Buddy-cop films are romantic fantasies for guys. They tap into the male daydream of being teamed with a like-minded equal, flouting apparently insurmountable odds through teamwork and humor.

You could say the genre, a popular subset of the action movie field, has come full circle with the release of "Miami Vice," which is based on a TV series (1984-1989) that starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas and romped through pop culture in the buddy-cop golden age.

Such films are passed off as rote today, but they continue to be made not only because they speak to the coveted 18-34 male demographic, but because they're easy to write. And easiness is always prized in an artistic community as lazy as Hollywood.

Buddy-cop films usually stick to a specific formula, with slight variables that can be altered and changed out. Always you start with the two protagonists: often mismatched man's men who are polar opposites thrown together by an overbearing superior, perhaps because they are the only men talented enough to get the job done. They don't respect each other at first but gradually become friends as they work toward their goal.

Next you add the snarling villain who either underestimates the heroes or is an orchestrator who hides his identity. What you rarely see is a love interest for either hero, since the bond they share — including the fights, the banter and the unspoken kinship — takes up too much of the running time to add in a significant female love interest. Often the characters are carousers who treat women as playthings to be used on breaks from their real work. Sometimes one character will have a wife, whose sole role is to get taken hostage or complain about her husband's career and despise his buddy.

Just about every time, one of the buddies gets himself into trouble that he's got no chance of overcoming himself, and always the buddy is there to come to the rescue.

Buddy-cop flicks existed before the "Miami Vice" TV series, but just barely. The movie often credited as being the first buddy-cop film was the solemn "Nighthawks" (1981), which teamed Billy Dee Williams and Sylvester Stallone as two New York City cops who are transferred to an elite anti-terrorism unit.

The year after brought "48 Hours," which introduced the twist that both buddies need not be official police officers. Nick Nolte plays a gruff cop who likes to work alone, forced against his will to seek the aid of a criminal played by Eddie Murphy in an effort to track down a killer. The film was followed by a 1990 sequel.

"Lethal Weapon," with Mel Gibson as a loose cannon with a death wish who partners with Danny Glover's responsible, by-the-book character, and its successors are the buddy cop film's high water marks. The Glover character's refrain, "I'm getting too old for this s---!" has evolved into a sort of mantra for the genre. So what if all four films (1987-1998) are just about the same story over and over again? The sharp dialogue and the compelling chemistry between the leads — which matures by the film — carry the day.

Buddy-cop films are almost always played for laughs. The two "Bad Boys" films (1995 and 2003) combine two stars with comic presence, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson made the same match in "Starsky & Hutch" (2004), which was closer to outright parody than comedic drama.

Now we have the "Miami Vice" film, which seems like a reaction to the comedification of the genre and takes its overused, often-mocked concept deadly serious. Just when we thought we were getting too old for this, um, stuff.