Miami Vice

When you see the words Miami Vice you instantly think of a time when men wore white suits and shades, women wore shiny silver outfits and looked like they should be in a sci-fi flick, and the cars were probably the coolest things you had ever seen. You would also think of the popular Michael Mann TV series that made stars of Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. The series was cheesy, the cars were beautiful, the women dangerous, and the music was great.

Let's skip ahead 20 years and lose the cheese and dodgy outfits and you have the new Miami Vice.

Detectives James 'Sonny' Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) are two of the best in their field. After an inter-agency undercover assignment goes wrong, Tubbs and Crockett must step up to the plate and go deep within the trafficking underworld to find out who the Mr Big is and try to put a stop to his agenda. The detectives get closer to finding out how the underworld operates and as things begin to heat up so does the possibility that something could go wrong. Sonny falls for the wife (Gong Li) of the drugs trafficker he is trying to bust and the line between right and wrong begins to disappear.

If you were a big fan of the TV series (I still have a white suit that I dig out every Halloween) then you will already notice the similarity between the new movie and the show but with one big difference. This movie is real. It looks better, it feels better and, best of all, the only man that could possibly show us how the Miami Vice of today would look is back on board to take his creation to a whole new level.

Gone are the sunny beaches with the beautiful women wandering about half-dressed. They are replaced by rain-drenched streets and the backdrop of a thunderstorm. The beautiful lighting which gave the series its glamour is gone in favour of a grittier, realistic, documentary look (think back to the TV show Cops). The drug dealers that used to pop up on every show to cause trouble for Tubbs and Crockett are still there but are more hardcore. Basically, this is so real it looks as though you could be watching a live TV broadcast.

I can't say a bad thing about this movie. The performances are great, the locations visually stunning, the vehicles amazing and the music accompanies the movie well. Best of all Michael Mann is behind the camera to make sure we get what we have all been waiting for.

It's been 20 years in the making and well worth the wait.