Michael Mann was an executive producer on the original Miami Vice, so it makes sense that he returned to direct, write and co=produce this reimagined movie.

Starring Colin Farrell as James “Sonny” Crockett and Jamie Foxx as Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs, this film was inspired by Foxx discussing the show with Mann at a party for the movie Ali. Mann would go a bit wild on this one, leading crew members to say that he made sudden script changes, filmed in unsafe weather conditions (the film was delayed by three hurricanes) and filming in places that “even the police avoid, drafting gang members to work as security.”

Since making the movie, Mann thinks of it as one of the ones that got away, because after guns were fired near the Paraguay location, Fox went home. The production than couldn’t afford to go back, so the compromised ending just doesn’t work for Mann. He said, “I don’t know how I feel about it. I know the ambition behind it, but it didn’t fulfill that ambition for me because we couldn’t shoot the real ending.”

It’s also a wild movie because where the series was fashion and pastel colors — and this still has fashion, of course — this film is just darkness. Drug informants’ wives get their heads blown off with C4 necklaces. Said informant walks in the way of a truck. And the movie moves past Florida to drug hot spots and involves Sonny in a doomed relationship with Isabella (Gong Li), the financial wizard and lover of Arcángel de Jesús Montoya (Luis Tosar).

I’ve had this conversation before, but if this was called something other than Miami Vice, people would have loved every moment of it. When that name came out, people immediately thought of the theme song and the past versus allowing this digitally shot piece of style to succeed on its own.

That said, we now live in a reality where you can watch it again and again without ever needing to associate it with anything else.

The Mill Creek steelbox of Miami Vice is exclusively available from WalMart. Extras include behind the scenes features and commentary by Michael Mann.