By the time you read this, MIAMI VICE will probably be due out on DVD in short order. I'm not sure how to recommend it in that case, as part of what I loved about it was how gorgeous it looked wall-to-wall in the Cinerama Dome. As Sonny Crockett, the character that made Don Johnson a household name, Colin Farrell was...
...compelling. Colin, call me, all is forgiven for ALEXANDER! Gong Li, who made her debut in a Chinese movie named something like "Wave the Red Flag" is a better actress in Chinese-inflected Spanish than many of our homegrown gals and she and Colin smoldered on that big screen. There's a scene toward the end where her face speaks volumes without a word. That's acting in any language. But Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx seemed to disappear for long stretches of the story, which was okay with me because his character and story line paled next to Sonny's, and besides, his straight-across-the-front buzz cut bugged the heck out of me.
Oh, yeah, the story. It's all dark and stormy and unsettled; much like director Michael Mann's all night shot LA movie COLLATERAL, the movie focuses on surprising and unexpected views of the locale. Not sure exactly what the story was about. Some drugs, some FBI guys, some trips to Havana and Ciudad del Este in South America's Tri-Border Area -- forever linking those lawless transnational regions with Miami in my mind. A good thing? Not so much. Anyway, the story and feel here have as much to do with Don Johnson's Miami as today's Las Vegas does with Bugsy Siegel's, and there's not an Architectonica apartment building, rundown Deco hotel, or the Spears' family Pink House in sight. Still, it was fun to watch for 2 hours and then forget.
[ETA: Gong Li's movie was called "Raise the Red Lantern" - I knew it had 'red' in it!]