Collatéral

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

Max thinks his day is looking up when he gets a beautiful fare who gives him a tip and her business card when she gets out. Resting on his laurels, Max nearly misses his next fare; Vincent, in LA for just one night to close out 5 deals, get signatures and then fly out by 6am and he offers Max a few hundred dollars to taxi him around for the night and then drop him at the airport. Max agrees and takes him to the first stop, only to discover that Vincent's job is actually to kill a list of 5 people and, now that Max has witnessed one killing, Vincent has no choice but to keep him with him.

I loved this film; there is no point in trying to hide that fact, but I am not blind to the problems that it has: too many reviewers have either loved it without exception or overly criticised it. The plot has holes – there, I've said it. The plot relies on some actions that don't ring true and other times rely on coincidences or just write things in to move the plot. However this is not a massive problem because it is still very enjoyable and gripping and its other strengths cover these problems. Of course, even with the holes it is still very enjoyable but demands your patience because, although it is tense, it isn't a roller coaster for the vast majority of the time. It has very fast moments but a lot of it is talky and patient – not a problem for me, but I can see why some multiplexers may have had itchy feet waiting for action. However even with this patience, the film is still very tense – helped by some very sudden moments of violence that come out of nowhere and help put the audience on edge. Much was made in Heat of key moments where opposite characters find common ground and in this film it is the opposite but done to similarly interesting effect. Here Max and Vincent are opposites who get under each others' skins over the course of the night; their relationship is very strange and I think the script does well to bring this across even if it is hard to understand at times (part of this is their relationship getting tied up in some of the plot weaknesses).

A big part of the plot problems being covered is due to the strong direction from Mann, who can shoot a city like nobody else. As others have said, the fly-overs look great but for me the surprise was to see Mann add digital film to his cannon. This allows him to mix very rough, intimate shots with film to bring the audience in closer. I also noticed that he seemed to do very close angles and frames with 'proper' film as well, all increasing the feel of being 'there' and intimately involved. Of course, on top of this we still had Mann's usual shooting of LA at night – fluorescent lighting, empty streets and so on – nothing new but it is still very effective and great to look at. If it weren't for the very heavy cast involved here then Mann would be the main star of the film but, as it is, his direction is just part of the film pulling together to produce the goods.

The cast is impressive and those who have come on the basis of Cruise alone will be surprised to find so many well known faces who are very able. Cruise wants an Oscar and he has done several of the Oscar tricks to get one – his most recent attempt here is to play totally against type. He does it pretty well, making for a convincing cold killer on the surface but still able to reveal an empty core when he is pushed. If he had been allowed to do this more then maybe he would have been more impressive but he isn't and the end result is just a good performance. Of course it doesn't help that Cruise has to play opposite Jamie Foxx delivering one of his most assured performances yet. Based on seeing him in stuff like Booty Call and his own comedy show, I was worried when I saw him due to star in this movie but it turns out that he can act! In fact he dominates the film with a quiet role that runs a gauntlet of emotions while Cruise mostly sits in 'cold killer' mode, meaning that, in most scenes, Foxx is the one we are watching. The support cast is surprisingly deep and the amount of familiar faces makes some moments of violence all the more unexpected. While none of them are really given the time to shine, there are quality turns from Smith, Berg, McGill, Hall, Henley and Ruffalo and it gives the (albeit false) impression of an all-star ensemble; although why Jason Stratham bothered to turn out for the one day of shooting he must have done for the airport scene is beyond me.

Overall this is a very effective film. The atmosphere is just right and is helped by the script, the cast and the director – all combining to provide a patient pace that still manages to be very tense and exciting. Mann's direction is great, mixing film with digital to good effect and Cruise is very good playing against type with a good support cast of well-known faces.

However the genuine surprise of the film is Jamie Foxx; better known for clichéd ethnic comedy roles, he steps up here and just about steals every scene he is in.

Nobody's perfect, but it's hard to go wrong with a Michael Mann-directed film, especially when it's a crime movie.

Although this isn't the quality of his 1995 "Heat," it wasn't far behind in its ability to interest and entertain the viewer while providing some slick visuals.

Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx are the stars of the film, Foxx winning an Academy Award. No offense to him, but I found Cruise better. He was just outstanding in here as the immoral hit-man. Foxx was entertaining, too, as the nerd-ish cab driver who is pulled into Cruise's murdering adventures.

You'll appreciate both of these guys, and the great visuals, more on the second viewing after you are familiar with the story. The intense film is definitely worth more than one look. Check out the behind-the-scenes documentary, too. You'll be glad you are not an actor in one of Mann's films.

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.

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.