Genre: Crime / Action
Director: Peter Berg
Writer: Roy Horne
Based on the television series
Cast: Josh Holloway, Taye Diggs, Katrina Law, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Brad William Henke, Troy Garity, Amanda Righetti, Marco Rodriguez, Rey Valentin, Lee Tergeson, Marc Anthony, Wilmer Valderama and Gaus Charles
In New York City, undercover DEA agent Ricardo Tubbs (Taye Diggs) is in a hot night club staking out a drug dealer known only as Calderone (Marc Anthony). He follows Calderone into the rest room, but is attacked by two of Calderone's men. The confrontation allows Calderone to escape out the back door. Tubbs manages to take out both of the men in the restroom and runs out the back door of the club after Calderone, but he's already long gone.
In Miami, Vice Detective James "Sonny" Crockett (Josh Holloway) is waiting to meet up with an informant with his partner Eddie Rivera (Wilmer Valderama). Eddie is on the phone with his wife, in an argument about her parents coming to visit. When the informant arrives, Rivera says goodbye to his wife and hangs up. Rivera gets in the car of the informant to head to a drug buy to purchase some cocaine from a dealer working for the kingpin only known as Calderone, while Crockett follows in his car. As they drive over a bridge, the informant's car explodes, killing him and Rivera. Later on the scene of the crime, Crockett briefs his superior, Lt. Lou Rodriguez (Marco Rodriguez), and tells him he's convinced that Calderone is responsible for the deaths. Crockett asks Rodriguez to consider that Calderone may have been tipped off by someone in the department. Rodriguez is not a fan of such accusations, and tells Crockett to pull it together and do things by the book or he'll be stuck at a desk.
Crockett shows up late to his son's birthday party, heading straight there from the crime scene. His ex-wife Caroline (Amanda Righetti) is furious that he is so late, but he tells her he doesn't want to talk about it and is sorry. At the party he talks to his old partner and friend, Scott Wheeler (Lee Tergeson), who is now a DEA agent. He tells Wheeler about Rivera's death. After the party, Caroline tells Crockett he can sleep on the couch if he needs to, but Crockett declines and heads home to the marina where he lives on a sailing yacht. He feeds his pet alligator Elvis some chicken before drinking himself to sleep.
Crockett demands local drug dealer Leon (Gaius Charles) help set up a meeting between himself and Calderone, Leon refuses until Crockett pulls out a gun and threatens to kill Leon if he doesn't cooperate. Meanwhile, Ricardo Tubbs arrives at the Miami-Dade International Airport. That night he meets with Wheeler, who is unaware that he is a fellow DEA agent, at a club trying to set up a buy with Calderone. Crockett and Leon head to their deal on Crockett's speedboat where they find they are meeting up with Wheeler and Tubbs. Crockett and Wheeler don't mention that they know each other, each assuming the other is working undercover to build a case against the person they are with. Before the deal can be completed, Crockett's backup, Detectives Stan Switek (Brad William Henke) and Larry Zito (Troy Garity) arrive early. They arrest Leon, while Tubbs steals Crockett's boat and takes off. Crockett rips into Switek and Zito for ruining the deal. He then commandeers a Porsche and pursues the boat by car. Knowing the Miami waters by heart, Crockett stops the car atop a low bridge and jumps off, landing in the back of his speedboat. Crockett identifies himself as Miami Vice, and to his shock Tubbs identifies himself as NYPD officer Rafael Tubbs. The pair go to meet up with Lt. Rodriguez, who informs Crockett that Tubbs is in Miami on special clearance looking for Calderone, who has killed two NYPD officers. Rodriguez then suggests the two team up since they're after the same man.
The following morning, Tubbs goes to Crockett's boat and is startled to meet Crockett's gator Elvis, who Crockett says is the former mascot of the University of Florida Gators football team. Crockett soon leaves to join Wheeler downtown in court for Leon's bond hearing. The judge released Leon on his recognizance for his cooperation with the D.A. Leon, not wanting to be killed by Calderone for thinking he cooperated with the police, calls the police to get ahold of Crockett. Rodriguez is notified of the call and tells Crockett to meet Leon at the beach. Tubbs has tailed Leon on his own from the court house, however, Leon is killed by one of Calderone's men, DeSoto (Rey Valentin), before either cop can talk to him. Pissed that their only lead was just killed, Crockett reluctantly agrees to team up with Tubbs temporarily to go after Calderone.
