Movie review - "Miami Vice" (2006) ***1/2

An episode of Stingers directed by Michael Mann - the story isn't much, cops go undercover, one of them falls in love with a Bad Girl, one of them has his Woman threatened and goes looking for revenge - but those things are cliches because they work and they work here. Colin Farrell snarls as Sonny and Jamie Fox is a smooth Tubbs - both are charismatic movie stars, as is Gong Li as the bad Woman. Mann knows how to pick actors capable of an effective close up - the Cuban bad guy was really good, the one who you think is smart, then seems dopey then turns out to be smart again. I also loved the blonde girl who was part of the gang - she has real presence. One wishes Mann didn't re-use elements of his own films, even bits of music (Moby), and scenes (a meeting in a deserted lot watched by people with guns - something that appeared in Thief and Heat), a scene where a person turns traitor to save his wife and they kill his wife anyway. And characters talk on their mobile phones too much. But no one shoots a movie like him. It's fascinating.