Line #9 Film/MiamiVice


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MV5BMTIzMzQ4OTY0M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzA0ODQzMQ__V1__317.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Let's take it to the limit one more time.]]
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4	''Miami Vice'' is a DarkerAndEdgier 2006 [[TheFilmOfTheSeries film adaptation of the television series]] ''Series/MiamiVice'' starring Creator/ColinFarrell as James "Sonny" Crockett and Creator/JamieFoxx as Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs.
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6	In the film, Sonny and Rico are enlisted by the FBI to infiltrate a Colombian drug cartel after a botched undercover drug operation gets three Agents and a former Police informant killed. They decide to run transportation of cocaine into UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} for the cartel in order to get to the man running the Miami operation, [[BigBad Jose Yero]] (Creator/JohnOrtiz), and, later on, ''his'' boss, drug lord [[GreaterScopeVillain Arcangel de Jesus Montoya]] (Creator/LuisTosar). Complications arise as they get deeper into their undercover identities and Sonny falls in love with Isabella (Creator/GongLi), the accountant wife of Montoya.
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8	The film also stars Creator/CiaranHinds as John Fujima, Creator/JustinTheroux as Larry Zito and Creator/BarryShabakaHenley as Martin Castillo.
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10	The film was released to mixed critical reviews, but was relatively successful at the box office and was Creator/MichaelMann's third most financially successful film, behind ''Film/{{Heat}}'' and ''Film/{{Collateral}}''.
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12	----
13	!!This film features examples of:
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15	* AdaptationalBadass: Gina goes from being a sassy brunette in the TV show to a quietly lethal blonde in the movie.
16	* AsYouKnow: Done as a joke with Nicholas, the MrExposition about how dangerous Jose Yero's group is. A joke Nicholas doesn't get.
17	-->'''Nicholas''': They are vertically integrated, they're...
18	-->'''Tubbs''': You mean they walk around with constant erections?
19	-->'''Nicholas''': No, they farm, process, produce, export...
20	-->'''Tubbs''': I know what it means.
21	* BatmanGambit: In order to find out who's behind the neo-Nazis, Crockett and Tubbs rob from drug runners that had to be working with those Neo-Nazis to force the bad guys to contact them for work. Later on, they plant the stolen goods ''back'' with those drug runners to make an excuse that the cartel's got security issues and allow Crockett and Tubbs better access. All this so they can find out where the Mole is among the various agencies that were compromised at the start of the film.
22	* BigBad: Yero, who's leading most of the drug smuggling ring.
23	* BittersweetEnding: Most of the major bad guys are killed [[spoiler:but the [[GreaterScopeVillain real drug lord]] escapes before the overseas DEA can arrest him.]] Crockett [[spoiler:also has to let [[DidNotGetTheGirl Isabella go into hiding]], where he'll never see her again]]. But Rico's wife Trudy [[spoiler:appears to be coming out of her coma (much to Rico's relief) just as Crockett arrives at the hospital to check up on them]].
24	** Also a NoEnding, as the suddenness of it feels like the camera ran out of film.
25	* BodyDouble: During Trudy and Rico's shower scene, Trudy's skin tone is significantly lighter whenever her face is not on camera.
26	* CameraAbuse: There's gunk on the camera lens during the climatic shoot out.
27	* ConspicuousConsumption: Crocker and Tubbs figure out that they are dealing with a top-dog drug dealer before they even see [[BigBad Montoya]] when they notice their cell phones are being jammed and they say it would take military/CIA-grade tech to do that (sure enough, Montoya's bodyguards have a huge SUV loaded with ELINT gear sweeping the nearby houses for surveillance during the meeting. Montoya himself arrives in a limo-converted SUV).
28	* DamselInDistress: Trudy and Isabella are separately abducted and used against the heroes.
29	* DarkerAndEdgier: The movie trades the bright pastel shades that defined the TV series for dark, gritty and modern digital video.
30	* DeadlyEuphemism: The term "closing each other's eyes".
31	* DrivenToSuicide: When the informant finds out about [[spoiler:his wife's death]], he walks in front of an oncoming semitrailer.
32	* GreaterScopeVillain: Arcangel de Jesus Montoya, the real drug lord that Yero is working for.
33	* InMediasRes: The theatrical cut has [[ColdOpen no opening credits]] and begins with Sonny and Rico in the middle of their sting on Neptune. The [[ReCut Unrated Director's Cut]] adds in an opening credits sequence that sets up the Neptune operation, among many other changes.
