Director Michael Mann’s cinematic adaptation of his stylish 1980s television crime drama “Miami Vice” comes nowhere near the kitsch factor of that decade and show.

It’s closer in the gritty spirit to his more recent film “Collateral” (also starring Jamie Foxx) and his 1995 masterpiece “Heat.”

And while not one of his better films, “Vice” is still an exciting and tense crime thriller set in the dangerous world of global drug trafficking, ruthless dealers, and the cops who do whatever it takes to catch the crooks — even if the “Vice” plot isn’t nearly as interesting as the ones from the aforementioned films.

The film involves the two main characters of the show, vice detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs, now played here by Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. Unfortunately, the characters aren’t nearly as richly developed as the same characters as portrayed by Philip Michael Thomas and Sockless Don Johnson.

The two vice squad cops infiltrate a drug traffic ring as undercover traffickers to take down said kingpin.

Of course, romance and violence always make interesting bedfellows in the cinema, and it wouldn’t be an interesting picture if the scary Colombian drug lord they want to take down didn’t intrude on their personal lives.

In “Heat,” Mann and the script allowed us in on the fears/desires/shortcomings of our two main characters, a cop and a crook, played magnificently by acting giants Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. “The Insider” was another excellent Mann film where he took us inside the mind and heart of the protagonist, a tobacco company whistleblower played by Russell Crowe.

Advertisement

Sadly, Farrell and the script to “Miami Vice” both fail to reach any sort of interesting depth for Crockett. I didn’t really care for his character, because there wasn’t much to work with in terms of acting and development — and he was always the most interesting character on the show. I mean Don Johnson (as Crockett) lived on a boat with an alligator, spoke like Humphrey Bogart and wore no socks.

And Farrell doesn’t hold a candle as a leading man to Pacino, DeNiro or Crowe.

The magic of the film lies in Mann’s top-notch direction, Foxx’s more interesting and compelling performance as Tubbs, and the acting turns given by a truly menacing Colombian drug lord played by Luis Tosar and the always stunning Chinese actress Gong Li playing the drug lord’s financial advisor and Crockett’s love interest.

I really dug Li in the film as the Cuban-Chinese businesswoman. Her eyes can express the deepest sadness to the most daring fearlessness. She reminds me of the great actresses of the silent and golden age of classic Hollywood.

Gong Li, who basically stole the show in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” needs to be in more Hollywood cinema.

Replacing the signature sunny Miami pastels and art deco architecture of the original television series is a cold bleak look to the film, which, like “Superman Returns” and the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy, was shot on high definition digital video. The effect here is an unsettling realism to the picture that reminds one of the brutal, gritty video footage from nightly news or documentary war coverage.

“Miami Vice” nears its closure with a satisfying action set piece that, while not reaching the sweet cinematic orgy of light, sound, choreography and editing that was the bank heist in “Heat,” may be the second most interesting and visceral thing Mann has directed.

The film is shot with the sleek panache you expect in a Mann film. Despite the lack of fully realized main characters and nary a hint of chemistry going on between the classic buddy pairing, Mann retains that pure knack for injecting his signature style of intense cool and class into everything he shoots, from wardrobe and set design to dialogue and cinematography.

And the story, despite being your run-of-the-mill crime drama, still leaves your senses jarred with the taste of having been on an interesting and, at times thrilling, ride.

Three stars (out of four)

Neil Nisperos can be reached at 737-1059 or nnisperos

@lompocrecord.com.