Crockett and Tubbs return

"Miami Vice," created long ago by Michael Mann when pastel shirts were in and it was cool to wear your sunglasses at night, has now received a complete update that makes it seem like the 1980s never even happened. "Vice" is now dark, gritty and lacking any sort of humor -- it isn't your normal police procedural in the least.\nCrockett (Colin Farrell) and Tubbs (Jamie Foxx -- whose performance in Mann's "Collateral" guaranteed they'd work together again) get in over their heads with a South American drug cartel and as they get deeper, the risks become greater. To make matters worse, Crockett is falling in love with his boss's girlfriend, Isabella (Gong Li, "Memoirs of a Geisha"). \nOf course "Vice" looks like a Michael Mann movie. Much like director Michael Bay, Mann has a distinct sense of style and texture to each frame that when you look at everything within it, his auteur mark is evident. It opens with a club shot not far from "Collateral," the outdoor scenes are gorgeous while every night scene is noir to the book. \nUnfortunately, this time around it seems Mann is trying to outdo himself. Having made films such as "Heat," "The Insider," "Collateral" and "The Last of the Mohicans," this is damn near impossible. The screenplay is laughably bad at times as characters spout of lines that no cop would actually mutter. "Vice" also lacks any sort of immediacy in its plot. We are given grand action sequences that make the film a definite must-see, but in between such scenes the film plods along attempting to soak in all the cool around it. Mann spends so much time developing the shaky relationship between Crockett and Isabella that we lose sight not only of a romantic relationship between Tubbs and his girlfriend played by Naomie Harris ("28 Days Later"), it begins to feel like Crockett and Tubbs aren't really partners in the first place.\nAs far as acting goes, almost everyone is in need of a tune-up. Farrell is too busy trying to downplay his bad boy persona yet such would've had a place in "Vice." Foxx on the other hand has come to the point where he thinks he is just too cool for school. Harris tries so hard to cover up her Brit accent that she becomes garbled and sounds like she is from Brooklyn. And Li, who I thought was simply amazing in "Memoirs of a Geisha," is surely in need of more English lessons for her dialogue skills are missing fluidity. \nWhat saves the movie are the action sequences even though there are so few. When they hit you its like a flash bang just went off in the theatre. Want to see what .50 caliber rifles can do to an automobile or snipers to a person's skull? See "Vice" and find out, but just remember the chances of Mann ever besting himself since the shootout in "Heat" -- easily one of the most epic in cinema history -- is not likely to happen. \nIt's hard to really call any Mann movie a bad one because truthfully he is one of the best working directors in Hollywood today. With his previous work he simply has very high expectations from his fans to which "Miami Vice" can't live up to.