34	* KarmaHoudini: Neptune, the target of the sting at the beginning of the movie, gets away. The squad doesn't have anything on him and they can't pursue him immediately because of the informant leak.
35	-->'''Trudy''': But what about Neptune?
36	-->'''Rico''': It's Neptune's lucky night.
37	** Also, [[spoiler:Arcangel de Jesus Montoya]].
38	** And [[spoiler:TheMole]], AND [[spoiler:Isabella, who, no matter how much Crockett may have loved her, was still an international drug trafficker. Except for killing some mid-level bad guys, the heroes didn't really accomplish very much in this movie.]]
39	* TheManBehindTheMan: Yero is initially suspected to be the head of the Colombian cartel that's behind the Miami-based neo-Nazis. Later on, we learn that man is actually drug lord Arcangel de Jesus Montoya.
40	%%* {{Mangst}}: Sonny, especially at the end of the film. Rico has more TranquilFury.
41	%%* MoreDakka
42	* MrExposition: Nicolas fills this role, explaining how dangerous Jose Yero's cartel is to the good guys. Then he has to set up a meeting between the good guys and Yero.
43	* PreMortemOneLiner: When the unit has to [[spoiler:rescue Trudy from the neo-Nazis that kidnapped her]], Gina corners one neo-Nazi using [[spoiler:Trudy]] as a human shield. Gina proceeds to explain to the neo-Nazi how [[ImprobableAimingSkills she can get one good shot]] that can sever the guy's spine in such a way to make sure he won't get ''his'' shot off in time and nails him with that one shot. This is a [[ShoutOut Shout-Out]] to the "Glades" episode of the series.
44	* MisplacedAccent: Isabella (played by Chinese actress Creator/GongLi) is supposed to be a second-generation Chinese-Cuban born and raised in Havana, yet speaks both English and Spanish in a very heavy Mandarin Chinese accent.
45	* PornStache: What Colin Farrell wears for facial recognition instead of Don Johnson's PermaStubble. Unless there's a Trope for Fu Manchu mustaches...
46	* {{Politically Incorrect Villain}}s: It's not bad enough the cartel's Stateside underlings are murderers and drug dealers; they're ''Aryan Brotherhood'' murderers and drug dealers.
47	* ProductPlacement: Very prominent in the movie. The actors drink Bacardi Mojitos, use Motorola phones and laptops, have a distinct Verizon logo on displays, and drive Donzi boats and a Ferrari F430.
48	* RaceLift: Castillo is now black, possibly Dominican instead of whatever unspecified Latino nationality he'd been in the TV show.
49	* ShownTheirWork:
50	** As with anything Creator/MichaelMann works on, attention is paid to realistic and skilled handling of firearms. It's notably one of the few movies to show the viewer ''exactly'' what a .50 BMG rifle [[LudicrousGibs can do to a human body... and the vehicle they're sitting in]].
51	** The production was also a case where Michael Mann's insistence on authenticity went a little ''too'' far, such as putting Creator/ColinFarrell through an actual police sting (that was later admitted to be staged to see if he would react realistically). Mann also insisted on filming in unsafe weather and in actual gang-ran areas, with one such occurrence leading to ''actual'' gunfire being exchanged on-set.
52	* ShoutOut: The plot of the film shares some similarities with the TV episode "Smuggler's Blues":
53	** Rico's line "We can close each others' eyes real fast, but then nobody's gonna make no money." is similar to the line he says in the TV series ("You and I are businessmen. We have business to look forward to which we will never see if we close each other's eyes.").
54	** Sonny's line "Why is he donating to the good and the welfare?".
55	** Both feature a subplot where [[spoiler: Trudy is held hostage in a trailer rigged with explosives.]]
56	* TitleCard: Similarly to Collateral, there's one only at the very end before the credits in the theatrical cut.
57	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: When the neo-Nazis target [[spoiler:the undercover [[FBIAgent FBI agents]] at the beginning of the film]] they leave little bodily evidence behind...
58	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We never learn who TheMole is.
59	* WhatTheHellHero: Crockett gets called on by Tubbs for focusing more on Isabella than on catching the bad guys.
60	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Later on in the movie, Montoya tells Isabella that Sonny and Rico will be killed at the end of their next job.
61	* YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo: In the movie, neo-Nazi gangbangers [[IHaveYourWife kidnap the wife of an informant]] and force him to compromise an undercover FBI operation. When the police arrive at the informant's house, [[spoiler: they find the wife [[ILied already dead]]]].
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Context Film / MiamiVice