Cruise shows what he's made of.

Rating: 8/10 (1 June 2006)

I must confess, that I am not a big fan of Michael Mann. He knows how to do films, there is no question about that, but sometimes he looses his control and his movies become pointedly annoying in some sense, like 'Heat', which was like a masturbatory tease of building a situation, where Pacino and Deniro were on a screen together.
And yet 'Collateral' is very similar to Mann's other movies, but it still is different, as the pacing is far more faster, as the story happens during one night. But Mann still takes his time to reflect upon his characters from metaphorical scenes and images. The trademark music video scenes are intact and the action masterfully directed. The actors are good and the atmosphere is gripping. 'Collateral' is, even though the story line lefts some room for improvement, perhaps the best of Mann.
Max (Jamie Foxx) is a taxi driver who picks up a fare, who introduces himself as Vincent (Tom Cruise) and makes him a offer of 700 bucks, if Max just drives him around the city for this evening. The thing is, that Vincent is a hit-man on a job.
Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx do a astonishing job, and Cruise hasn't been this good since 'Magnolia': he's a perfect bad guy, a role he should play more often, as his calm, maniac approach on Vincet is extremely intriguing. Foxx is perfect counterpart for Cruise, and it is evident that he actually is the better actor of the two, but Cruise is the one who dominates the movie.
The only thing not up to par in this tale is the plot line, which lets the infamous lady faith to do far too much convenient circumstances. It also leaves unexplained why so weathered hit-man as Vincent suddenly seems to forget to guard his back. But this is just nitpicking on a movie that is in its own right a good one. It is rare to see action oriented movie, that really works in other aspects besides the action scenes themselves.