Miami Vice: The Movie

Michael Mann is doing a movie version of his quintesential 80s cop show Miami Vice, set to star Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell. More info from countingdown.com:

Writer-director Michael Mann penned Universal's big-screen version of the 1980s TV series (created by Anthony Yerkovich), which Mann executive produced. This 104-page first draft is dated 9/22/04. Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx will star as detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs, respectively (played on the original series by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas). Filming on Miami Vice begins filming late spring for a July 28, 2006 release.

Two things before I begin. First, please be advised that there are some MINOR SPOILERS in this review. I'm trying to be on my best behavior here. Second, I'd like to give a shout-out to Latino Review for their cool write-up on the script a few weeks back. Now on with the show ...

This Miami Vice is not set in the 1980s. It is a contemporary cop movie set in Miami, which Mann describes as having become Casablanca. A place where anything goes if the price is right. This is not an "origin" story. There is no background on how or why detectives James "Sonny" Crockett (Farrell) or Ricardo Tubbs (Foxx, in a role that should be largely dramatic) became partners. Mann's script is more of a police procedural focusing on the dangerous lives of two veteran undercover narcotics officers in the Miami-Dade Police Department (never once does anyone say "Miami Vice" since, as any fan can tell you, there is no such squad).

After there has been a tragic security breach in (or worse, a mole operating inside) the Joint Interagency Task Force, the Feds ask for help from the Miami vice cops since they weren't part of that compromised group. This job goes to Crockett and Tubbs, the latter of whom has a personal stake in seeing these killers brought to justice. Their mission is to use their cover as offshore boat racers/outlaw smugglers to penetrate the narcotrafficking network of the mysterious Archangel de Jesus Montoya-Londono. A wild band of Aryan Brothers and Nazi Low-Riders are also mixed up in all this but the trail leads to Montoya's doorstep.

Crockett and Tubbs' mission is especially dangerous. It will require them to travel outside the territorial United States to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti (with a stop in Cuba along the way). Their badges mean nothing abroad. They're not authorized to carry guns (like that's going to stop them). And, if they're busted, then re-patriation could take awhile (that's assuming they live). In other words, they are on their own, although squad mates Switek (described as 6'4" of "white bling") and rake-thin adrenaline junkie Zito act as back-up.

As smugglers Sonny Burnett and his partner Rico (he never uses the surname Cooper), Crockett and Tubbs eventually navigate their way into running some loads for Montoya via his main man Jose "Cochi Loco" Yero. They also meet Montoya's banker (and lover) Isabella, an Angolan-Cuban beauty with a European education and street smarts. Crockett is smitten but thinks he can play her to gain information. Things are never that simple, even in the movies.

Like other Michael Mann protagonists, Crockett and Tubbs are professionals who have dedicated themselves to a certain way of life and a certain credo that requires strict discipline. But there would be no tension or drama if these weren't put to the test. Crockett and Tubbs are both aware that things aren't supposed to get emotional. You lose your cool detachment, your professional distance, then you could lose your life or someone else's. This story is really all about how this code is put to the test, about how these two undercover cops risk their lives (and their badges) for the women they love.