Decent nothing great....

Rating: Null/10 (16 August 2004)

......boys it seems like Tom Cruise's 'street team' is out in force cutting and pasting their little gushy 'this movie is a CLASSIC! MUST-SEE!' 'reviews'.....In a word, uhhh...NO.
I did see it.
SPOILERS BELOW AM SURE!!
Okay, it's a typical Tom Cruise vehicle, you know where Mr Mapother can't do anything wrong, he is in reality 5-6 but is photographed to be at least 4 inches taller, he has Rambo's shooting skills and apparently is a track star, too. Sure he has grey hair and plays 'bad ass', but I really thought it was the same guy from 'Minority Report' just in the back of a cab shooting people. Nothing really outta the usual here.
Jamie Foxx does the Wesley Snipes/Eddie Murphy part here, and to be honest he's the real center of the movie, the better character. You get to see what he's about from the admitedly excellent Chada Pinkett scene, you feel for his plight-he actually seems scared by flying bullets, bodies and glass! Like most NORMAL people would!-and you hope he makes it out alive.
Unfortunately, the movie goes from being brutal but effective on it's own terms to down-right Bruckheimerish about the time they wind up in the club. Foxx suddenly becomes clairvoyent, bluffs his way into see Felix and back in one piece-yah sure- Cruise somehow manages to get into a club jammed w/ 800 people, fire off 55 rounds, not get hit himself, find his targets and miracle of miracles escape whilst the cops are made to be blind-eyed fools. Sure.
If Foxx was gonna ape the Dukes of Hazzard, then why not do this earlier? I also found him suddenly being able to go toe to toe w/ Cruise's character in the building and metro-rail just...about as believable as the club scene and their making it outta the car wreck in one piece. You can semi-buy it for filming purposes but it IS a reach.
Over-all how is it? I like Michael Mann's trademark Neonjungle Miami Vice world, I thought that at least Cruise and Foxx showed up for the roles, but it just thuds into cliche-land at the wrong time for the last third.
It's still worthy of seeing, just-don't go expecting to see a Classic!Must-see because it ain't.
**1/2 outta ****