A lot of bad reviews for this film, and as undeservedly as they are, the arguments have a sort of merit. Namely the spare and crisp dialog, which, with every word illuminates another twist, might leave some confused as to why the events unfolding are happening, but an attentive viewer will find nuance, style and machismo blending beautifully and epic, into a film that can be almost endlessly re watched if given a few months each time. Mann directs an absolutely mesmerizing Ferrell and even manages to allow Foxx not being made for the role to creep into our minds as a possibility, as he delivers a performance i think would have been far less impressive without judicious and liberal time on the cutting room floor. Formulaic? Nah, just something of a standard done so well, you can hardly remember it ever sounding so good.

Dear Michael Mann, Miami Vice was a wonderful mess of a film. Thank you for making it. I have not seen the original series so I cannot write about how the film compares to the TV series. I am curious about how the film would have turned out if you had not used digital photography. I like the carefully composed shots and the tasteful sets of your earlier classics like Thief and Manhunter.But unlike the haters, I thought Miami Vice was full of stylishly rendered scenes starting with the very first scene at the nightclub. You lined up an array of actors with remarkable faces for this film - they played white supremacists, South American gangsters, FBI agents and undercover cops. However, Colin Farrel, Jamie Foxx and John Ortiz were disappointments. I guess you had to cast huge stars to finance a big budget film like Miami Vice. Gong Li who looked like pure royalty made up for the unremarkable heroes and villain.The story isn't much to write home about. It is a stylized account of the lives of two undercover cops, their women and their toys. The plot is deliberately incoherent. The dialogues which are delivered in whispers with Chris Cornell wailing or heavy metal guitars growling in the background were a complete mystery. But then, it is not really about the plot. We get a look around Miami. And it is not just the posh condos and the exotic bars. But also the warehouses and the barren lands where all the stand offs take place. There are at least three remarkable stands off in the film. In fact, there are more standoffs than full length action scenes. The interracial romance between Gong Li and Colin Farrel and its consequences is a comment on the state of race relations in the multi-cultural and multi-racial melting pot that is Florida. Miami Vice is a moody, stylish and ultimately flawed film demonstrates what mainstream big budget Hollywood action cinema can be. In the decade since Miami Vice, we have witnessed the gradual decline of American cinema as superheroes and mind numbing special effects have taken over the landscape once occupied by the likes of you and Tony Scott. It is a real shame. But thanks for the effort, Michael. Best Regards, Pimpin. (8/10)

I agree with many of the other reviews that gave this movie a low rating.It was a rare occasion where the wife and i said enough an hour in and just turned it off. We do that for less than 1 out of every 100 movies.The characters are uninteresting. Nothing in this movie makes you care about them or feel like you know them or even if you care if they succeed. To be honest, The main characters could of been killed off in the first 30 minutes and i wouldn't of even noticed.I tried following the ploy, but it skips around constantly. Somewhere a long the way it got butchered to the point of being a non functional plot. To demonstrate how the plot is: Rip every 3rd page out of a book, then read the book and you have the plot of this movie.The plot is boring. Its been done literally 1000 times. And 999 of those have been better than this rendition. The main characters have sex with pretty much unknown characters. Since you don't care about the main characters nor the support characters, the sex scenes are even more worthless. We actually treated the sex scenes like commercials, they were that bad. Actually commercials would of been more entertaining.The audio is terrible. The characters mumble a lot and its dark a lot in the movie so you cant even read lips or facial expressions that well. My wife is British, and worked as HR for 4 years in tampa and she was struggling hard to understand the dialogue. She is use to dealing with a lot of different accents, so what does that tell you? Its like The entire film crew were college freshman. I imagine the uncut version was much better, and then it got butchered. This movie isn't even worth watching for free, i definitely wouldn't pay for it.

Miami Vice is a very mediocre movie with a poorly developed storyline and a talented cast that sadly couldn't save this. The storyline believes that it is complicated, exciting and original, but it is really nothing different from any other crime film, it fails to differentiate itself and that is probably the weakest aspect of this movie, based on a very successful television series. The cast is definitely the best part, everyone tries their very hardest, Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx are both great in it and you can see from the trivia that they went very method for their performances, it's just a shame that these two great actors couldn't have been paired for a better film. It also tends to jump away from its story far too often, there are several scenes that provide no input or character development of any kind, this is fine for comedies, but for drama, particularly crime drama, you would want every scene to be important and to keep the plot moving. Miami Vice is beautifully filmed and well acted, but it sadly isn't enough to save the poor story and mediocre character development, and because of this I couldn't recommend it. Two detectives team up to take on a drugs ring, but one of them finds himself increasingly conflicted. Best Performance: Colin Farrell Worst Performance: Eddie Marsan