Engaging If Somewhat Convoluted Thriller

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2004)

"Collateral" delivers most of the goods one might be anticipating in a thriller: good guy/bad guy, fatal ultimatum, and fiery consequences which generate exhilarating, roller-coaster action. The acting nods are effective and engaging, with Tom Cruise revying up a typical, taut thriller, playing the ruthless, yet collected, villain, and Jamie Foxx as the confused, subservient pawn in his killer contract scheme. We follow and are consistently amused by the dialogue ("Six billion people on the planet, you're getting bent out of shape cause of one fat guy"), and become involved with the devious scenario: from kill to kill, from misfire to misfire, etc. The midnight criminal underworld setting is quite appreciative here, setting a dark and gritty tone to the scenario, with dark and shady characters to boot. Primarily, this film is very effective in building on this suspense, dark humor, and exhilaration, yet to some point becomes quite convoluted and difficult to follow thereon. The ending is mostly satisfying, if hardly surprising, and some of the showdown scenes, one might observe, are quite illogical (Cruise and Foxx tumbling upside down in the cab, Cruise fleeing the scene seemingly unaffected). I give high marks to most of the film, which delivers the thrills and pleases in other areas, while the latter third of the film compromises the engagement and somewhat lags in convolution with unfamiliar "underground jibber-jabber". Smart, satisfying, and (mostly) entertaining "buddies turned nemeses" thriller. *** out of ****