Mann delivers again

Rating: 7/10 (4 September 2004)

While every other so-called action film is long on action and short on dialog this film is the opposite of that and it's one of the many reasons why I consider the director one of my personal favorites. Story is about a Los Angeles taxi driver named Max (Jamie Foxx) who dreams of starting his own limousine service and impresses a fare named Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith) who tells him she is a Federal Prosecutor and gives him her card. Later, Max picks up Vincent (Tom Cruise) who convinces him for $600 to drive him around for the evening but while at their first stop a body is thrown out of a window and lands on Max's cab.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
Vincent comes back and Max comes to find out that he's a hit man with a list of five names and he must drive him around Los Angeles to kill each person on the list. Meanwhile, a cop named Fanning (Mark Ruffalo) notices that some of the bodies that have been popping up at the morgue have the same pattern of gunshot wounds and after talking with the FBI they discover that the victims are all witnesses in a case. After deliberately crashing the cab Max gets away from Vincent but notices that Annie is the last name on the list and tries to contact her before Vincent tracks her down.
This film is directed by Michael Mann who has always specialized in gritty street dramas from "Thief" and "Manhunter" to "Heat" and one of the things about his films that I have come to notice is that even his flawed efforts like "Ali" are still very interesting to look at. Mann has always had a strong visual flair and here he perfectly captures the nightlife of Los Angeles from the street lights and small bars to the heavily lighted buildings of downtown. Even with the action and gun play that take place the highlight of Mann's films is the terrific dialog that is uttered and many of his films are mainly character studies with action scenes taking place every so often. Foxx and Cruise have many of these scenes where they do nothing but drive around and talk and the tension and excitement never eases from it and actually enhances the films mood. The character Vincent played by Cruise is not exceptionally well drawn out but it's not supposed to be as he merely acts as a catalyst to the character Max. By the time the film is over we never find out to much about Vincent except that this is his job but with Max we discover many things from how long he has been driving a taxi to his relationship with his mother. While this probably won't rank up there with Mann's best films this is still exceptionally well made and also gives more evidence to the talent of Foxx who is slowly becoming one of the more interesting actors working today.