Collateral

Very tense, exciting and epic; it's a very good movie with Tom Cruise; I highly recommend it.

Collateral is a masterpiece of American cinema. Jamie Foxx is Max, a Los Angeles cab driver with dreams of his own limo company, "Island Limo". After twelve years on the job he has become quite gifted at discerning the most intimate details of his passengers' lives... just a glance at their clothes, and he knows.

His worldly insight manages to tear down the defenses of one of his passengers, a State Attorney played by Jada Pinkett Smith, who graces him with her phone number. Max hasn't even begun to revel in the pleasure of possessing the beautiful attorney's digits when he gets his next passenger, Tom Cruise as Vincent, a slick hit-man in town for a night of killing.

When a body drops out of a fourth story window and onto Max's cab, he becomes an unwilling partner on Vincent's murder spree. Director Michael Mann (The Insider, Ali) does a masterful job manipulating texture and tone throughout the movie, taking us to settings as diverse as a junkie's apartment, a penthouse, a hospital room, and a smoky jazz club, all the while making the city of angels a central character in the story.

The soundtrack is also excellent, with a mixture of popular music and ambient tracks perfectly-timed and synced to the story... tribal drumbeats during the chase scenes, haunting rock ballads at pivotal moments, and one track that reminded this viewer of the scene at the other end of Tom Cruise's career, when he drives his father's Porsche out of the garage in "Risky Business" to the accompaniment of a thumping synth track. A bizarre side-note, I know.

As the movie builds to a climax, the police are hunting for Max, believing he is the one on a killing spree, and Vincent stalks his final victim in a blacked-out high-rise office to a backdrop of the brilliant LA skyline, reflected in multiplicity by the office's dozens of glass cubicles.

Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, and Jada Pinkett Smith all rise to the occasion in Collateral, and together they transcend their previous appearances on film. Mark Ruffalo gives a good performance as the cop who knows everything is not what it seems.

There are a few minor plot points which didn't sufficiently suspend my disbelief (like when Max agrees to take Vincent the vicious hit-man to see his Mother in the hospital), but overall this is a fantastic movie.

Troy Dayton

Michael Mann's skills as storyteller, stylist, and controller of mood and psychology of characters is in one of its finest forms in Collateral, a summer blockbuster that's with equal measure of excitement and thought, dark humor and tough moments of violence and suspense. It's also one of only a handful of times in Tom Cruise's career where taking a chance dramatically with a complex character pays off. It's a 100 million dollar+ grossing movie, but its story could just as well be one set in the noirs of the 40s and 50s- a cabbie with some aspirations for his own business (and for a girl he picks up at the start of the film) gets taken over by a hit-man who's doing his rounds of murders all in one night. There's also cops on the trail, as well as FBI, but it's really more than anything about these two guys and the very stark, expected but still compelling climax. After the set-up gets underway, the film is as much character study as a typical crime thriller, and it's one of those splendid examples of style matching substance, where both contain some unconventional bits in what could have been a lesser film.

Along with a good script by Stuart Beattie, and Mann's perfectly nuanced digital night-time photography (more suitable and exacting for the mood than the recent Miami Vice), there's the acting. First, of course, are the stars with Cruise in a turn-around role as the antagonist, who spouts out little bits of Darwin and I-Ching, but for the most part is a stone-cold sociopath. Cruise, wonderfully uncharacteristic for what he usually does in his star vehicles, is more low-key, ominous, and at the end quite dangerous. Jamie Foxx, too, in his real deserved Oscar-nominated turn, is also unconventional here as a common guy who's put between a rock and a hard place. Maybe his best scene, or at least the one I would show as him being a much better actor than he sometimes gets credit for, is when he has to meet Felix (Javier Bardem) to get a new 'list' of people for Vincent. That and a few other scenes are both tense and with an undercurrent of cynical, harsh humor that helps balance out the dark nature of the events.

Collateral is also pretty re-watchable for a fan of this kind of picture, with a great score/soundtrack, great locations, and a couple of interesting ending images.

It is hard to lavish enough praise on the acting on display here from the two main protagonists. Jamie Foxx shows signs of the charisma and ability that made him a cert for the best actor Oscar for Ray. Meanwhile Tom Cruise is a sheer revelation as the psychotic but professional hit-man Vincent.

Cabbie Max (Foxx) picks up Vincent (Cruise) expecting just another job. When Vincent offers to double his nightly earnings if he drives him all night he accepts, until Vincent's mission is revealed. What follows is a night of hell for Max, reluctantly driving Vincent from hit to hit, all the while trying to stay alive and do the right thing, two goals which may ultimately be unachievable together. What is most fascinating about Cruise's character though is the sheer indifference he shows towards his victims. He does not hate them, he doesn't even know them, he has just been assigned to kill them and does so with absolutely no remorse. When a body crashes on to his cab, followed by Vincent's re-appearance, Max is shocked by the answer to his accusatory 'you killed him!" - No, I shot him, the bullets and the fall killed him." This matter-of-fact approach is indicative of Vincent's professionalism, and adds a really chilling level of apathy to the character.

It is certainly refreshing to see Cruise in such a different role, and it is one which he really gets his teeth into, producing a sociopath contract killer, seemingly with no remorse and no redeeming qualities. He pulls it off with a genuinely sinister edge on the character, and the final half hour is particularly impressive from an acting point of view.

Jamie Foxx however is certainly by no means acted off the screen. His likable cabbie with relaxed attitude to life (well, until he meets Cruise) shows many of the qualities he used to really bring Ray Charles to life later.

The action too is well staged by Michael Mann, in probably his best work since Heat. It is easy to track the action through the relatively simple plot, and the set piece scenes are competently done without being spectacular. A very good above average thriller, but most notable for Cruise's revelation of another string to his acting bow. A superbly acted film.

The movie focuses on Max (Jamie Foxx), he is a cab driver from Los Angeles town . He makes his rounds at night dealing with various characters (Debi Mazar , Jada Pinkett Smith) in the car talking with them. Along the way, he dreams of have his own Limousinas company, though to his ill mummy (Imma P. Hall) tells her that he is already an owner . While Vincent (Tom Cruise) is a cruel killer with an engaging contract who offers a large sum of money to drive him through locations around L. A. Then, Max realizes he is a murderer who has been hired to kill a number of people . Events go wrong and Max becomes a hostage and he must find a way to rescue the last deadly objective. Meanwhile, Police Inspectors (Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg) are tracking down the nasty killer.

The picture packs action, violence , drama , shootouts with exciting scenes. Casting is frankly excellent , the main protagonists give first-class performances. Jamie Foxx (recently his Oscar for ¨Ray¨) as a hapless cab man is awesome similar to Tom Cruise as the relentless murderer , besides Jada Pinkett (Will Smith's wife) as obstinate prosecutor is magnificent and brief appearance by Javier Bardem . The film contains stimulating action set-pieces as the impressive gunplay developed in a tumultuous discotheque or the breathtaking final pursuit in the building and on the train . Atmospheric and moving musical score by the master James Newton Howard. Colorful and spectacular cinematography -although some dark due to be mainly shot by night- by two nice cameramen , Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron . The motion picture was well directed by the successful director Michael Mann (Red Dragon, Heat, Last Mohican , The insider) . The film will appeal to Tom Cruise devotees and action film enthusiasts .Rating : Better than average . Well worth watching.