not quite the way you remembered them. But Michael Mann and Anthony Yerkovich are the original creators of the infamous TV-series of the 80’s, and they did a great job in turning their legacy into a feature film. They succeeded in creating a whole new episode, and a whole new universe. The film starts straight away in a discotheque; there is no title sequence. Sonny and Rico are in another operation, but something urgent came up. Crockett and Tubbs have to infiltrate into a Columbian drugs cartel in order to discover who compromised an FBI-operation. So far for the basic storyline. The heroes move easily from Miami to Brazil, from Columbia to Cuba. There is no real moral lesson in Miami Vice, the line between the protagonists and the antagonists is a thin as a line of Columbian marching powder.

Although shooting a film on HD is more and more common, it is still a terra incognita for most DP’s. The film has a grainy look, and sometimes it does look like video. But it adds to the atmosphere, and the images are stunning. There is definitely a Michael Mann style: Heat, Collateral and Miami Vice all have something in common. Collateral was filmed with the same HD-camera (the Thomson Viper), the same actor (Jamie Foxx), but in a different city (Miami in stead of L.A.), yet Miami Vice is a completely different film. And a worthy and independent succesor of the TV-series.