The thing that one may wonder upon release of this movie, is will it draw in the fans of the 1980s TV series that made Don Johnson a star? It was originally pitched as “MTV cops,” but that generation of viewers, in now aged 45-plus, and instead tuning into Discovery Channel. Director Michael Mann “Heat” gives this updated classic a real makeover that doesn’t need the crutch of the original show at all. There are no pastel disco clothes, pink flamingos, or bikini girls. For that matter, there isn’t even much sunshine, since the films’ digitally shot texture feels mostly shot in the dark. Stud-star Sonny Crockett is played by a very serious and very busy, disheveled brunette, Colin Farrell. Detective Tubss role is revived by an equally serious Jamie Foxx. The only downside to the movie, is that these two never quite seem like partners. But maybe that’s because they don’t have time to worry about being best friends. These guys have some heavy business doings to worry about, that doesn’t include just cruising the Miami shoreline behind the wheel of a cigarette boat. This plot involves a gang of Columbian cocaine lords busy with backstabbing betrayal, and while it’s nothing out of the usual for a crime movie, somehow, Mann manages to make it different. You’d never find Farrell on my list of top ten favorites, let alone my list at all, yet by movie’s end Farrell becomes a likable guy with a heart, dark sad puppy-dog eyes, and a vulnerability and acting complexity not expected. That’s because he has a love interest, Gong Li, girlfriend of the head drug lord that plays nicely into the deceptive plot. The movie is softer yet cooler, and even tougher than the original TV show, but one can’t help leaving the theatre without wondering how these guys on a policeman’s salary, talk their hip gibberish, can afford all those boats, guns and security devices, let alone the dance lessons (Farrell dances a darn good tango). If none of this makes sense, it’s because the beauty of the film lies in the fact that we’re never quite clear on when, or how, we’re seduced, only that we are. Three tiaras.
