'Miami Vice' Style
The new "Miami Vice" looks fabulous and sounds even better, moving at breakneck pace through a plot that makes little sense. This is how it should be. It's not about plot. It's about style. Could the new Crockett and Tubbs have the impact Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas had in the 1980s? Maybe. Take a look at "Miami Vice" style, then and now. At left, a poster at the Cannes Film Festival, May 17, 2006.
They made pink macho. Introduced slouchy, deconstructed Italian suits to the masses. (Armani is forever grateful.) They wore loafers with no socks and T-shirts with suits, a style still imitated by hip males everywhere. And, of course, there was stubble. Not slobby forgot-to-shave stubble, just enough stubble. Don Johnson, right, as "Sonny" Crocket, and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs appear in "Miami Vice."
In 2006, undercover cops Ricardo Tubbs and Sonny Crockett don a darker palette. They're a bit seedy and even a little grubby. Crockett has long, greasy hair and wears a mustache worthy of a porn star. Tubbs' beard harks back to an earlier era -- maybe Malcolm X. Crockett keeps his stubble, and Tubbs has shaved his head to stubble length. At left, Jamie Foxx, left, and Colin Farrell in the new "Miami Vice."
One change in "Miami Vice" is not superficial: Tubbs is no mere sidekick in the new movie, and Jamie Foxx gets top billing in the credits. Hey, he's an Oscar winner ("Ray," 2004) and nominee ("Collateral," 2004). Co-stars Foxx, left, and Colin Farrell, pose at the Los Angeles premiere on July 20, 2006.
Actor Jamie Foxx is pretty stylish off screen, too. Here he arrives with actress Naomi Harris for the European premiere of "Miami Vice" at the Odeon Leicester Square In London on July 27, 2006.
With "Miami Vice," Dublin-born Colin Farrell, age 30, may move up from successful young actor to A-list star. What's not to like about a movie star who brings his mom to the premiere? Farrell and his mother pose on the red carpet at the "Miami Vice" premiere in Los Angeles on July 20, 2006.
His newly heightened fame may take some getting used to. Looking like a deer caught in the headlights, actor Colin Farrell meets fans at the European premiere of "Miami Vice" at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on July 27, 2006.
There are other signs of the times. In the original "Vice," female detectives Trudy and Gina couldn't have edged Crockett and Tubbs out of the spotlight if they'd aimed machine guns at them. The movie gives the female cops a bit more camera time. Actress Naomie Harris, shown at a party after the premiere on July 20, 2006, plays Trudy Joplin, an undercover cop and Tubbs' love interest.
Tough-talking Det. Gina Calabrese doesn't get much screen time in the new "Vice," but actress Elizabeth Rodriguez makes the most of it, taking care of one bad guy in a particularly colorful way. Rodriguez poses on the red carpet at the premiere of "Miami Vice" in Los Angeles on July 20, 2006.
Actress Gong Li gets to be more than arm candy in the new "Vice." The Chinese movie star plays Isabella, the brains and beauty behind an international drug ring. At left, she poses at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles on July 14, 2005.
Fans of the old "Miami Vice" will miss the original Lt. Martin Castillo. Edward James Olmos smoked up the small screen, playing the undercover squad boss as a smouldering ninja whose every whisper makes Crockett's knees knock. Barry Shabaka Henley, at the Los Angeles premiere on July 20, 2006, is quietly authoritative as his namesake in the new movie.
No version of "Miami Vice" would be complete without a parade of unsavory characters. Actor John Hawkes, who plays one of them in the new movie, arrives at the premiere on July 20, 2006.
Actor John Ortiz plays the nastiest of the bad guys in the new "Miami Vice." Looking much nicer off screen, Ortiz arrives at the premiere on July 20, 2006.
The new "Vice" conjures up memories of Miami's murky past, when rival drug traffickers had shootouts with automatic weapons, bags of drugs washed up on beaches and police were outspent and outgunned. Miami remains a key command center for the worldwide cocaine trade. But the violence has largely disappeared. Here, Colin Farrell, left, and Jamie Foxx arm up for a scene in "Miami Vice."
Like the original, the new "Miami Vice" shines a brilliant light on Miami's club scene. The TV show changed the city's image from "God's Waiting Room" into something close to Hellfire Club, and brought a new generation of party-goers way south. Here, club patrons party at the Mansion nightclub in Miami Beach in a file photo from Aug. 7, 2004.
Miami boosters grumbled about their new hedonistic image, but no one objected to the attention given the city's long-neglected art deco architecture. South Beach emerged as a tourist destination known for its trendy restaurants and clubs, pastel-painted hotels and upscale fashion. A brochure for the 10th Annual Art Deco Weekend festival in 1987 features Crockett and Tubbs.
The revival that began with a television show has lasted. South Beach once was a place where gun-toting criminals ruled, retirees lined porches and crumbling hotels stood vacant. Now old Art Deco hotels like the Clevelander, pictured on July 11, 2006, are hip, upscale and trendy.
Will the new "Miami Vice" have an impact as lasting as the original? Not likely, but it's fun while it lasts. Colin Farrell, left, and Jamie Foxx appear onstage for MTV's "Total Request Live" at the MTV Times Square Studios in New York on July 24, 2006.