HEAT (comparing notes)

Rating: 8/10 (10 August 2004)

In 1994 PULP FICTION made viewers root for and laugh with the bad guys, characters Tarantino had already stylized. In the same year, HEAT cast off the jokes and its "bad guys" turned out to be real people who maybe weren't so bad after all. HEAT introduced audiences to the professional criminal in a way that unconventionally rendered the character with some regard. When De Niro took his last breaths in HEAT's final frames, we actually felt a tinge of loss.
HEAT-lovers such as myself anticipated COLLATERAL not only as `the new Mann film,' but as an elaboration of HEAT's signature character  which could only be done with that film's architect.
COLLATERAL is the inevitable follow-up to HEAT, its vehicle being the expertly-collected professional criminal. Anyone who has seen both films will realize from the opening images in COLLATERAL that Cruise's character is a direct carry-over from HEAT.
The important thing for any fan of the director to realize is that since Mann did not write or produce it (enough to be credited, anyway) this is not truly "A Michael Mann Film."
While it likely would have been better had it been "A Michael Mann Film", COLLATERAL is still a great picture. Stuart Beattie's screenplay passes the test; the music, though somewhat over-used, is well-chosen. Unfortunately, the casting for the lead roles backfired.
Cruise and Foxx are top-notch, but their personas as actors may be undermining the intended character depictions. Watch COLLATERAL in theatre and you'll understand.
Cruise has always been a good guy and Foxx has always been a funnyman. When general audiences are watching COLLATERAL, they are seeing a good guy play a bad guy and a funnyman play a cab driver.
Hence people laughing at Foxx's lines - even if they're weren't supposed to be funny. And the TRAINING DAY-esque appeal of the good guy playing the bad guy.
HEAT's initial selling point was the onscreen pairing of De Niro and Pacino. But regardless of their marketing power, both actors couldn't have been better for the roles. What resulted were two of the most convincing characters in film.
In HEAT, we're watching Neil McCauley and Vincent Hanna. In COLLATERAL, we're watching Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.