Miami Vice (Unrated and Rated) (HD DVD)

Michael Mann's films are continually outstanding and the promotional pieces for Miami Vice looked as if it would be yet another one of Mann's successes in a long line of them. Unfortunately it seems his golden touch skipped a flick as Miami Vice is an exercise in boredom with bits of brilliance mixed in.

The look is undeniably Mann. It might sound funny to say it, but no one films night like Michael Mann. The best examples of this can be found in Collateral and Miami Vice and to a large extent Heat as well. His style of filmmaking feels about as close to reality as it can get and this film is no different. Unfortunately, this movie is also very slow and not at all interesting beyond the reality of its appearance. Outside of the storyline this flick also offers up a couple of very poor performances from both Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. Farrell tries to gruff up his voice and it comes off cheesy rather than tough and Jamie gives a horrible little speech during the early moments of the film when his character is trying to get across the point that he is not a cop. Foxx is an Oscar winner and Farrell has turned in some very good performances, too bad this film is not a resume builder for either actor.

This HD DVD carries both the unrated and rated edition of the movie. The unrated version can be found on the HD DVD side while the rated, theatrical version is on the DVD side. As Mann explains in his commentary the unrated edition is not exactly all that different from the theatrically released version, aside from a different opening which adds an additional boat race to set up the following scene which actually opened the theatrical version. The rest is a variety of alternate shots of scenes you have already scene.

Outside of the unrated version of the film this disc comes packed with special features not available on the DVD edition and they all come in the form of Universal's HD DVD exclusive "U-Control" feature, learn more about that and the rest of the features now...

HD DVD "U-Control" Feature - This is the interactive HD DVD exclusive feature and it is really the best I have seen yet, I just wish it was on a better movie. Everything inside of this feature is available while you are watching the film and when it pops up the movie actually minimizes itself to take up less space whereas the feature you select slides in on the right side of the screen. Here you will have the ability to look at cast bios for just about everyone as they make their entrance into the film, GPS tracking as you move around the world whether it be by plane, boat or car, tech specs for the different cars, planes and even drugs in the film, production photos from the particular scene you are watching and, of course, picture-in-picture featurettes, which are not available anywhere else on the disc. Like I said, this really is the best U-Control feature Universal has offered and it is highly interesting, the movie just isn't as interesting.

Unrated Version Director Commentary - Talk about technical. I love Michael Mann, but his commentaries are not always the greatest as they are far more technical and filled with details than actually entertaining. Granted, when you first get going, his commentaries are great, but an hour into it you are like, "Okay Mike, how about losing the monotone voice and all the specifics?" If you can make it through this commentary you are going to learn a lot about this movie, and I will say some of his notes elevate the intensity of the film as you learn about the making and background behind each scene. Unfortunately, it is one hell of a slow roll.

Miami & Beyond: Shooting on Location (10:00) - Want to know about styrofoam? Actually that is just a tiny part of this 10 minute feature as it takes you around Miami and gives you one more bit of insight into one of Hollywood's greatest directors on what is certainly one of his worst films.

Miami Vice Undercover (13:03) - What happens to a human when they go undercover? This is yet another look into the motivation of Michael Mann. All of these featurettes and bits of information add a lot to Mann's movies, it is a matter of making it through the detailed and boring information to get to the good stuff. My recommendation is stick with the commentary for the details.

One thing is to be said for the features, they do make this film better. Michael Mann explains just how "real" this movie and the scenes inside of it are. I will give him credit for doing his research, but I am afraid the story just isn't as exciting or interesting as some of the scenes are, especially the siege on the house in which Tubb's girlfriend and colleague is being held captive.

Miami Vice is gritty, bloody, violent and unfortunately boring, slow and long. I can't recommend you buy this movie based on the fact that outside of the one curious first time viewing it is not entertaining in the slightest.