Miami Vice 1: Vendetta

Updated
miami_vice1_front.jpg
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1984
Original Running Time:
194
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
144
Time Cut:
50
Brief Synopsis:
Miami Beach, 1984. Colombian drug kingpin Calderone is ruthlessly seizing territory, eliminating all competitors in a series of violent murders. Miami Vice Detective Sonny Crockett is assigned to take down the drug lord but is faced with double-crosses, assassination and incompetence at every turn. Enter Ricardo Tubbs, a stranger from New York who has a personal vendetta against Calderone. Crockett and Tubbs are forced into an unlikely alliance that will take them from the sandy shores of Miami to the clear waters of the Bahamas in a hunt for Calderone, full of danger, death and pastel suits.
Intention:
Miami Vice is without a doubt the best TV show from the 80's. Full of fast cars, flashy lights, pastel suits, great music and bad dialogue, it embodied everything that was right (and wrong) during that decadent era. I wanted to create a film version of one of the best story arcs from the best season of Vice-- a movie that captured the spirit of the show and everything that made it great. Recolored, regraded, and with reamped audio, this edit is for fans and newcomers alike, faithful to the tone and story of the show, all told in the span of little over 2 hours.
Additional Notes:
The edit is sourced from the DVD version of Miami Vice, as there is no Blu-Ray release as of October 2014. As such the image is in 4:3 ratio and SD. Unlike the other Miami Vice edits (Score and Redemption), Vendetta has a larger file size because of the additional grading and audio enhancement that was needed. The episodes used to make this edit were "Pilot/Brother's Keeper", "The Hit List", and "Calderone's Return".
Special Thanks:
maxgremlin for his great feedback, Studioeighty for the original poster design
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
DVDs of Miami Vice Season 1, Adobe Premiere Pro
Cuts and Additions:
Cuts from "Pilot":
-shortened Tubbs' introduction in NY. He is not revealed to be a cop yet.
-cut Crockett going to see his ex-partner's girlfriend
-cut Crockett's lines about being a football player
-removed Crockett's romantic scenes with Gloria
-cut coffee shop scene between Tubbs/Crockett and Martin Ferrerro
-cut Tubbs going through Crockett's record collection
-removed all commercial breaks
-various small cuts and trims for pacing

Cuts from Hitlist/Calderone's Return p1:
-added '6 months later' title card
-cut credits/ courthouse scene
-cut Tubbs finding the Argentinian's passport
-cut most of Crockett's pillow talk with wife
-shortened and reordered hospital scene to take place after the beach safehouse scene
-cut the bar fight and cheesy Zwitek/Zito moments in the bar
-removed all commercial breaks
-various small cuts and trims for pacing

Cuts from Calderone's Return p2:
-cut exchange between Tubbs and the temporary C.O.
-cut credits and shortened their arrival in the Bahamas
-cut all scenes with the corrupt police chief on the island
-shortened all scenes with the hotel manager
-reordered dialogue after car chase
-cut Crockett/Tubbs preparing for the Junkanoo festival
-added Tubbs shooting Calderone with shotgun
-altered closing montage during end credits to include Crockett
-removed all commercial breaks
-various small cuts and trims for pacing
Cover art by ranger613 (DOWNLOAD HERE) image

[Trailer]

User reviews

6 reviews
9-10 stars
 
0%
 
100%
5-7 stars
 
0%
3-5 stars
 
0%
1-3 stars
 
0%
Overall rating
 
8.5
Audio/Video Quality
 
7.0(6)
Audio Editing
 
9.0(6)
Visual Editing
 
9.0(6)
Narrative
 
8.7(6)
Enjoyment
 
8.7(6)
View all user reviews View most helpful
(Updated: March 02, 2022)
Overall rating
 
8.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
7.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Cliche-ridden and packed-to-the-brim with FM radio staples, Miami Vice turns out to nevertheless (or because of those factors) work brilliantly in this TV-to-movie form. This edit doesn't exactly feel like a feature film, but rather a couple of pilots or TV movies stitched together. For newcomers who might be taken aback by how gritty and cinematic this show really is, it's more than enough to help one get over plot threads that might have been seen many times before, thanks to the craft of Michael Mann and the powerful performances by the leads. Miami Vice is a neon nightmare and the barely-above-VHS quality of this edit actually added to its 80s appeal for me. I can hardly wait to watch the next installment in this trilogy. Anyone who loves 70s cop procedurals and 90s breakthrough network dramas like X-Files and West Wing owe it to themselves to see this evolutionary step between those two eras.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
R
Top 10 Reviewer 156 reviews
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
8.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Overview - Extend the Miami Vice pilot to include “Calderone’s Return” (E04-E05).

