Miami Vice Blu-ray Review

Miami Vice

Blu-ray Review
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Released: August 26, 2008

Miami Vice marks the film adaptation of the hit 80s TV show, and stars Colin Farrell, as well as Jamie Foxx.  The film, from Michael Mann, features the two undercover Miami officers, is action-packed and does a great job of building on the hit show to appeal to old fans and new.  Miami Vice has been released on the Blu-ray format from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

The film, as stated, stars Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Rico Tubbs (Jamie Foxx).  These two guys are undercover Miami officers who try to look into the deaths of two federal agents.

What they do not realize though is that they are getting pulled into a lot more than just a murder investigation.

The two are trying to work their way into the operations of Jose Yero (John Ortiz), who has a huge drug business along with Montoya (John Ortiz).

Things get worse as Crockett ends up falling for one of the females in the drug cartel, Isabella.  The film provides some solid action scenes from star to finish which action-junkies are going to truly enjoy.  One example has to be the final sequence, which is immensely intense.

Jamie Foxx, coming off of the great performance in Collateral, teams with Colin Farrell.  It is not the best performances from the two, but does enough to allow the characters tu evolve.

Miami Vice maintains a very unique style to it throughout, and does a nice job of re-imagining the hit series from the 80s.  It is not perfect, but still a very enjoyable action film.

The video quality for the Blu-ray release is well-done as it is presented in 2.40:1 in 1080p/VC-1.

The video quality is, for the most part, excellent.  The style of the film really lends well to the Blu-ray format as there are some vibrant colors, bold black levels, and some nice detail on top of it.  The only downfall to the video quality is the fact that during the darker scenes, there is some grain that will pop up.

The Blu-ray transfer is top-notch though as there are very few issues here.  A top-notch video transfer overall.

The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and presents an amazing audio mix.  The sound is fantastic, as it does a great job of setting an atmosphere that works extremely nicely with the visuals.

The surround channels do a great job of creating and bringing the world to life with some nice ambience, and a solid musical score.

In regards to the extras, things get started off with a nice audio commentary by director Michael Mann, talking about everything from the visuals, to how the film came to be, etc.

On top of that, there are many other nice extras as well.  Things start off with a 13-minute making-of documentary called Miami Vice: Undercover, which looks a great deal at what the actors had to go through to get ready for the film, how it was done, etc.  Miami and Beyond looks further into that, showcasing how they shot on location in Miami.

Other ncie extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes such as Gun Training, Haitian Hotel Camera Blocking, and Mojo Race.  These featuettes are simple some extra short clips, fun for fans of the movie though.

Visualizing Miami Vice is a look at the development of the appearance of the film.  The look of Miami Vice is very key to the whole atmosphere and how it is presented to the audience, and his featurette looks closely at that aspect of it all.

There is also the U-Control feature from Universal added on the Blu-ray here, which allows you to do a variety of things while you watch the film.  Several features you can get into through U-Control include such things as a nice GPS tracking feature, production photos, as well as some added behind-the-scenes features with interviews and such.

Overall Miami Vice is a very well-done action film which is presented nicely on the Blu-ray format with high-quality audio and video, as well as some fun extras.  Recommended for action fans!

Film: 8.2 A solid action film starring Farrell and Foxx, plenty of highly-intense scenes.

Video: 8.8 A top-notch video transfer, with very few issues to actually complain about.

Audio: 9.2 Deep and extremely engrossing.  The audio mix does the trick to set up the atmosphere well.

Extras: 8.2 Very nice set of extras, good audio commentary and U-Control.

Final Score: 8.4

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