Hollywood director Michael Mann has blasted critics who claim his new film Miami Vice is too violent. Mann insists he only included enough violence to make the action sequences as realistic as possible.

He says: “The violence in my films gives the action scenes legitimacy. An action scene is only completely legitimate if it is traumatic.” Mann has also praised the film’s two main stars, Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, for their performances in the film’s numerous action sequences.

He added: “I tried to make the film as believable and as real as I could. But both actors put in an incredible amount of work in pre-production so that they can actually do all the things they do.”