Sonny is still sockless, shaveless and fearless. There's still plenty of vice. But there's more Hollywood than Miami in Michael Mann's big-screen version of "Miami Vice." And Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas needn't feel too threatened.

	Jamie Foxx, left, plays Rico Tubbs and Colin Farrell is Sonny Crockett in "Miami Vice." Click photo for larger image. 'Miami Vice' Director: Michael Mann Starring: Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li Rating: R for strong violence, language and some sexual content Web site: http://www.miamivice.com/ Submit your own review.

Seems a security breach in the drug task force -- and the murder of two FBI agents -- forces the Feds to accept help from detectives Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Rico Tubbs (Jamie Foxx). They'll be going more undercover than usual, pretending to be rogue smugglers in order to take on the ruthless narco-cartel of Jesus Montoya (Luis Tosar) and his banker-bride Isabella (Gong Li) from the inside.

Sonny will also be taking on the vixen Isabella's libido. She's an exotic Chinese-Cuban femme fatale, and they're the most dangerous kind. Tubbs, for his part, has already taken on a personal as well as professional relationship with Intel analyst Trudy (Naomie Harris).

The boys can rely on the girls to do what they do best in cop thrillers: provide one hot sex scene apiece and then otherwise get in the way and need to be rescued.

The villainous Jose (John Ortiz), with his horn-rimmed glasses and cheesy accent, and the extremely polite Montoya can be relied on to be, well, villainous at every turn.

Writer-director Michael Mann, however, cannot be relied on as much as expected to deliver, given his out-the-wazoo credentials. Aside from his film credits ("Insider," "Heat," "Collateral"), this is the man who wrote the first "Starsky & Hutch" episodes in the '70s and some of the seminal TV episodes of "Miami Vice" (which he also co-produced) in the '80s.

Give Mann credit for eschewing nonstop "Fast and Furious"-style mindless mayhem. There are really only three action scenes, the last one admittedly a doozy. Otherwise, selective "pinpoint" spurts of violence consist of a few sudden bullets to the head when you (and the recipient) least expect them. There's a modest modicum of True Value hardware in this film, which I find commendable.

But where's the snappy repartee? The teeming Southern Florida atmosphere? The periodic laughs? Mann does for comedy here what Don Johnson did for the sock industry. Aside from a few I-95 and Biscayne Boulevard signs, where are the streets of Miami? The palm trees? We're supposed to be satisfied with a few nice dawn and dusk shots over the water.

Ditto for the South American locations. A beautiful 60 aerial seconds of Iguazu Falls -- plus five minutes or so of Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina -- hardly seem to justify a seven-figure travel budget. And Sonny's sleek cigarette-boat getaway to Havana for a mojito with Isabella doesn't for a second convince us it's really Cuba.

On the other hand, Farrell dances -- and beds Gong Li -- very nicely there. Sad-eyed Farrell ("The New World") has the macho stubble and swagger, but macho ain't mucho if you don't have something more, and Farrell lacks Don Johnson's -- or anybody else's -- chutzpah. There's so much cool, it's ice between him and Foxx (who should have been replaced by Terrence Howard).

There's altogether too much gravitas and not enough lighthearted camaraderie or levity in these proceedings, which aren't energized much by the musical mix of vintage bits from the TV series (Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight," Emilio Estefan's "Pennies in My Pocket") plus contemporary Moby, Mogwai, Audioslave and India.Arie tunes.

There's fun to be had watching this "Vice," but the trouble, overall, is too much set-up (45 minutes for the boys' first big confrontation) and not enough payoff. Mann has gone so Hollywood, he's forgotten the production trappings that made the series so pioneering, if not revolutionary, as well as the most basic of TV cop-show rules. Don't think me cruel, but they should have attached jumper cables from a car battery to Mann in the editing room and given him a little jolt every seven minutes to remind him of the maximum allowable time between action sequences and commercials.