very disappointing

Rating: 2/10 (20 February 2005)

This film held my attention for about 20 minutes, then it was one absurdity after another; one convenient plot manipulation after another that caused me to lose any semblance of interest. First: no cabbie would have such total independence from the dispatcher - we hear from the dispatcher twice - the first time he gets chewed out by Cruise (yeah, like THAT is going to happen) and the second time to relay that Foxx's mother called. Absurd. Anyone that's been in a cab, much less DRIVEN one, would know that you just don't drive around L.A. all night without checking in or there would be hell to pay not to mention cops looking for you. Cabbies get robbed and/or killed all the time, their disappearance would not go undetected. Second: the body left in the trunk - did Cruise just sort of space out that teeny piece of evidence? Third: good thing a neutron bomb hit L.A. that night so there was no traffic hardly anywhere. Uh huh. It's so helpful that targets in dark, noisy clubs sit where there is bright white light on them so they can be seen clearly not to mention the ease with which our main characters get away in the midst of the (eventual) chaos as the club empties out; the coyotes/wolves crossing the street, the subsequent awful musical interlude, the pseudo-psychological banter between killer and driver were enough to make me roll my eyes. ...And the list just goes on and on. This is not an adult thriller unless you're on meds that dull the senses. This is a mess of a film in spite of the acting being good -- the writing is just sloppy. There is nothing here that Hitchcock would appreciate, as some would assert. Hitchcock had plot conveniences and "coincidences" that would seem implausible, but in the hands of a Master, they were pulled off...not here, though. This is a good example of American cinema: "people don't want anything serious to think about, they just want to be entertained for a couple of hours".
Rent this if you must, but for me, it is 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.