Cruise control!!

Rating: 9/10 (1 November 2004)

Michael Mann returns to the crime thriller for the first time since Heat and it's the genre that has garnered most of his fan base. I personally think he is a master at this genre as proved with Heat, Manhunter and Thief. This is a tense and superbly unique piece of work. Unique in the fact that it's shot on digital at night with no real conventional lighting in most of the film. In this respect the film has an original and highly atmospheric look. The night time setting of LA is at once both cold and warm and the subdued colour gives the film a really interesting tone.
The plot centres around a cabbie named Max who picks up a passenger named Vincent. Vincent then in effect hijacks Max and his cab and has him take him around LA to wipe out federal witnesses. It's a simplistic premise and the film like Mann's other crime thrillers are fascinating character studies. The characters of both Max and Vincent are the core of the movie and the relationship between them. As you would expect this acting is top notch. Tom Cruise is brilliant, truly worthy of an Oscar nod. It's a brave role that manages to let Cruise shift the Cruise mantle he has upon him. Many of his roles, despite his excellent efforts still do feel like it is Tom Cruise there, but here he shakes his star status off and is completely immersed in an adverse character. It's so far form his image and he inhabits the role so brilliantly that we see him as the character and not as Cruise playing a character. There is no whiff of this being a star vehicle that at times tarnished an other wise exemplary performance in Last Samurai. Also Jamie Foxx is also excellent. He is an up and comer of real promise and already being talked up for an Oscar nod for his performance in Ray. Also offering good support is the gorgeous Jada Pinkett Smith.
Mann as usual seems to effortlessly create style and tension and excite. His uber realistic approach really gives the film an edge with it's action. Cruise as the hit-man is every inch like a highly trained assassin. Authenticity is something that is always in evidence in Mann's work and it is clearly evident here. This is a brilliant piece of work. It's exciting, highly atmospheric and despite a far from original premise, feels unique. I hope that in a slow year for Oscar fodder, that this film will get appreciation for Cruise and Mann in particular. This is one of the best films this year. *****