Miami Vice on DVD December 5th

From acclaimed writer-director-producer Michael Mann, Miami Vice explores the intricate dynamic between criminals and cops who risk everything as they navigate an international marketplace where third-world drug trafficking intersects with billion-dollar conglomerates. An intense film about globalized crime, Miami Vice blasts its way onto DVD in both R-rated and Unrated Director’s Editions, as well as on an HD DVD combo disc on December 5, 2006 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The Unrated Director’s Edition amps the intensity with a never-before-seen version of the film that features footage not shown in theaters, creating an exclusive motion-picture experience audiences won’t want to miss. Miami Vice stars Oscar® winner Jamie Foxx (Ray, Collateral) and Colin Farrell (S.W.A.T., Phone Booth) as Ricardo Tubbs and Sonny Crockett – two undercover detectives going where no cop has tread before…into the heart of globalized trafficking. The film also features an accomplished international cast, including Gong Li, Naomie Harris, Ciaran Hinds, Justin Theroux, Barry Shabaka Henley, Luis Tosar, Elizabeth Rodriguez and John Ortiz.

The feature Miami Vice is the big screen contemporization of one of the most groundbreaking series in history, now unrestricted by the limits of television. Created by Anthony Yerkovich and executive produced by Mann, the revolutionary show pioneered a new way for televised dramas to be conceived and staged. With this year’s Miami Vice, Mann continues to make his indelible influence on cinema as he explores the intriguing characters he developed for television to reveal the dangerous and alluring world of working deep undercover. The DVD is priced at $29.98.

A BARRAGE OF BONUS FEATURES 

Blazing with excitement from the very first shot through the thrilling climax, the Miami Vice DVD includes exciting extras that provide an exclusive insider’s look at the volatile and visually stunning world of Miami Vice. Both the Rated and Unrated Director’s Editions contain the following bonus features:

• Miami Vice Undercover – Join actors Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell as they prepare for their immersion in undercover life through a regimen of physical, mental and weapons training with a squad of experts. Foxx and Farrell learn from seasoned Federal agents and undercover operatives brought in to develop an authentic three-month training experience on-site in Miami.
• Miami and Beyond: Shooting on Location – Michael Mann and his location team aggressively sought out locations to create the film’s exotic feel. Follow the cast and crew as they film in locations from Miami and Key West, Florida, to Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Brazil – including the mysterious Ciudad del Este, a real-life haven for drug traffickers, weapons dealers and international crime rings.

The Unrated Director’s Edition takes fans even deeper into the production of this groundbreaking film with the following in-depth bonus features:

• Visualizing Miami Vice – Mann collaborated with Oscar® -winning cinematographer Dion Beebe (Collateral) to capture twenty-first century Miami’s distinctive, instantly recognizable aura. Since Mann helped to usher in the image of a new Miami in the 1980s, the city has grown more cosmopolitan, sophisticated and affluent. From production design to cinematography, discover how top technical experts in their fields captured Miami’s new muscular vitality.
• Feature Commentary with writer-director-producer Michael Mann.
• Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes – This bonus feature provides a behind-the-scenes peek at the making of the film, including an exciting look at the actors’ firearms training, the film’s locations, and the filming of one of the Unrated film’s most exciting sequences – the boat races.

In the mid-1980s, the television series "Miami Vice” revolutionized the way in which televised dramas were conceived and staged and forever changed the face of primetime television.   Based on a brilliant pilot screenplay written by the show’s creator Anthony Yerkovich, the innovative series drew its creative inspiration from Executive Producer Michael Mann.   Mann was largely responsible for the show’s unique look and feel which relied on fashion, color and music to intensify the emotional undercurrent of a drama that was both nihilistic and cool. In the 2006 big-screen version, Mann returns to Miami, which he refers to as "the new Casablanca” where third-world drug running intersects with the billion-dollar corporate-industrial complex.   This is the first post millennial examination of what globalized crime looks and feels like, unrestricted by the limitations of television.   For the feature version, Mann no longer relies on the tried-and-true South Beach images of 80s pastels, but features instead the fresh new look of the city where numerous high-rises now dominate the horizon.   Twenty years later, Miami is much more cosmopolitan, affluent and sophisticated than during the television series’ shooting days.   Mann used every corner of Miami as well as exotic locations in the Dominican Republic and South America to bring the high-def stickiness, heat, threat and feel of the tropics to his film.

Crockett and Tubbs race to identify the group responsible for their friends’ killings while jointly investigating the New Underworld Order.   The intensity of the case pushes them out on the edge where identity and fabrication are blurred.   During their mission, lines get crossed as the partners start forgetting which side of the law they’re supposed to be on, and cop and player become one.   This is exactly the kind of exciting, visually impressive, viscerally thrilling crime noir drama, involving characters living an absolute alternate existence, that we’ve come to expect from Michael Mann.   Mann doesn’t mythologize or glamorize what it’s like to traffic in this world.   Instead, he makes us come to feel the dread, confusion and isolation of those on the front lines.  

Director of Photography Dion Beebe’s grainy night lensing and Victor Kempter’s sumptuous production design give the dark tale a handsome, seductive look while establishing a brooding atmosphere set appropriately against the ominous backdrop of a very real hurricane season.   The film’s arresting visual style elevates it above what would otherwise be little more than a conventional crime drama.   Mann uses high definition (HD) digital cameras to maximum effect to reveal as much visual information as possible in low light, while Beebe’s distinct visual style, use of dramatically colored lighting, and interesting camera angles make us intensely aware of the constant threat of exposure.  We are also treated to several trademark Mann compositions involving panoramic shots of his main characters framed against the backdrop of the city’s horizon. There are also some visually stunning shots that are stylistically reminiscent of the series, such as accelerating speedboats cutting large wakes through the intercoastal waterways and a small jet navigating effortlessly through a spectacular cloud formation.   Also not to be missed is a brief scene featuring Mann’s trademark phone quote: "Who am I talking to?,” the question one of his characters always asks in his movies when on speakerphone.

The pace of the film’s opening sequence is slow and the performances seem strangely inert as Mann focuses on packing in as many details as possible while establishing the story’s various plotlines.  However, once the film gets moving, we discover that it was definitely worth the wait as we see how masterfully Mann has set about staging the action which seems to follow its own inevitable logic.   Mann takes full advantage of the "R” rating which allows him the creative leeway to explore darker themes without discarding the basic fundamentals of the original television show.   While substance almost invariably took a back seat to style in the television show, that is not always the case in the feature version.

"Miami Vice,” the feature film, is a dark, gritty, super-violent rumination on identity and duplicity that bears little resemblance to the original series. The lead characters wear steely, monochromatic tones that seem to mirror their pessimistic outlook.   This is definitely not a remake, and you won’t find any pastel-blazers over T-shirts, pet alligators named Elvis, sail boats, pink flamingos, or Jan Hammer synthesized score here.   Although music is still an important element that drives the plot and action, it fails to generate the heat that the music in the series once did, especially Jan Hammer’s driving score and the impressive song selections. Mann’s 2006 version is indeed an extremely dark journey into the world of undercover and one where his attention to detail as a writer sometimes gets in the way of his talents as a director, resulting in a film that is strangely torpid and unengaging at times.   Perhaps it’s just the heat and humidity of Miami during hurricane season that makes it seem that way which is nothing a few well chilled mojitos won’t fix.