Jada Picketts Smith character put the kibosh to the movie

Rating: 6/10 (9 February 2005)

This was a pretty good flick. A typical action Michael Mann movie. I find his movies are very stylish. I never have been a Tom Cruise fan. But being wooden and robotic is what was needed to portray a hope to die cold blooded killer. And wooden and robotic is what he is. I was happy that Jamie Foxx was not portraying some type of comic sidekick which I see in far too many movies where there is a black co star to a superstar white star. Mind you Cruise is not really a good hit-man, look the guy doesn't even have transportation planned ahead of time. And apparently he has done this type of Taxi for Hire Gun for Hire thing the year before because a cop mentions that similar killings happened the year before. Within the first 10 minutes of the movie when we meet Jada Pickett you get the idea she will be a target. She disappears after she gets out of the cab so we know she will return considering she is a US Prosecutor. And there lies my one complaint about This flick. Jada Pickett Smith's character. This is suppose to be a Federal Prosecutor in LA Her first scene in the movie is almost a carbon copy of Holly Hunters Taxi cab scene in Broadcast news.. A woman in control. She is prosecuting serious cases. So when she is working in her office in the middle of the night and someone calls her up, a person who in a short time she seemed to like and YELLS to her that she is going to get killed and get the heck out of the building. All she can say is What are you talking about? And keeps on playing dumb. Until Tom Cruise who was nowhere near here practically gets close enough to kiss her. I am sure any hard boiled prosecutor would of not have been in that office by themselves and they sure would of hauled a** if they get call like that. You see she has to be stupid because if she did get her behind out of there like she was told I guess we would never been treated to the exciting ending. Also I didn't understand why the Peter Berg character was a jerk. I wish the writers would of been more imaginative and not of made a Federal Prosecutor a blithering idiot. Plus I am sure after the cops are seeing all of the people who are attached to this case are getting knocked off they would of gotten in contact with her already and made sure she was in protective custody! I feel it would of been more believable if Jada Pickett's Smith character was in transit and no one knew how to get in contact with her and Tom Cruises character grabbed her then. This movie is not as good as Heat But it is very entertaining. Jamie Foxx has more screen time then Cruise so he really is not a supporting player. Kind of like Denzel Washington having more screen time in Philadelphia But Tom Hanks was considered the lead. .