New York Times
"[M]ixing pop savvy with startling formal ambition....A dazzling Wagnerian spectacle....[Mann] fuses music, pulsating color and high drama....Frequently sublime." 07/28/2006 p.E1Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "If you're looking for a crime story that sizzles with action, sex and the visceral jolt of life on the edge, MIAMI VICE is the one." 08/10/2006 p.111 Entertainment Weekly
"Mann seizes the audience, all right....He stages a spectacular showdown..." -- Grade: B 08/04/2006 p.45 Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "There's a classy but urgent verve to the scenes with Farrell and Foxx....Foxx is the cooler, more focused partner, while Farrell plays Crockett like a coiled spring..." 09/01/2006 p.33 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "MIAMI VICE is pure Michael Mann and a dark exploration of the war against drug dealers....The action is knock-out from start to finish." 09/01/2006 188 Uncut
4 stars out of 4 -- "The cast are big enough for Mann's ambitions. Foxx commands attention with his stillness and intelligence, while Farrell's aura of sleaze fits Crockett better than any of Don Johnson's unstructured suits." 10/01/2006 p.152 Sight and Sound
"[The film] thrills for at least two thirds of its running time and establishes a look and a mood that's incomparable in modern US cinema." 10/01/2006 p.68 Variety 8 of 10
"MTV cops" was the note scribbled by the late NBC exec Brandon Tartikoff that famously inspired "Miami Vice," and while the music and color palette have changed (black, it seems, is the new pastel), writer-director Michael Mann has refreshingly revived the series largely intact. Unlike most TV-to-movie transitions, Mann returns to his roots and delivers what amounts to a slightly overblown episode, brimming with style and characteristically short on substance...Cinematically, it's territory Mann knows well -- from "Thief" early in his career to "Heat" to the more recent TV series "R.H.D./LA" -- and that mastery of brooding atmosphere buoys what would otherwise be an utterly by-the-numbers crime drama. - Brian Lowry
ReelViews 8 of 10
The two best words to describe the 2006 motion picture Miami Vice are "stylish" and "intense." One of those descriptors without the other could lead one to suspect a pretentious bore or a pointless exercise in action but, by pairing them, writer/director Michael Mann has crafted a gripping, visually interesting motion picture that doesn't fail on the basis of its needlessly convoluted plot and its hit-or-miss character arcs. As police dramas go, Miami Vice never loses its audience, in part because it is unpredictable (you never feel like anyone, even the lead characters, is destined to survive the proceedings) and in part because it never slows down...The best way to view this new Miami Vice is as something unconnected to its previous incarnation. That way, this version and the new interpretations of the actors can be allowed to stand on their own. As cop movies go, Miami Vice does interesting things with unoriginal material. This is to its credit - movies with more have failed, while this one succeeds on the basis of its fervor and immediacy. It's not the ultimate as either a cop movie or a TV adaptation, but it's better than average in both categories. - James Berardinelli
The Village Voice 8 of 10
Michael Mann's Miami Vice is like a car that's been stripped of everything but its two bucket seats and rebuilt from the ground up. The protagonists are a pair of detectives named Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) and a cover of Phil Collins's "In the Air Tonight" finds its way onto the soundtrack, but so little else about the film evokes the 1984-89 television series that the title seems almost perverse...In a career marked by an obsession with the intricacies of law enforcement and criminal activity, this may be Mann's most brutally efficient policier yet: The characters scarcely have personalities; they are nearly soulless nocturnal warriors. But watching them go about their deadly serious business nevertheless puts you in a state of high anxiety...Mann has done something transformative with Farrell: The Irish actor has never had this much charisma and natural authority in a role, and as he navigates that gray area between Crockett's real identity and his fabricated one, revealing subtle fissures in the character's cocksure facade, he's fascinating to watch. But it's not often enough noted that Mann is the creator of many strong female characters, and Gong's Isabella may be the most complex he has dreamt up since Tuesday Weld's tragic Jessie in his debut feature, Thief. - Scott Foundas
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