For a film version that didn’t give the 1980s pastel aesthetic that fans of the TV series grew up with, switching it up for intense drug enforcement research and grainy digital cameras, I’m always heartened by the cult love that Michael Mann’s Miami Vice (2006) generates for film lovers and Michael Mann fans. I completely concede to all of its faults (style over substance, set-ups that don’t pay off, brooding macho testosterone on tap, etc); I remember when I first saw it at the cinema feeling underwhelmed about it. But certain sequences always remained in my memory, and I’ve always wound up rewatching it at odd moments and enjoying the hell out of it. The cold open night club surveillance, Colin Farrell’s hairstyle (blonde tips carrying over from Oliver Stone’s Alexander?), the background lightning in the distance of rooftop conversations, Gong Li’s impeccable style, the climactic shoot-out, the loudness of the gunfire, and the concluding sequence that uses Mogwai on the soundtrack to convey Big Emotions. Much like whenever Mann cranks up the Chris Cornell in his mid-2000s movies, such as the coyote in the headlights scene in Collateral, there’s something about the Mann aesthetic in this era which is both daggy and silly but also entertaining and satisfying, remaining true to the fetishes that have marked the director’s work as an atmospheric blue-lit crime noir auteur. It’s just one of those movies you know are somewhat flawed – particularly in comparison to Mann’s other masterpieces like Thief or Heat – but you enjoy both in spite of the flaws and because of them. I can rewatch Miami Vice any time, any where. Shout out to those who feel the same. Recommended.
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