Since I grew up in the eighties and love boats, it is only natural that I’m a huge fan of the TV show Miami Vice. When the feature film debuted in 2006, I was pretty excited to say the least. Before the movie came out there were trailers with great boat scenes and articles talking about the boats in the movie which was pretty exciting. The best part was the fact that Michael Mann wrote and directed it. Mann executive produced the original show and went on to direct some incredible films over the years including, The Insider, Heat, Ali, The Last of the Mohicans, and Manhunter to name a few. The original TV show and story was created by Anthony Yerkovich. What is interesting is looking at how Mann wrote the film by using the main storyline from “Smuggler’s Blues,” the 15th episode of season one, and repurposing lines from throughout the TV series’ first season. I found a great summary video of the comparison I will link to at the end. After review, I had not realized how close Mann kept the characterization and dialogue from the series to the film.

To be fair, the film was met with heavy criticism for a few reasons but primarily the dialogue was a little awkward at times and many thought it was a bit dark. To me, I agree that the dialogue was overly descriptive at times, but the cinemaphotography was really good, and the story worked for the most part. There are some epic scenes, including some great night shots of two Donzi’s running down Government Cut in Miami, as well as the MTI running to Cuba for mojitos. I wonder if the film wasn’t called Miami Vice if it would’ve been reviewed more favorably. As a franchise, a Miami Vice film would have high expectations and a lot of baggage. For this reason, I say it’s definitely worth a watch for any film fan. If Michael Mann toned it down a little bit and the dialogue was a little more natural, the Miami Vice film would’ve been on a top ten all time crime drama list by anyone’s standard.