When my husband told me that our next rental film was Miami Vice (2006) I admit that I did giggle - images of the 80s television series kept flashing into my head and really hoped there might be a few baggy suits with t-shirts and slip-ons without socks in view. But alas despite the suits and t-shirts it had been brought up to date (which I knew they would really) except I couldn't quite get over Colin Farrell looking like Steve Coogan's Tony Ferrino! And the fact that this film was directed by Michael Mann, whose films such as Heat and Collateral I really quite like, meant that I actually held out hope that this would be quite a good film. Was I right? I have to say the jury is out on this one.

And then add onto that the whole appeal of the TV series was the various scenarios they found themselves in every week, the fact that Tubbs lived on a boat guarded by an alligator/crocodile and Crockett wore shiny suits and that all the action was crammed into a short episode or two. You had to wonder how that would transfer into a longer period of time and all the things that made the series worth watching were lost in this film. OK so Tubbs is still the hard man and Crockett is still the charmer (of sorts) but as that is almost expected it doesn't hold any real interest and the fact that there is no chemistry between Foxx and Farrell just makes the potential appeal of the film seep away. You get no sense of the level of seediness of Miami which the TV series did. Yes there is a pimp shoehorned in and a few club scenes but that just seemed like a trendy place to be. Everything in the film is just cold and calculated - there's no feeling of reliance on their partner or any sense of being buddies as well as colleagues and that is one of the main things that build tension in a drama. They care for their partner and so we care for them too. In this you don't really care about them as characters and so what you are watching is a series of events which you can't really engage in. In fact not only do you not really care about them but actually you don't really like them - Tubbs is ok just far too efficient but Crockett not only suffers from the efficiency but is far too cold and emotionless in all his dealings.

As I've mentioned there is no connection between the two main characters and all the supporting actors leave you feeling cold as well. Gong Li, probably best known as the calculating Hatsumomo in Memoirs of a Geisha, actually does quite a good job as the business like femme fatale with a bit more of a heart than perhaps she should have. But her rapport with Farrell is less than convincing as it is with Luis Tosar, the overall baddie of the piece and her boyfriend/business partner, Montoya. In fact as a character Montoya is extremely unsatisfactory - you have no real idea of how dangerous he could be apart from him giving a little speech and turns out to be a little too trusting for someone who probably got to where he was by not trusting anyone. John Ortiz is possibly the only actor this film that gives his role a little bit of realism as the middle man/distributor between our duo and Montoya. You would expect him to be cold and calculating and one of the main people that could cause real trouble for our duo. But even when he does you don't feel he's any real threat. And everyone else in the film just seems shoehorned in with a few strange over the top lines to make them a bit more memorable - except that I can't remember the lines or for that matter the characters very well.