I'll get it right out of the way. I'm a Michael Mann addict. I love his work, I love his insight (never heard a better commentary track than Heat. EVER.) I love the crime drama as a whole. So what to do with his update, but not remake of the hit show from the 80s that made it cool to not wear socks and shave? The answer is a little more complicated than you might think.
I saw the previews for this film, and I really wasn't enthraled. But I saw it anyways, given the above fanaticism. And I thought it was awful, god awful. But then I started thinking about it some more. I thought about a few scenes that really stood out. I thought more about what the film was, not what it wasn't. And then I had to go see it again.

Miami Vice is not for everyone. Mann's films in general are not for everyone. But Vice is a different lot, at least it wwas to me. What distinguished my 2nd viewing from the 1st I think was more than anything I had a basic understanding of what was going on. Because upon an initial viewing, this can be a complicated, spinning story. We've got Arians, we've got Vice cops, we've got South American Drug dealers, we're going to Cuba, we've got old informants now working for the F.B.I.

See what I mean? It's a lot to digest, and at first it doesn't come across quite so clear. But there's something going on here, and it's minimal and under the surface.
Which brings me to the next point. There is nothing about this film that connects it to the series, much like many licensed video games connect to films they're based on. But that's OK, and it works here. Crockett and Tubbs are no longer kings of cool. They're big, muscle bound cops who speak in low droll tones and almost speak in sentence fragments. This is for several reasons. 1. They know each other well. 2. It saves freakin time. 3. They're burnt out emotionally from what they do. There's no question about it. When they're together it's the most powerful moments of the film. Farrell and Foxx make it real, make it believable. They're so far in everytime they go in there's nothing left to go to. They work with a type group of people, and they act like a family. There's no cuteness to it and certainly no pastel muscle shirts under a linen sport coat. This isn't Miami that we're used to either, all at night, with a grainy overcoat.

Which is another strength of the production. I myself am a fan of digital shooting and the Viper cameras that Mann has fallen in love with are for good reason. They capture color and vibrance with pristine quality, all the while shooting down the glitz and glamour of being by the Florida beaches.

That's not to say that the film is perfect. There's a drug dealer at the top who should be in it more, there's the whole issue of Gong Li trying to speak English and then trying to speak Spanish, all in the same scene. And yes I hate to say it, but Mann has almost gottena little sentimental here. But the good definately outweighs what's not so much bad but questionable. And again, to see this once probably won't do it. To see it twice, well that's more than nice. There are 3 noticeable deaths on screen that rate up there with anything in cinema today, the final moments of the film are beautiful in their sadness and Farrell and Foxx make it all work.

Heat it is not. But Don Johnson eat your heart out.