Mission: Implausible

Rating: 5/10 (28 September 2004)

Endless overhead tracking shots through neon cityscapes, skewed camera angles, mumbled dialogue and improbable plot developments - this is a thriller that yearns for significance but is ultimately just another exercise in style over substance from Michael Mann. Put another way, it's a handsomely staged disappointment.
While Cruise is a believably inscrutable villain and Foxx an acceptable foil, the interesting premise is lost in a sea of improbability and eventually sunk by a hackneyed damsel-in-distress finale. Despite promising more than the usual guns'n'poses take on the genre, Mann's deliberate build-up never really gains momentum. The ridiculous nightclub shootout generates more laughs than excitement, leaving a hole in the movie's credibility that is never patched up. From that point on, the lifting of ideas from the likes of 'The Terminator' and 'Speed' underlines the fact that the plot has, indeed, been totally lost.
Collateral reinforces my opinion of Mann as an assured filmmaker whose determination to produce something deep and meaningful seriously hampers his ability to entertain.