In June Mill Creek released several double-feature Blu-rays sets featuring two Universal films starring the same actor. This release includes two films starring Jamie Foxx:
Miami Vice (2006)
While undercover trying to take down a sex ring, Miami-Dade police detective Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) receives a disturbing call from an old informant, stating that he has been compromised but didn’t give up any information on Crockett or his partner, Ricardo ‘Rico’s Tubs (Jamie Foxx). Crocket makes some calls to try to find out what the informant had been working on, and ends up connecting with FBI’s Assistant Special Agent in Charge John Fujima (Ciarán Hinds). He informs them that the DEA, ATF, and US Customs had created a joint task force to take down some ruthless guns & drug traffickers, and that now their operation has been compromised, with several of their agents dead. The task force still doesn’t know where the leak came from, or what kind of counter-intelligence technology these traffickers have at their hands. Since Crockett and Tubbs are unknown to these guys, they come up with a plan to send them in undercover to infiltrate the arms & drug operation. Crockett uses an old colleague to vouch for them, and soon they are flying a large shipment of drugs from Haiti across the US border to prove themselves to the boss, Montoya (Luis Tosar). However, Sonny has other ideas and starts to get romantically involved with Montoya’s second-in-command, the beautiful Isabella (Gong Li). Tubbs worries this may compromise the operation, but Crockett assures his partner that he knows what he’s doing. However, his actions start to raise suspicions from another cog in the operation, Jose Yero (John Ortiz), which puts their mission and the rest of their team in danger. Can Crockett and Tubbs identify the source of this massive drug and arms trafficking operation, locate their counterintelligence technology, and take them down before it’s too late?
Miami Vice is a reboot of the classic 1980s series about a pair of undercover vice detectives chasing down criminals in sexy, sunny Miami, Florida. Michael Mann’s feature film update of the franchise really captures the look and feel of the original TV series, with its fast-paced action, drugs, guns, sex, fast cars and speedboats. Even the fashion is a nice callback to the original series, with the guys wearing suits similar to their TV counterparts. While there’s no replacing the iconic Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, Farrell and Foxx do a great job of bringing these classic characters back to life. The film feels a bit of a grittier and more grounded than the TV series, which was a bit more flashy. While there is still all the sex and explosive action that you would expect from the franchise, the story also gets a bit more dramatic, exploring how the detectives blur the lines between their personal and the professional lives.
Miami Vice was first released on Blu-ray in 2008, which contained a large selection of supplemental material, including a director commentary, a picture-in-picture commentary track, and over 35 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes. Unfortunately, none of that bonus material has been ported over to this double-feature release. The presentation is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some scenes that look excellent, with a nice clean and clear picture. However, a lot of the darker scenes (and a good portion of the film takes place at night) are very noisy, have artifacts, or the colors are a bit washed out. However, this seems to be Mann’s desired look for the film, and how it has always been presented, even when it was in the theater. So while I personally don’t care for this, it’s not really the fault of the Blu-ray encode. The audio track fares better, providing mostly clear dialogue—though in some cases it’s a little hard to follow (but again, this seems to be how the film is meant to be). When the action kicks in, this is where the track really shines, filling the room with the chaos of gunfire and explosions, the engines of speeding boats and planes, etc. There are several scenes that take place in night clubs, and the whole ambiance comes to life, with the music kickin’ and the murmurs of the crowd enjoying themselves.
The Kingdom (2007)
A Saudi Arabian oil company is hosting a fun family picnic and baseball game for its employees. But the laughter quickly turns to screams as the peaceful event becomes the latest target of a terrorist organization. Some men in stolen police uniforms mow down the innocent families with machine guns, set off suicide bombs in the crowd, and cause as much death and destruction as possible. As the cleanup effort begins, the terrorists make an additional bomb strike, killing hundreds more, including some American FBI agents stationed there. Back in Washington, FBI agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) is eager to investigate ground zero to find out who is responsible. However, the powers that be there fear that allowing more Americans on their soil will just exacerbate the situation and encourage the terrorists to strike again. Despite the Attorney General’s objections, the head of the FBI (Richard Jenkins) manages to get the okay to send four agents to Saudi Arabia to investigate.
