Wasted effort

Rating: 6/10 (21 August 2004)

OK, so I'm buying Jamie Foxx as a repressed, compulsive cabbie. I can even sorta buy Jada Pinckett-Smith as a federal prosecutor with a thing for repressed, compulsive cabbies. But then you throw in Tom Cruise as Vincent, the World's Shortest Contract Killer, and it's just way too much to believe. Director Michael Mann gives Cruise some leftover Don Johnson stubble from his Miami Vice days, and Bill Clinton's hair, but beyond that it's still just "Risky Top Days of the Last Cocktail" with a gun. Besides choosing Mini-Me as the villain, this movie also has some problems with believability- after all, what kind of hitman is so concerned about leaving witnesses, yet kills just about everybody around in as public a place as possible? What kind of crime boss would bother killing the prosecuting attorney, when there are dozens more in the same office ready to take over? And what kind of cabbie drives a fare all over town, but never turns on the meter? On the plus side, Jamie Foxx simutaneously conveys both abject fear and annoyance with the miniature sociopath who threatens his life while nagging him about his professional and romantic failures. The cinematography is wonderful, showing nighttime L.A. to its best advantage. Unfortunately, Tom Cruise is simply too short to be scary, and his Tony Robbins-meets-Sammy the Bull routine wears thin too fast.