Collateral

Rating: 7/10 (18 September 2007)

Michael Mann is what I would call an urban filmmaker. Here in "Collateral" he shows us the nightly Los Angeles so often that I guess he loves this city, even if his crime and drama-filled films let me suspect that he has pretty ambiguous feelings towards it. With "Collateral" it's the same as with the great "Heat" and "Miami Vice", this urban atmosphere of restlessness and very short moments of beauty once again dominates the movie. Here it is combined with a very thrilling story of a hit man, who has to kill five particular people in one night. It's a good film and very cool again, but it didn't work fully for me because of the two main characters. On the one hand we have Max, played by Jamie Foxx. I never really got to believe the emotions and the changes that this man is going through. On the other hand there is Vincent, played by Tom Cruise. Cruise isn't able to play the moments of violent eruption believable.