Pretty, but flawed

Rating: 5/10 (26 June 2005)

The film itself was very nice, that is, the excellent photography and setting. The plot was fairly ridiculous, and not just the concept of a hit-man requiring a taxi driver to tote him around all night while he murders people. The movie is full of characters that come and go, the dialogue is fancy but unimportant, even the main duo of Cruise and Foxx are pretty but totally shallow.
If you like movies as art, you may derive some pleasure from the dark LA imagery, etc. but for the rest of us out to be entertained for 2 hours, this movie fails. In particular, the last 20-40 minutes take the ridiculous factor to 11. Characters do things they normally would not do, see things normal people would not see, and survive things normal humans would not survive. Prepare to suspend disbelief.
I was so disinterested by the end of the movie - Cruise's character says something which I didn't hear that well and I didn't even care. I like a lot of Mann's films but this was a bad movie. Oh, and a pet peeve - this movie was (until the end) pretty dark and stylish - but calling this film noir? Stop.