Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

FlashCallahan When Fred Frenger gets out of prison, he decides to start over in Miami, Florida, where he starts a crime wave. He soon meets up with amiable college student and part time prostitute Susie. After Frenger is Sgt Moseley, a cop who is getting a bit old for the job, especially since the job of cop in late 1980's Miami is getting more dangerous all the time......Miami Blues was one of those films back in 1990 that was advertised here, there, and everywhere. Every bus stop had the poster advertising it's release, every video cassette you rented had the trailer, and then, like most films that didn't do that well at the box office, disappeared without a trace.27 years later, I come across it, and like a cat, I wanted to kill my curiosity. And I'm glad I did.It's dated badly, it is set in time in the late eighties, men are begging to show their feminine side, but the old school cops are still gruff, and mocking minorities and dead hari krishnas.When you get over the fact that this feels like Catch Me If You Can, and the fact that a young Alec Baldwin looks like Ryan Gosling, it's a pretty cool film noir with a wicked evil streak.So Baldwin basically plays an evil Robin Hood, stops the criminals, but continues to steal from the victim. And ironically, the virginal Maid Marian is portrayed by every bodies favourite screen prostitute, Jennifer Jason Leigh.But both are excellent in the film, and although their relationship is delusional, there is a wonderfully strange chemistry shared by them.Ward is brilliant as the mimicked cop, and there is a hilarious cameo from everybody's favourite headmaster, Paul Gleason.It's violent, atypically fashioned for the yuppy generation, but it's wonderfully cynical, with a wonderfully dark humour running through it.

mgtbltp Miami Blues is the first film based on Charles Willeford's series of novels featuring hard boiled detective Hoke Moseley. According to Lawrence Block "Quirky is the word that always comes to mind, Willeford wrote quirky books about quirky characters, and seems to have done so with a magnificent disregard for what anyone else thought."Miami Blues is a Film Soleil Noir that cinematographer Tak Fujimoto infuses with a bright sunny tropical pastel pallet.The story. Freddy Frenger ex con. Petty thief. Con artist. Freelancer. Narcissist nut job. Wings to Miami. In air identity theft. Get's a Hare Krishna come on. Breaks the cultists finger. Krishna goes into shock. Kicks the consciousness bucket. Krishna croaked.Freddy with new identity. Hermann Gottlieb. Cruises the airport. Steals suitcase. Checks into hotel. Bellhop Pedro is the man to see. Orders some local talent. Susie knocks. Young. Looks like High School. Looks like jail bait. Waifish. Okeechobee outcast. Cracker clam. Dispenses fifty dollar sucks.Freddy asks for ID. Freddy tries to trade her the suitcase clothes. Slow on the uptake. Susy will do it for a suitcase dress. Easy to BS. Easy to string along. Just what Freddy needs, and she can cook too. A perfect pair. They get it on.Freddy and the clueless Susie have now become part of a long tradition of various combinations of couples on the run/lam that stretch from Gable and Lombard in It Happened One Night (1934) through Classic Noirs, Out Of The Past (1947), They Live by Night (1948), Gun Crazy (1950), Where Danger Lives (1950), Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951), Roadblock (1951), right up to Classic Neo Noirs, The Getaway (1971), Kill Me Again (1989), Wild at Heart (1990), True Romance (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994).Meanwhile back at the baggage claim crime scene the Detective Hoke Moseley and Sgt. Bill Henderson investigate the case of the dead disciple. Hoke is a rumpled, coarse, depressed boozer. He wears store bought teeth, is strapped for money and lives in rundown residence hotel. Deco decadence.Through rudimentary detective work Hoke traces down Freddy. But Freddy coldcocks Hoke steals his badge and becomes a freelancing loose canon a perverted Robin Hood who robs from the crooks and gives to himself. Baldwin plays the quick to take advantage ex-con with bravado. His intense bright blues spotlighting a hair trigger sociopath tendency. Ward is great as the laid back Hoke, but you wish he had even more screen time to develop his character. Leigh is adequate as the hooker with a heart of gold, she may fit somebody's idea or type of hot but to me she seems almost too plain jane and a bit retarded. She does effectively convey the storybook girl who hopes her prince charming will rescue her from a life of going down on losers.For me Armitage made the mistake of spending too much time on the Freddy-Susie relationship (probably a box office decision) and that robs us from getting more of Hoke Moseley who should have been the main star. Music by Gary Chang. 7/10

Jacob Goranson A violent and often hilarious crime story of living the American Dream through any means necessary, even if you know it won't last forever. Fred (played ruthlessly by Alec Baldwin) is a man who doesn't seem to think ahead all the time. He comes to Miami to make a living after getting out of prison. He wants to start over, but that doesn't mean he's giving up the crime gig. Committing crimes to Fred seems like a drug, the first thing he does getting off the plane is steal and then another more violent crime right after that.Getting to his hotel he orders a hooker. The innocent hooker is Suzy Waggoner, or Pepper, who seems oblivious and always has her head in the clouds. Jennifer Jason Leigh gives Suzy a believable innocence and is responsible for most of the emotional expression throughout the movie. Suzy coming into Fred's life seems unexpected to him, but it gives him something to work toward, the American Dream.Fred Ward plays an at times pitiful Sgt Hoke Moseley. He is always two steps behind Fred when it comes to solving the crimes he's committed. The real relationship and core of this crime story, is between Suzy and Fred. Suzy asks Fred not to do any more crimes. She doesn't go out of her way to investigate and she doesn't ask questions out of fear of the truth. All of this leads up to a fantastic third act that, while exciting, does all of the characters justice.

lewy-2 "Miami Blues" is a great adaption of Charles Willeford's first Hoke Moseley novel. Willeford was well known for pitch black humor and his writing is grim to the nth degree. This isn't a very nice movie and it's easy to see that's turned off a lot of the reviewers here. On the other hand despite the violence it's genuinely quirky and funny. The scene where Fred Ward as homicide detective Hoke Moseley and his cop buddy (Charles Napier!) crack jokes over the body of a murder victim while the victim's friend weeps a few feet away is priceless.Alec Baldwin does great work as Freddy Frenger, sociopath and ex-con, who immediately after his release from prison goes right back to beating people up and robbing them. Ward may have gotten top billing but Baldwin gets most of the screen time and dominates the movie. He first hires and then moves in with a dumb but innocent prostitute Susie Waggoner played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. Leigh, Baldwin and Ward all do excellent work and the movie looks like it was as much fun to make as it is to watch. Leigh's prostitute is easily the most sympathetic character of the bunch and what happens to her is quite frankly a little heart breaking. She easily deserves better, and given the way the universe works that pretty much guarantees that she's not going to get it.Speaking of Waggoner and Frenger a lot of the reviewers here are misinterpreting the nature of their relationship. They both really do want that house with the yard and the white picket fence, and they really do love each other. When Leigh's Waggoner, normally an excellent cook, deliberately ruins a vinegar pie she's cooking for desert Frenger forces himself to down every forkful while praising her culinary skills.Highly recommended.