Watch it today and see how well it still holds up

Rating: 8/10 (20 April 2020)

Please set aside any misgivings about Tom Cruise and his personal life, this film affirms his calibre as an actor and entertainer.
When action movies started shifting to gritty in the mid 2000s, Mann was already there ahead of the pack. Collateral is very mindful action movie easy to miss in the sea of Bourne-alikes that quickly followed during this era.
The format itself, set throughout the night time of LA gives the movie a sense of urgency as we follow Jamie Foxx's everyman cab driver through the streets and alleys.
How good it is to see two actors here exploring a different side to their range; there's an ever present quiet menace in Cruise's depiction of Vincent that at times we are caught between rooting for him and recoiling from him; balanced by Foxx's hapless and helpless everyman cab driver, a far cry from the charismatic persona we are used to.
Mann has wonderfully captured the LA night to give a sense of dread and danger throughout, down to the sound in the shout out scenes to give that flavour of realism.
In some ways i feel this film has precursory elements to John Wick despite them being two different kinds of movies.
Great movie making, rewatchable for the scenes, the backdrops, the acting, and Cruise's assassin.