Miami Vice
Michael Mann
Mann has updated it by immersing it in the hip-hop milieu and… that’s about it. Vice doesn’t work as mindless entertainment given the somewhat slow pacing. More devastatingly, it suffers from a lack of chemistry between Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx and between Farrell and Gong Li. Neither does it work as a serious-minded genre piece because it's too inane plot-wise. The Wire has spoilt me in this respect and it didn’t help that Domenick Lombardozzi from the series pops up in a supporting role here. Also, the dialogue was the pits, all stilted and unconvincing. Not since the Star War prequels has there been dialogue this unnatural.
Gong Li was the unexpected heart of the movie as a businesswoman who falls in love. Alas, she was not the focus of the movie.