Crockett and Tubbs are back..and the summer got a little bit better...

So it has been a while, but with my exam finally behind me, I can get to work enjoying the rest of my summer (in theory). I have been fortunate enough to see 4 movies since my last report. Are you curious as to whether I was able to salvage the summer movie season? Read on.

I will talk about Pirates of the Caribbean in a later entry. Today, I want to talk about “Miami Vice.” Miami Vice has a special importance for me. The year that it debuted on NBC, I was getting ready to start high school. Yes, my formative years were spent during the run of the original Miami Vice television show. You can bet that Michael Mann’s production of Anthony Yerkovic’s dark world of cocaine cowboys during the wild west days of the drug wars in southern Florida had a seismic impact on the pop culture zeitgeist of the mid-80s. I mean, the beginning of the 80s was marked by shows such as Knight Rider, the last days of the Dukes of Hazzard, and prime time soaps such as Knott’s Landing, Falcon Crest, Dynasty and Dallas. In other words, there was precious little for an impressionable teen-ager to watch. Miami Vice stood out because of its realistic storylines, the dangers of the cops walking the fine line of being undercover and actually living the lives of drug lords, and it was shot like a film. Indeed, the show went on to influence the later cop-buddy films of the late 80s and early 90s. Miami Vice was also one of the first shows that I can remember where the bad guy often got away. The show was not about the bad guy getting caught every time. As in real life, the cops were often frustrated in their efforts. It is sad that the show’s name has almost become synonymous with 80s camp. Between Don Johnson’s 5 o’clock shadow and aversion to socks (while wearing fashionable white suits with pastel T-Shirts) and Philip Michael Thomas’s horrendous “Soul Glo” look complete with ugly gold chain, there was a lot to laugh about. It was truly a product of its time. The music was also something that set it apart from other shows that were on the air at the time. Most shows of the time had to rely on sound-alikes if they wanted to feature current rock hits. Miami Vice went one better. The show not only received the rights to play the original songs sung by the original artists; the show became a showcase for the future hit makers (and even some, like Glenn Frey and Phil Collins, who were trying to find fame after losses/changes to their own supergroups). If you wanted to know the hot songs, fashions, and cars, an impressionable teen would look to MTV and Miami Vice. Yes, Miami Vice was the cop show of the MTV generation. I have had the opportunity to revisit the original show when the pilot was rebroadcast on NBC not too long ago. The show holds up extremely well. I was surprised to find so many actors who later became famous in the pilot. Jimmy Smits and Mykelti Williamson were just 2 of the featured players on the first episode of the show.

This brings me to the new film. Would I like the new Miami Vice, with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx in the Crockett and Tubbs roles? Would the show have the same vibe without the campy aftertaste of the original series? Would the music be as perfectly matched to the scenes as it was on the series? I went to see an afternoon show (much much cheaper!). As the theater lights darkened following the trailers (hmmm...”Snakes on a Plane” looks like it will be a lot of fun), the Universal logo appeared. The screen then went blank, and the opening cords of Linkin Park and Jay-Z’s “Numb/Encore” (eponymous with the “Miami Vice” movie trailer) made their way over the speakers. I was then thrust in the middle of a nightclub. We meet the vice squad in mid assignment, but the assignment was cut short because of a call from a former informant who was in danger. The story went all over the place from there, but in a good way. Unlike a Michael Bay film, where the quiet moments seemed to be merely spacers for the next over-the top action sequence, here the quiet moments fed into the “day in the life” aspect. The frenetic, dangerous, and tense aspects of life as an undercover vice cop in the middle of the major drug weigh station of the US was wonderfully realized. Michael Mann used his Hi-def digital cameras to great effect. There were a lot of moments (if you see the film, look at the shots of the Lear jet and you will understand what I mean) where I was just staring at the screen going “wow.” The action that was in the movie was gritty, realistic, and 100% germane to the plot. The performances of the actors were all right (not great, but at least they played the roles with a certain earnestness). I loved how Mann drops us off right in the middle of the action and then does not let up until the end of the film. Yes, you will get involved with the characters. Yes, the film delivers as promised. If the TV show were to be shot today, this is what it most likely would look like. Now, I am a big fan of police procedurals, but this made me miss the days when the lives of the cops behind the badge took precedence over telling the tale of yet another DNA test for blood. Oh, and lest I forget, the MUSIC was perfectly chosen for the film. Lots of Audioslave and Moby, but it really seemed to work. At the end, what I really appreciated was that nothing really seemed to change from the beginning of the film to the end. The cops went through hell and back, but in the end, it was just a day in the life. It was this type of circular storytelling that I can appreciate. Should we be so naïve as an audience that we can believe that the end of the story would wrap itself up into a big happy bow just for the sake of a happy ending for our protagonists? In an animated film, maybe. In a “feel good film of the summer,” of course. In a gritty cop film about the cocaine war, not on your life. I did not feel cheated by the film. The summer movie season got a little bit better.