1. This was nothing like the television show 2. This was a very good movie
If you came in ready to have (1) totally ruin your moviegoing experience...well, what can I say? I can't help you. The only thing this movie had in common with the show that inspired it is the title and the fact that all the cop characters had the same names as the show. Lt. Martn Castillo, whose name nor rank is ever mentioned once in the entire movie, is now a big scary black dude instead of a small scary brown dude. Switek no longer looks like Jay Leno and also never gets HIS name called during the movie. Zito, on the other hand - hey, Larry, you're back from the dead! Congratulations! Gina (I assume it's Gina) is a real badass, while Trudy is finally and firmly established as Rico's hoochie mama. This is stuff probably nobody cares about.
Hey, let's talk about the movie! It was quite good! Also it was LONG - I think it was over two hours. Michael Mann is still the master of location shooting, and the credits mention the Dominican Republic, and Paraguay, Uruguay, which serve as the stand-ins for Cuba and Colombia. The music - let's face it, this movie could have used ol' Jan Hammer in more than a few places. Moby doesn't do it for me - call me CRAZY. The action was good, not as implausible as the TV show, very loud, and stuff blew up real good. Crockett sure had a funny accent, though - but even that didn't get in the way of me really enjoying this movie.
So in conclusion, FLEA needs to go see it after all. If you hated the TV show, you really have no reason to skip it, and if you DID like the TV show....well, the eighties ended a long time ago, son.
I never watched Miami Vice as a kid. I'm relatively new to the Miami Vice TV universe. I happened upon the current promotion for the season one and two DVDs packaged together: "Twice the Vice for One Low Price!", which in my case was $45. 44 episodes for $45 is a hell of a good deal, I thought. Plus I just can't resist a rhyme like that.
I watched the two hour pilot the day before I saw the movie but I didn't know who "Gina" and "Trudy" were in the movie in terms of their role in the series. Castillo wasn't even there in the pilot. I've got me a lot of Miami Vice watching to do now.
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