What a ride!

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2004)

The film Collateral opens with a silver haired Tom Cruise, walking silently through an airport. The opening is creepy in its own way, and it sets up the movie perfectly. Tom Cruise plays Vincent, a character who is going to make five stops with a taxi cab to murder five people. Of course, things go wrong and the plot is very intense and complicated, however it is very easy to follow this movie. Jamie Foxx does an excellent job as Max, the cab driver who takes Vincent (Cruise) to each of his stops. Max (Foxx) throughout the movie is overwhelmed and he can't believe he is driving around a killer. Jamie Foxx proves he can act, and the two actors have great chemistry in the film.

Collateral is not a laugh out loud film, but it does have some funny lines and there is irony in it. Cruise only smiles once in the film but that proves that Cruise can do an excellent job at really acting as this killer. I'm not saying Cruise has been given easy roles in the past, but this role is different. This character is much more complex and brutal.

Director Michael Mann did an excellent job. He is no novice for action films, for he directed Heat. His helicopter shots of Los Angeles are amazing at night. He makes the city seem more desolate and less crowded. Collateral focus' mainly on the story, and it doesn't stop, yet it's hard not to notice how L.A. is captured on film.
It is definitely a "popcorn" movie so go see it. Collateral is not any action film, and it's story wraps you up. The ending is particularly interesting. If you want to see Tom Cruise take on a mystical character, and Jamie Foxx pull off what may be the role of his lifetime, go see it.

****/***** 8/10