Miami Blues is a 1990 American neo-noir black comedy crime drama film directed by George Armitage,[2] based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford.

[3] It stars Alec Baldwin, Fred Ward (who also served as an executive producer) and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Frederick J. Frenger Jr. (who asks to be called "Junior"), a violent sociopath and self described thief who "steals from other thieves", is recently released from a California prison, and starts a new life in Miami.

Before leaving the airport, he steals luggage and unintentionally kills a Hare Krishna by breaking his index finger.

Junior checks into a hotel and hooks up with Susie Waggoner, a naive part time prostitute who is a student at a community college.

They become romantically involved and move in to a house together, with Susie blissfully unaware of Junior's criminal activities and harboring fantasies of living happily ever after.

Moseley shares a home-cooked dinner with the couple, upon Susie's suggestion, and plays it cool while seemingly indicating to Junior that he's on to him.

Back home, to test whether he will lie to her, Susie deliberately ruins a pie by putting an excessive amount of vinegar in it.

Fred, Jonathan, and Gary—who would go on to produce a number of wonderful things for Tom Hanks's company, though this was his first film—were amazingly helpful.

[4]Armitage says the script omitted a key plot point in the novel, that the Hare Krishna killed by Fred was Susie's brother.

One day we were sitting around Junior and Susie's house, and Alec gets behind the camera and does about a five-minute impression of Tak Fujimoto.

[4]The film's release was delayed to try to take advantage of Baldwin's success in The Hunt for Red October, which had been released two months earlier, but failed to do so, with an opening weekend gross of $3 million from 832 screens to place fourth for the weekend, behind The Hunt for Red October.

The website's consensus reads, "Laced with hard-boiled thrills and pitch-black comedy, Miami Blues delivers a disarmingly off-kilter crime caper.

[7] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "C" on a scale of A to F.[8] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: "Miami Blues is best appreciated for the performances of its stars and for the kinds of funny, scene-stealing peripheral touches that keep it lively even when it's less than fully convincing.

"[9] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 2 out of 4 and wrote: "They're looking for the right tone in Miami Blues, and they don't find it very often, but when they do, you can see what they were looking for.