Dark, Stark, and Riveting

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2004)

Being a consummate fan of Tom Cruise, I was going into this movie thinking he wouldn't be able to pull it off, because he has always been a hero character. I was wrong. The characters were well laid out and sympathetic. There were only a few sections where you'd wonder about an implausible situation, but then remember this is a movie. If you're a hopeless Tom Cruise fan, it is hard to not root for him, even if he's up to evil, like it was watching Sean Connery in the movie, "the Avengers". Like Paul Newman, Tom is going to grow older into a distinguished handsome actor. He looked hot with greying hair.
Basically, Tom plays the killer just right. He totally muted his normal irrepressible likable personality, and barely flashed his 10,000 megawatt smile that normally disarms and make his characters, people to fall in love with. When Tom was running in pursuit, he brought to mind the Terminator II robot, mindless and determined to carry out the mission.
Jamie Fox's character was reminiscent of a British movie, where a Nigerian cabby was saving an illegal immigrant woman from an organ donor scam. Where one's menial job as a cabby, gets the main character wrapped up in a drama larger than their normal life.What was good about the interplay between the two, was that Fox's character, Max wasn't stereotyped into the "laughing, clown black-buddy" the way normally the black male character is written. He was slightly pathetic in that you could see how he was really a man who was stuck never to realize his dreams and was living in a fantasy. It was the night dealing with Tom's Vincent character that will probably pull him out of his losing attitude and rut.
Jada Pinkett's character was developed decently for the short time in the beginning we had to see her and get to know her. She should start getting more roles in the future in a similar vein and give Beyonce and Halle Barry some competition.
The ending should've stopped 2 minutes earlier than it did. But other than that it made me also think of the movie "To Live and Die in LA".
All in all a must see for the end of summer, if one likes suspenseful murder thrillers.