Rewatchables Reference

• Bill's pick: Sonny and Isabella hopping on the Mojo speedboat and going to Cuba for mojitos. Completely illogical – where did they get clothes, how long was the boat ride, Sonny just disappears from work for four days during a massive investigation – but one of the most breathtaking five minutes that will ever randomly be on cable.
• Chris's pick: the Yero negotiation scene in Haiti – Sonny holding a grenade threatening to make the wallpaper 'look like Jackson Pollock.' The best five minutes of the movie.
• Other candidates: the 15-minute opening nightclub scene, John Hawkes's suicide-by-truck on the highway, the kidnap trailer explosion, the final shootout, and the ending where Tubbs walks into the hospital.

• The cinematography – shot on Viper digital cameras with no additional lighting at night. Nothing looks like this movie. The HD widescreen era has made it even more spectacular to watch at home.
• The mid-2000s music – Jay-Z and Linkin Park's 'Numb/Encore' (initially hated, now universally loved as a hype classic), Moby, Mogwai's piano instrumental at the end (hard to imagine a no-vocal song being used better), Latin-influenced house music by King Britt. Michael Mann is up there with Scorsese for using music in film.
• Mojitos – they aged phenomenally. The movie is deeply pro-mojito.
• Colin Farrell's hair and mustache – seemed wrong at the time, now it's come back around. He looks like the coolest baseball reliever on an NLCS team.
• The driving-in-silence scenes – a callback to the original TV show's Crockett and Tubbs dynamic.
• Cuba – always fun in movies. The Fast and Furious franchise borrowed this move.

• Flip phones.
• The mumbling – this is an American movie that needs subtitles. Colin Farrell is up on a roof mumbling into his linen jacket and you can't understand anything. Major plot points are buried in inaudible dialogue.
• Gong Li's phonetically memorized English dialogue – strange to watch, though it creates a unique intensity that kind of works.

• Edward James Olmos was offered a chance to reprise his role as Castillo from the TV series and turned it down.
• Jan Hammer was asked to do a different type of score and turned it down.
• Will Smith, Denzel Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson were all considered for Ricardo Tubbs. Bill doesn't believe it – it was Foxx's idea to do the movie with Mann.
• Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Matthew McConaughey were all considered for Sonny Crockett. Cruise as Crockett is 'ludicrous.' Don Johnson personally suggested Colin Farrell when asked.

• John Hawkes – one of the best suicide scenes ever filmed. Just somehow knows the truck is coming, steps out, gets dragged under. Mann cuts away immediately.
• Dom Lombardozzi (from Entourage) as one of the Vice cops.
• Justin Theroux – you wouldn't think 'that guy should be a Vice cop,' but Michael Mann has a gift for that.
• Naomie Harris as Trudy – super likable, great chemistry with Foxx.
• John Ortiz as Yero – overdoes it just enough. The 'vertically integrated' scene is incredible.
• Eddie Marsan as Nicholas – the scene where he's told to clean up his condo is fantastic.

• Michael Mann staged fake drug busts with real FBI squads and brought Colin Farrell along to build the character – later revealed to be fake.
• Don Johnson suggested Colin Farrell when asked who should play Sonny Crockett.
• In European advertising, Colin Farrell got top billing; in American advertising, Jamie Foxx was featured more prominently.
• The Mojo speedboat is for sale for $500,000.
• Gong Li memorized all her dialogue phonetically because she doesn't speak English.
• Colin Farrell is 11 years younger than Gong Li.
• The movie cost between $135-150 million and barely broke even.

• Colin Farrell – debate between this and In Bruges. Bill and Chris both lean toward 'Miami Vice' as a belated apex.
• Jamie Foxx – no, Ali and Ray are bigger.
• Michael Mann – no, Heat exists.
• Gong Li – probably not.
• The Mojo speedboat – yes, absolute apex.

• Nobody, really – if anything, the problem is too much underacting. The hosts suggest a new 'Miami Vice award for most underacting.'
• John Ortiz overdoes it a little as Yero, but it works.

Danny Trejo – the easiest category they've ever had. There are 20 roles he could play: Yero, Archangel Montoya, Alonzo, John Hawkes's character. 'It's insulting that he wasn't in this movie.' Michael Mann and Trejo may have had a falling out during Heat.

• Cell phone calls in speedboats and convertibles at 105 mph – impossible with 2006 phone tech.
• Where do Crockett and Tubbs get all the money for the undercover operation? Cars, houses, clothes – tens of millions of dollars of repossessed assets, apparently.
• How do Crockett and Tubbs stay undercover in one city for years? Somebody would notice.
• Sonny disappears from work for four days to go to Cuba during a massive investigation.
• The Aryan Brotherhood guy lists meth, ice, and speed as separate products – those are the same thing.
• Are Crockett and Tubbs even friends in this movie? There's not a single scene that clearly establishes a friendship.
• Zero good guys die in the final shootout despite the Aryan Brotherhood using what appear to be explosive bullets.

• Do Isabella and Sonny get together down the road? Bill thinks Sonny goes back to Cuba within a year.
• Has an interagency task force ever worked successfully in a movie?
• Did Jamie Foxx almost get Trudy killed by not extracting her from the safe house in time?
• Is there a better candidate for a 10-episode, $200 million Netflix series than 'Miami Vice' with Michael Mann?

The ultimate candidate – 10 episodes, $200 million, Michael Mann painting on a giant canvas. The sweet spot between the TV series (grinding out 22 episodes) and the movie (not enough time). 'Sicario' and Narcos have moved in on its corner, but it's still 'Miami Vice'. Unfortunately, it was reportedly being brought back as a conventional network series instead.

Colin Farrell – unanimously. Both hosts have him as the only candidate. Bill: 'The biggest emblem of my increasing love for this movie is how into Colin Farrell's performance I am.' It's not classically charismatic – he barely enunciates, he looks physically deteriorating – but it is a real choice and an undeniably cool performance.