Video - 512 X 384p AVC. The picture quality is a little soft, particularly in the pilot. Colours and sharpness improve during the second half. Editing is fine. A bit choppy during commercial breaks, though not a major issue. This is a huge ass file, 9.4 GB, which doesn’t seem right for the video size.

Audio - 317 kbps AAC. 2 Channel stereo. No subs. Dialogue is clear. The sound struck me as compressed, likely in keeping with TV from the 80s. Good for hearing conversations, less so if you desire gunfire, music, revving engines to roar from you speakers.

Narrative - Pretty good about staying focused on “the Columbian,” the slippery Calderone. Future series dynamics are touched on (Rodriguez, and Sonny’s family). I though some of the driving scenes went on too long, as did the boat trip to and from the Bahamas.

Enjoyment - It has been ages since I watched the pilot. There are clumsy comic elements that would quickly disappear, along with Sonny’s kid and Lt. Rodriguez. I was always a big fan of this show, especially the later seasons. This does have a dated look to it. To be honest, I have shows from the 60s and 70s that look a hell of a lot better.
I liked this, but I have doubts post 90s viewers would appreciate as much.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
7.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I can't imagine how this would play for somebody who grew up in the 90s or later, but I was totally into it. Would it seem old and cheesy? Would the style and montage moments gradually work their magic on a new generation? I can't quite turn off my blinders, because I just loved this show so much as a kid. For me, going back and watching this was thoroughly enjoyable.

Okay, some technical stuff. My copy looked like it was sourced from old VHS tapes. I imagine the image quality of the source is to blame, so I can't slam it too much, but it sure didn't look very clean. Editing-wise, it was great though. You couldn't recognize what was part of one episode and part of another most of the time. Audio edits were great as well, though I could've used some of the voice levels being raised in some of the quiet conversation scenes.

As far as narrative, this essentially breaks down into a movie with 2 halves. In the first half, Tubbs pursues Calderon to Miami, and in the second half, Calderon strikes back "6 months later", eventually leading the guys to the Bahamas to try to bring him down. The 2nd half is definitely not quite as strong as the first, mostly due to the source material. You can just tell that they didn't spend as much money on the camera work, and some of the supporting cast just aren't very good actors. But all-in-all, it's a pretty great bookend to the first half, and it feels like there are real stakes (though it is a little weird that Crockett isn't more pissed about losing his family and almost dying due to Calderon!) There's only one weird bit: a long montage during the boat ride to the Bahamas with flashbacks from things we've just seen in the last hour. It would've worked great during the TV show, but when it's all together as a movie, it's totally unnecessary. I'd rather have spent that 5 minutes on a couple of scenes to help flesh out Crockett's relationship with his wife. It's pretty unclear for half the film, and I'd have liked to see more of the estrangement, and then whatever the conversation was that led them to try to work it out. Just a small gripe, though.

Overall, for any old fans, this definitely holds up and is a great ride. I wish I could give an objective view too, but I'm just giddy looking forward to the next film in the series! Thanks, RangerKris.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
8.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
Quickie -
I never watched this show. Not really sure why, maybe headed off to college and thought I was too cool for it. But I know it was popular, and suppose I can see why. Thanks for putting together a condensed format by which I can finally check it out. As usual, I'm not the best source for reviewing audio visual quality because I don't have a high-end system, but as usual the editing of both seemed clean. The narrative made sense and I enjoyed it, partly just to be transported back to the height of my teenage years. The jacket over T-shirt thing will always be classic.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
8.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
6.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
I've watched a handful of episodes of Miami Vice, but was never a big fan. This fanedit is a pretty damn good introduction for newcomers, and I'm sure MV fans would get a kick out of it.

A/V Quality - I understand that the show isn't available on Blu-Ray, only through "sub-par" DVD, the quality is quite bad. There's a lot of pixelation and compression artifacts, especially in the pilot episode. And I really don't understand why it's a 9 GB MP4. The editor says it's that big because of the "additional grading and audio enhancement that was needed" but I have no clue what he means. Honestly this would have been better as a nice 4 GB DVD5.

Editing - Superb work!

Narrative - Nicely executed overall. It can't help but feel like two long episodes stitched together, but the story flows nicely.

Enjoyment - I dug watching this (despite the quality issues) and will most likely check out Ranger's next installments.

User Review

Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 1 0
View all user reviews