Effective thriller

Rating: Null/10 (11 January 2009)

Jamie Fox is Max, an ordinary cab driver with dreams and aspirations of starting a business,one night he finds himself the hostage of a contract killer,Vincent, portrayed by Tom Cruise.Vincent forces Max to drive him around while he kills the targets on his list one by one.Meanwhile Detective Fanning(Mark Ruffalo) is investigating the death of one of his informants.Later Max he's able to escape only to find out that Vincent's last victim is a female client(Jada Pinkett Smith) that Max drove hours later.This thriller/film-noir that takes place in Los Angeles will captivate you from the early beginning.The plot is very interesting and the pace is great.The main theme is probably the clash of ideas and lifestyles between the two main characters; while Max waits for things to happen,Vincent forces them to happen,while Max has a perfectly sheduled routine,Vincent never knows where he's going to be in the next ten minutes.Tom Cruise's performance was perfect and you can't help but love Vincent even him being a sociopath.I think the Oscar nomination should had gone to him and not to Jamie Fox.Don't get me wrong, Fox did a good job but he was definitely out shadowed by Cruise's brilliance.Javier Bardem makes a small cameo so pay attention to that. In my opinion Collateral is Michael Mann's best movie and one of the finest thrillers in the last decade. 8.5/10