All About The Benjamins

Release date (USA): 03/08/2002

The movie starts off in the Florida Everglades early in the morning.  Bucum (ice Cube) is a Bounty Hunter who is tracking down a bail jumper, Lil J.  This scene is very reminiscent of the Miami Vice episode, Glades.  Right down to the cartoon playing on the television which lends to the cartoon nature of the violence we are about to see. This was filmed on tribal lands out in the Everglades but I have not tracked down the location yet. Location unknown.

After Bucum gets his guy we enter into the opening credits. It starts with an aerial shot looking in at South Beach, centered on 9th Street and Ocean Drive. The opening credits sequence jumps around basically showing Bucum on his way thru Miami on his way to the office.

We see flashes of the MacArthur Causeway.

Then we cut up to Broward County where we get a partial view of the Diplomat Hotel and then the three buildings to it’s south.

An unknown bar.

Then we see Bucum turn from southbound on Park Avenue to eastbound on 21st Street, South Beach.

Then it jumps to southbound on Collins Avenue passing the Marlin Hotel which is seen in Miami Vice episode 32, Back In The World and in the background of episode 12, Milk Run.

Continues south approaching the Kent Hotel.

Passes the Kent Hotel.

Continues south passing the Fairwinds (on right) and Essex (on left), 1000 blk. of Collins Ave.

Passes thru the 1100 blk. of Collins and the Tudor Hotel (on left).

Passes 11th Street on Collins Avenue.

Continues southbound.

Then we jump to Washington Avenue, northbound thru the 1600 block approaching 17th Street. We see this same intersection used in the Miami Vice episode, Buddies (#27).

Then it jumps north and we see Bucum drive by the famous Hilton Fontainebleau Hotel. 4441 Collins Ave. The Fontainebleau is seen in numerous movies and television shows.

Then we see an aerial view of the 395/95 interchange.

Then we see an aerial view of the intersection of SE 2nd Avenue and Biscayne Blvd. Way with south being at the top of the screen.

Then we jump back to Miami Beach where Bucum is driving north on Collins Ave. passing 38th Street. The Caribbean Hotel with it’s distinctive round windows is seen in the background at 3737 Collins Ave. This building has been replaced with a new hi-rise which made the search for the location a little harder.  Fortunately Bucum is driving a black car which reflected the opposite side of the street well enough to use it to find the location. The Caribbean and this stretch of Collins Avenue is also seen in Buddies, episode 27 of Miami Vice.

Then by an unknown location.

South Beach

Looking north past the Rickenbacker Causeway toward downtown and Brickell.

Then looking north past Dinner Key and the Coconut Grove Convention Center which later became the studio for the television series, Burn Notice.

Burn Notice studio.

Unknown location.

East end of MacArthur Causeway headed west past Terminal Island. This spot on the MacArthur Causeway seems to be a favorite filming location. It has been seen in the movie, Scarface, Miami Vice’s Out Where The Buses Don’t Run, Nobody Lives Forever,  Buddies,  The Fix and in Burn Notice Episodes, 35 Shots In The Dark, and 69 Besieged.

Then under the MacArthur Causeway bridge to the mainland on Watson Island.  The Miami Herald building can be seen in the background.  We see this location in episode 2 of Burn Notice, Identity as well as in episodes 30, Question and Answer and episode 35 Shots In The Dark.

Then under again in the opposite direction.

Then we see 685 NW 29th Street, Miami.

Unknown location

Biscayne Bay with Brickell in the background. The boat is headed south toward the Rickenbacker Causeway Bridge.

Then northbound up Washington Avenue, 800 block past the Hotel Clinton (right side).

Then it jumps north about 7 blocks, still northbound on Washington Avenue but now passing 15th Street.

Flash of the beach

Then an aerial shot of the American Airlines Arena in downtown.

Lummus Park along Ocean Drive.

Looking north over downtown.

Flashes of South Beach.

Northbound on Ocean Drive from 9th Street.

Then it jumps north a block. He is still northbound on Ocean Drive, now approaching 10th Street and passing the Edison Hotel.

Then northbound on Interstate 95, just north of the Miami River.

Unknown location

Dodge Island

Westbound past the Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key.

Beach again

Then we get an aerial view of the area around the water tower on NE 76th Street.

In a rare case of movie/real life accuracy this nicely ends the opening credits with a direct tie in to the same location on the ground, for the opening of Act 1.

The first time I recall seeing this water tower is in the Miami Vice episode, Over The Line (#105).

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Sea Air Towers, 3725 S. Ocean Dr.

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