So I finally got around to watching this because, hey, it was directed by Michael Mann. This turned out to be a disaster that is completely unindicative of the work that he is capable of. I was never a fan of the television show this was based on but from what I know this film has no relationship with the show beyond the shared name. I really do not understand what Mann thought he was doing with this film.

Miami police detectives Sonny and Rico are roped into a major international case when an informant reveals that one or more the Federal agencies involved have been compromised. They establish undercover identities as smugglers specializing in deliveries into the US in order to nail a powerful Colombian cartel. After proving their competence by pulling off a run using a sophisticated strategy of hiding the radar signature of their plane behind another plane, they are finally introduced to the real boss Arcángel de Jesús Montoya. Sonny however is attracted to Montoya’s assistant the Cuban Chinese Isabella and becomes romantically involved with her. But José Yero, the cartel’s front man, remains suspicious duo and uses the relationship against them.

This film is a mess on multiple levels as even the synopsis above shows. For example, the original intent of the operation was to penetrate the cartel and find out where the leak was. But while the duo deliberately give out different leads to each of the Federal agencies to find out where the mole is, there is never any follow up and nothing comes of it. Similarly the film ends with a huge firefight and that’s it without any thought about wrapping up the case. There’s zero plausibility in the sudden romance between Sonny and Isabella and the elaborate security apparatus around Montoya seems to amount to nothing when it counts. The whole thing doesn’t feel like a police movie at all, more like a James Bond-style superspy film as they jet around to various locales at will to do whatever they need to do. From what I understand, Mann had to rewrite the ending as violence broke out in the Dominican Republic when they were filming which might explain why the story is so sloppy.

But the really shocking thing is that this kind of sloppiness extends to the film’s production values as well. Part of it looks almost like a gritty documentary, cinéma vérité style with casual camera placement and natural lighting. Yet another part of it looks like carefully staged showpieces of cinematography with beautiful use of colors. As my wife pointed out, the latter shots invariably involve sleek vehicles, whether they are sports cars, aircraft or boats. It feels as if Mann is incredibly passionate about making those shots that involve cool vehicles as exquisite as he possibly can while being willing to just phone it in at all other times. Either that, or they were done by two completely different directors. Not only do those scenes look much uglier than the vehicles ones, they’re totally ineffective. The shootout scene is confusing and unrealistic. Dialogue scenes lack dramatic weight. This lack of care applies to the music as well it shifts around at such tonally inappropriate moments that it takes you aback.

The breathtaking cinematography of fantastic looking jets crossing the sky or boats silhouetted against the sunset prove that Mann’s skills remain intact. It’s also intriguing that Isabella is a character with such an unusual backstory, being a Cuban-born ethnic Chinese. Yet it is incomprehensible to me why Mann would lend his name and his skills to the project when he seems so uninterested in most is included in it. Maybe the more commercial nature of this film tied him down, maybe it’s so much bigger in scope than what he’s used to. Or maybe he just wanted the money and doesn’t care about the harm that this would cause to his reputation. In any case, this was terrible and should be skipped.