Miami Vice - Revisited

Rating: Null/10 (11 September 1999)

As director Michael Mann has showed us over the years, he certainly has a highly developed sense of style. While watching this movie, I was constantly reminded of his hit 80's TV series, "Miami Vice". As many will remember, the show became a massive success not because its story line was something totally different than other Cops-n-Robbers shows, but rather because of its creative, original visual style.
The same logic can be applied to this movie as well. By adding a great shoot-out scene (really, one of the very best action sequences ever shot---right there with the car-chase scene from "French Connection") to the enhanced glitter of LA, and tossing in two of best actors of our generation, Mann has come up with a pretty impressive package. (At least, it was impressive enough to keep me engaged throughout the entire movie, which, by the way, is not a short one.) As for the story, there were a couple of "holes" in it and the development for the supporting characters was a bit weak, but considering the amount of attention given to the "style" side of the film, I can't say it came as a surprise. Even so, I wouldn't go so far as to say it isn't "solid". It is indeed that. All I'm saying is that it's not something I haven't seen before.
At least my eyes and ears had a real treat, which is more than I can say for a lot of movies out there.