Miami Vice (2006) – 8.0

Summer action fare by Michael Mann – which is to say, a useless, reckless, supremely entertaining joyride.  With fuck-all abandon, Mann blows a sky-high budget on boats, cars, guns, and Gong Li, all the while handicapped by a dreadful plot and Colin Farrell inexplicably done-up as a greasy-haired hillbilly.  Still, Miami Vice succeeds on the merits of Mann’s trademark charms: the palpable masculinity, the violence, and above all, the abstract beauty.  The film features several gratuitously gorgeous scenes: A brief shot of blood streaked across a highway after a man steps in front of a truck; a fast boat hurtling across the ocean towards the sunset; Li’s translucent beauty in the morning light.  And as with Collateral, Mann displays a seemingly effortless ability to transform the grainy texture and washed-out colors of digital film into art.  Miami Vice ranks far below Mann’s best work (The Insider and Heat, in that order), but it’s still textbook Mann, and we’ll take what we can get.  Also features an excellent performance by Luis Tosar as the bearded head-honcho druglord, and Barry Shabaka Henley as Lt. Castillo.