Crockett and Tubbs go to Leon's apartment and find the place has been ransacked. Tubbs manages to find an old burner phone, which they take back to the station and to the Organized Crime Bureau to back trace the numbers in the phone's address book. Tubbs says that he knows he was the only one tailing Leon from the court house, so the hitman must have been told by the department where Leon would be. Crockett agrees that there must be a leak in the department, but isn't sure who it could be. Tubbs tells Crockett that Rodriguez recently made a rather large deposit at the bank. Crockett calls another Vice officer, Gina Calabrese (Katrina Law), and asks her to quietly do a check on Rafael Tubbs to see what comes up. Tubbs receives a phone call from DeSoto, who believes Tubbs escaped with the cash from the blown deal, asking him to meeet with him in a nightclub later that night to finish the deal.
At the nightclub, Crockett and Tubbs enjoy a night of partying with Gina and another Vice officer Trudy Joplin (Megalyn Echikunwoke). DeSoto shows up and invites Tubbs to the VIP area where he introduces him to Calderone. Gina tells Crockett that Rafael Tubbs was killed in a shootout with Calderone's men three weeks earlier in New York, so the man he's been working with can't possibly be him. Crockett storms out of the club. Gina finds Crockett on his boat later. She settles him down and the couple end up having sex below deck.
In the morning, Crockett finds Gina gone. Tubbs arrives on the boat, and Crockett immediately confronts him, pulling out a gun and demanding to know who he really is. Tubbs reveals that he is actually Ricardo Tubbs, Rafael was his brother and he wants to track down and kill Calderone as revenge for his brother's murder. Their confrontation is interrupted by a phone call from DeSoto, who sets up the meet for later that night.
At OCB, Crockett confronts Rodriguez about his unexplained wealth, but Rodriguez refuses to explain. Tubbs, meanwhile, gets a call from DeSoto asking to meet him right away. Crockett finally gets the report of the back traced numbers on Leon's phone, and discovers that one of the numbers Leon called belongs to Scott Wheeler, revealing that he is really the department leak. Crockett believes DeSoto must know Tubbs is a cop, races to the meeting place, arriving just as DeSoto pulls his gun to kill Tubbs. Crockett manages to shoot DeSoto before he can kill Tubbs. Crockett then heads to Wheeler's house to confront him about his number being in Leon's phone. Wheeler admits that he received $250,000 from Calderone six months ago and he accepted the money to pay off his mortgage. He tells Crockett that soon afterward, DeSoto began hitting him up for information, which he provided. Crockett attacks Wheeler, and begins beating him for getting Rivera killed. Tubbs enters the house when he hears the commotion and pulls Crockett off of a badly beaten Wheeler.
Crockett handcuffs Wheeler, who tells him that Calderone has a huge shipment coming in soon and gives him the location. Crockett and Tubbs drive to the docks. They get the drop on Calderone's men and kill all of his thugs, although Tubbs takes a bullet to the arm in the process. Calderone tries to escape, but he is confronted by Tubbs, who aims a sawed-shotgun at him. Tubbs holds back from shooting Calderone, and instead arrests him. In the morning, Crockett and Tubbs head to the jail to escort Calderone to a jail away from the city, but are informed that a judge already released him on $2 million bail. They speed off in Crockett's undercover ride, a Ferrari, but are too late to stop Calderone from escaping the country by plane. Despite frustration at Calderone getting away, Tubbs muses about a possible switch from the feds to a southern brand of law enforcement...
Peter Berg's style meshes surprisingly well with the source material and Roy Horne gives us a good adaptation of the classic series first episode. According to me, at least it achieves what other cop show remakes weren't able to achieve; I'll have to come back next week to see another episode, I'm hooked.
"I'm not going to say this because it's a remake, but in it's current state, it's hard for Miami Vice to stand out in the vast pool of cop shows televisions has to offer. Sure it's stylish and well-made, but it sticks too close to its roots.
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