taxi!

Rating: Null/10 (21 September 2004)

Collateral serves up the thrills quickly and coldly in this tense portrayal of simple binary oppositions;
STRONG:WEAK The cruiser boils into the sub zero, emotionless, ruthless assassin who has 5 hits to complete with the aid of unwilling cabbie Max (Foxx) Both characters play off each other really well and when the movie really gets going,the tension between them mounts and the edge of morality and humanity swings wildly like a pendulum between the two. Cruise displays a rather darker turn in this piece than most other mainstream thrillers i know of; relaying the fact that a potential victim has a wife who may be pregnant to Max who is powerless to stop a potential murder (or five) Maxx stands up pretty well in front of the traffic light ; he doesn't burn and shrivel like most others who would dare to confront Cruise and Mann on home territory. Both characters are played almost to perfection, but Maxx and Vincent do swap certain qualities that should befall both professionalism and morality. The score (especially before the smash) drives the movie along almost like the intangible protagonist of the piece as it makes its merry way around the neon swept streets of L.A. Looking for another Heat: no! Heat and Collateral are similar in content but different in context; Heat exercised the cops and robbers theme whilst collateral shows us the more haunting aspects of how fragile life is; weakness; the will to hang on and how far would ou have to go? Collateral, though a bit flawed deserves a high rating and i would personally give it 7.8 stars.