Great performance in acting, but a feeling of déjà vu.

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2006)

Collateral was and remains the first thriller directed by Michael Mann after his masterpiece : Heat. In this regard, Collateral appeared to me as the revealing of a temporary lack of inspiration. I have been disappointed since Collateral seems to be in many ways a pale carbon copy of Heat. I don't say that the similarities between the two movies were not intentional : for instance Heat starts in a station and ends along the lanes of LAX whereas Collateral starts in LAX and ends in a station that could even be the one used for the running of Heat. That obvious symmetry was an implied reference, whether to satisfy the fans or to highlight the tragic side of the short-lived characters ? I don't know. An other similarity : two men, who don't know each other, who are apparently opposed in everything, find out what they have in common before ending up killing each other. In Heat the communion between the predator an the prey was credible and genuine. But in Colateral, the characters just do not match. By trying to bring Heat's emotions back to life, Michael Mann has reused the same dramatic features exaggerating them. A cop and a robber can grow aware that they are leading the same kind of life on "opposite sides of the law". In Collateral the scriptwriter chose a cab driver and a hit-man! If only Jamie Foxx' character suffered from the Stockholm syndrome! But it is not even the case.
Last but not least there is a main difference to point out : the rewarding role of women. In Heat the parts of Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman and Ashley Judd helped us to picture the situation of family breakdown and personal failures the leading characters experienced. In Collateral the character played by beautiful Jada Pinkett Smith is only designed to lead the story to an end that you can see coming a mile off.
5/10 because Michael Mann is better than that.