Parents' Guide to

Miami Vice

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Dark, violent update of TV series. Not for kids.

Movie R 2006 135 minutes
Miami Vice Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 13+

Based on 1 parent review

Irishreviews
Irishreviews Adult
December 20, 2018
age 13+

Not a bad film, but it could’ve been better.

When I watched this film a few weeks ago for some inspiration for an animation project I was doing, I was pretty impressed by what direction director Michael Mann went with the film. I was impressed by the acting from Jamie Foxx (Tubbs) and Colin Farrell (Crockett), the action and the soundtrack. I was kinda impressed by the film’s story but I thought it could be better, and I thought that the films version of Tubbs wasn’t as cynical as he was in the show. I also was pretty disappointed with how the movie didn’t have a version of the show’s theme. Warning: the movie can get very violent, mainly in the scenes where a character commits suicide by going in front of a semi-truck and the final shootout with the .50 caliber sniper rifle. The violence also includes Tubbs shooting a drug dealer at close range with a grenade launcher with a lot of blood shown. There’s also a lot of talk about drug dealings and prostitution. In my opinion, I think that the movie can be alright for a 13 year old with a parent present and a 15 year old by him or her self.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
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What's the Story?

MIAMI VICE opens on Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Rico Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) going about their local business: They're scoping a nightclub for smalltime thugs. Unexpectedly, they're called up to the big time, a multi-agency case that's gone terribly wrong. Summoned by a former associate (John Hawkes) whose family has been targeted by a group of drug dealers who call themselves the Aryan Brotherhood, the detective duo agrees to go undercover: They pilot expensive planes and those speedy boats that skip over the water, and cut deals with sinister Jose (John Ortiz) and his cold-blooded employer, Jesus (Luis Tosar). Undercover work wreaks havoc on their love lives: While Rico is in a committed relationship with fellow detective Trudy (Naomie Harris), Sonny is a swaggery player. His romance with Montoya's money launderer Isabella (Gong Li), initiated at a bar in Cuba, is rendered in impressionistic fragments.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1):
Kids say (2):

An action movie that's actually not very interested in action, Michael Mann's Miami Vice is mostly smart, occasionally slowed by clichéd plot turns. The film version is more violent and less upbeat than the 1980's TV series, exploring the ways that an expanding international economy of drugs, weapons, and money takes its toll on everyone, even those who try to fight back.

While the shift in focus to Sonny's involvement with Isabelle is actually brief -- the movie soon returns to its more regular business of shooting and dealing -- it reshapes what's at stake. Tubbs worries whether his buddy is in "too deep": "There's undercover," Rico observes, "and then there's 'Which way is up?'" This question of perspective is embodied by the elusive Isabella. While the movie offers the usual line-blurring between cops and criminals, her dislocation is never resolved.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the friendship between Crockett and Tubbs: Why do they support each other even when one thinks the other is going astray? Why does Crockett decide to help his criminal girlfriend escape? How do the various "sides" (cops, federal agents, and several tiers of criminals) distrust and betray one another?

Movie Details

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