SteveResin A below average crime thriller/comedy hybrid. Alec Baldwin moves to Miami, steals a cop's identity, falls in with a dizzy hooker and spends the rest of the movie committing a few random crimes and trying to evade capture from inept detective Fred Ward. And that's about all that happens, nothing of any real consequence or worth. The gags fall flat, the story goes nowhere and it's instantly forgettable.Baldwin isn't convincing as the bad boy, Jennifer Jason Leigh is pretty good, and Fred Ward deserved better than this hokum. The biggest problem I had with the film is it was trying to be two things, a comedy and a thriller. Trouble is it wasn't remotely thrilling or funny.

aidanwylde One of the great scenes in this movie is Jennifer Jason Leigh's defense of her husband's good qualities.I just watched the 1970s BBC drama based on Trollope's 'Palliser' novels, and there's a remarkably similar character: Ferdinand Lopez appears as an 'adventurer' who, in the end, is a victim just like Junior Frenger. Both are a bit psycho, and seduced by their dream of success. Both end in similar ways, and both are defended, at the end, in remarkably similar speeches by their wives. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Willeford read Trollope, or at least watched the television adaptation, whose success helped to put public television on the map.

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.

elshikh4 What did we already watch? Some disturbed young man who eats to thank his lover because of her cooking, a very stupid girl who can cook well, a policeman who searches for his denture, and that's it !?? Why the killed boy was a Harry Krishna's follower ?, why (Baldwin) killed the store's guard near the end ?, and if he was going just to sell the rare coins why he tried to rob the lady ?, and why he was imitating Al Pacino's scar face ?? Who was the main character "junior" ?, what was his problem ?, what was the main motif of this movie?, is it a black comedy ? Is it a different crime movie, is it a psychological thriller (Don't push it !) ? and how those actors just dedicated to do it in the first place ? The director was goofing all around, look at the scene of stopping the thief at the restaurant, it was like a cartoon, and I do mean it in a bad way ! Mostly there is something wrong with movies written and directed by the same person. The whole point was missing (if there was any !). Baldwin was in his worst with hyper-agitation. All the elements fizzled out to inform us what the basic deal was ? And the title ? It's really a laughable one. They took the steamy backgrounds so the name from "Miami Vice", the dazzling red car from "Magnum P.I", and the funny conflict from "Tom & Jerry"; as maybe a sick version of it entitled : who did steal my teeth ?!! What actually we've learned from this movie?!! : That (Baldwin) deserves failure, that some movies can come out of Hollywood and be that dumb, and that I'm the only blamable one as I insisted on finishing such a movie.It's not a crime movie, it's only a crime !