When the agents touch down, they immediately sense they are in imminent danger. In charge is Fleury, who assures his team he will protect them and make sure they get back home—he just wants justice for their fallen colleagues. Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), who always seems to have a lollipop on hand, serves as their medical examiner. As the only female in the group she’s going to have some extra challenges due to how the country views the role of women. The band shirt wearing jokester Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) would have been happy staying away from this dangerous place, but plans to do his best to help out. And finally, there’s the seasoned Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), who is more of the engineer of the group. As the team tries to start their investigation, they find that all of their efforts are being hindered by rules and regulations—some of which are cultural, but others appear to just be there as needless roadblocks. The team was supposed to have a week to investigate, but upon their arrival they learn it’s been cut down to just five days. American diplomat Damon Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) is also no help—he is eager to please the local government and royalty and is constantly trying to rush their efforts. The local soldier in charge of the investigation is out of his element, and doesn’t even know what he’s doing. He even tortures the local police, accusing them of being part of the attack, just due to the fact that the terrorists were wearing their uniforms. The one beacon of hope is honest police officer Colonel Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), a family man who wants to uncover the truth just as much as the FBI. He understands the proper way to conduct an investigation, and helps the agents navigate the tumultuous situation in Saudi Arabia, and finally start to make progress. However, the agents quickly realize how different this world is. There are America-hating extremists hiding around every corner, just looking for the chance to make their attack, and they have been plotting their moves from the moment the agents stepped into the country. Will these agents be able to find the source of the attack and find justice for the victims before they run out of time or find themselves the next victims of the terrorists?
The Kingdom is an action-packed thriller that often had me on the edge of my seat. Many times the filmmakers will give the audience moments of levity to ease the tension and allow them to let down their guard, only to ramp things up again without any notice—like that sudden unexpected drop on the roller-coaster. The cast is great and have such amazing chemistry. The characters can be joking with one another one minute, making light of their deadly situation, and then become like a well-tuned band of soldiers the next when they come under attack. The film has lots of dramatic and unexpected twists and turns, building to an intense and extremely exciting final act that is relentless and unwavering, and closes with a memorable and thought-provoking scene. I can’t say that I have ever been disappointed by a film directed by Peter Berg, and this may be one of his best.
The Kingdom was first released on Blu-ray in 2008, which contained a large selection of supplemental material, including a director commentary, a picture-in-picture track with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, 11 minutes of deleted scenes, and over 70 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes. Unfortunately, none of that bonus material has been ported over to this double-feature release. The technical presentation of the Blu-ray is excellent, with a crisp, clean and extremely detailed picture throughout much of the film. During the action sequences, things move rapidly with handheld cameras to put the viewer into the middle of the chaos. These scenes aren’t as clean and well-defined, but they certainly serve their purpose of amping up the tension. The audio track is excellent, providing clear dialogue and filling the room with the chaotic gunfire and explosions.
Both films reside on a single Blu-ray disc, which has a basic menu with a subtitle on/off option and a play button for each of the two movies. There is no slipcover or digital copy included with this release.
What’s Included:
Films:
- Miami Vice (2006) (2:12:10)
- 1080p / Widescreen 2.40:1
- Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Subtitles: English SDH
- The Kingdom (2007) (1:50:16)
- 1080p / Widescreen 2.35:1
- Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Subtitles: English SDH
Extras:
-
This release contains no bonus material.
Final Thoughts:
This is a solid double-feature collection, with two action-packed films. Miami Vice does a nice job of evoking the feeling of the original series, but the presentation itself is a bit problematic (though not the fault of this release). The Kingdom is a stellar movie and makes this double-feature worth picking up just on its own. While the original Blu-ray releases of both films included loads of supplemental material, this release is unfortunately barebones, not porting over any of that bonus material. However, Mill Creek’s disc is bargain-priced for those who don’t care about extras and just want to own these great films.
