Instant classic, one of my favorites

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2008)

"Collateral" tells the story of a hit-man Vincent (played perfectly by Tom Cruise), hired to kill five targets in Los Angeles with an every-day-taxi driver Max (played amazingly by Jamie Foxx) as his life insurance. Vincent's job is to take care of five witnesses and after the fourth one, Max decides to fight back and the race for the life of Vincent's final target begins.
This movie blew me away immediately I rested my eyes on it. The direction, acting and screen writing is beyond imagination. Exceptional directing can easily be seen from the detailed filming locations and backgrounds which are explained more than accurately on the "special features" -DVD.
I had never actually noticed Tom Cruise's extreme acting abilities before "Collateral". Cruise gives the character Vincent a soul which could not have been given by any other actor (playing a bad guy was a brilliant way to show Tom's more serious side and his dedication to what he does) and same as Jamie's character Max. What could be more brilliant than putting a philosophic, and slightly psychotic contract killer and a shy, vulnerable citizen in the same taxi cab having a conversation about life, death and everything between them?
"Collateral" is nothing like all other shoot-everything-up -movies. In Collateral there is philosophy, there is irony, there are exceptional characters and there is acting and direction which are the soul of the movie that should be in so many other films.
Tom Cruise showed us what he is able to do when necessary and therefore I move him to my "top 10 of actors" -list, which already includes for example Christian Bale from "American Psycho", Al Pacino from "Scarface" and Johnny Depp from "Edward Scissorhands". 9 out of 10 stars.