Magic City vs. Sin City: Why Miami Should Be Hollywood's New Vegas

Of course, a big part of the Vegas angle in films are the casinos, and while we are gambling free (unless Genting gets its way -- and pray it isn't so), plenty of backroom betting takes place here. So maybe it isn't George Clooney at the blackjack table a la Ocean's Eleven, but I think Matt Damon, a part-time Miamian himself, as an undercover USDA agent infiltrating the warehouse cockfighting rings in east Hialeah, would make for a fun premise. Can't you just imagine the ringleader (played by Edward James Olmos) turn to someone and say "Get the Gringo"? Imagine Damon, lost amidst "la ciudad que progresa" trying to sort out Hialeah's street equivalency in the rest of Miami: "If East Eighth Avenue is Le Jeune ... then the airport is south!" he'd shout as he hopped onto a conchita bus towards safety. Personally, I'd find that far more entertaining than a gang of never-get-dirty pretty boys trying to break into a high-tech casino vault.



Of course, in Resident Evil: Extinction a group of survivors from the zombie apocalypse heads into the Vegas strip from their safety zone in the Mojave to gather surprise. That's all fine and cute, but how much more kick-ass would it be if it were set in the Magic City? The uninfected would seek refuge amidst the swamps and gators in the Everglades, or the glitzy neon of South Beach overrun by the living dead. Swamps are much scarier than deserts, and I'm not even going to go into the obvious ties to the Miami Zombie.