Did Mann call a 1-800 # for this?

Rating: 7/10 (5 February 2007)

COLLATERAL 2004 (TOM CRUISE, JAMIE FOXX) DIRECTED BY: MICHAEL MANN ~ THE RUNDOWN: Great acting, writing and a little style separate this from your typical action movie, but it's definitely overrated and rarely manages to rise above ordinary. ~ Wow, what an ending! 'Oh my God, I can't believe that lawyer from the beginning was the sixth hit! Oh my God, I hope no one gets killed!' Yeah right. Everything about the last twenty minutes of this was cheap. Plain cheap. It's true, there's some really great scenes in this movie, and some really great writing, especially in the dialog. Also, Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise have excellent on-screen chemistry together; their performances seem inspired. Nonetheless, when everything's all said and done you're left with a bad taste in your mouth and in your mind you're saying to yourself...my intelligence has been insulted...why should I think of this movie as anything more than 'Speed'. The basic premise of the story seems as if it was given to Mann after calling a 1-800 #...seriously, just read the IMDb.COM synopsis: A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in LA. He must find a way to save both himself and one last victim. Pretty self-explanatory. I mean, come on, have you never heard of throwing a couple curveballs here and there, Michael Mann. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the lawyer from the beginning turns out to be the sixth hit...cheap, cheap cheap, fake, fake, fake. Still, like I said in its defense, even though the basic premise is generic and the entire film is founded upon clichés, there's some great writing here and I even found myself laughing a few times, not to mention my eyes were glued to my TV screen on more than one occasion. ~ COLLATERAL is an entertaining, well shot, very well acted and well-paced film worthy of my seven-star rating, but just isn't the movie it wants to be.