Hollywood is back on Cruise control

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 2004)

If there is a king of Hollywood then it is a fair bet Tom Cruse would be the man putting in his time on the throne. Sure, there has been times when he has been a little light in his duties (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2, THE LAST SAMURAI), but whenever the crown has been in danger of being taken away, our man with the million dollar smile has always pulled a winner out the hat to avoid abdicating his throne. But with so many young pretenders crowding up Toms space, a plan was needed to make sure that no one, least of all George Clooney or Brad Pitt, would try on the crown. And so what better plan was there to dye Cruise's hair grey, ditch the nice guy image and play a contract killer? Grey hair never did Buddhist favourite Richard Gere any harm, and although Scientologist Tom may not be jetting off to Tibet just yet, he has certainly taken the mantle from Gere for the 'coolest grey haired star in Hollywood'. So what is the film about? Well, I'll tell you. A loner cabbie called Max drives around Los Angeles while harbouring a pipe dream of someday running a limo service. His first fare of the night is a young female lawyer who leaves him with more than a tip, i.e., a promise of a date which puts a spring in his step. However his next fare is Vincent, a man who is on a mission, to kill five people in one night. Max doesn't know this until one of Vincent's victims has the bad manners to fall on his cab from a great height. With his job occupation no longer a secret Vincent makes Max drive him to hit after hit while Max himself tries to find away to flee Vincent's grip, as the bodies begin to pile up. Cruise is simply Mr Cool, all grey suit, grey hair with a black and white attitude to life. From the opening shot to the last frame Cruise plays his character to the hilt delivering the most iconic performance of a hit man since John Travolta teamed up with Tarantino for some Pulp Fiction. However, you can't bang the drum for Cruise without giving huge credit to Jamie Foxx who more than holds his own as Max, the put upon cabbie who finds himself being chauffeur to a man who could teach The Grim Reaper a thing or two. Credit also has to go to director Michael Mann's depiction of Los Angeles, shown to be a dark and animalistic place, where the real inhabitants come out at night and the city's true colours are seen. Indeed when two coyotes run in front of Max's cab, there is a sense of there being four animals in the scene, two coyotes looking into the eyes of a killer fox (Vincent), while a deer caught in the headlights (Max) tries his best to cope in the situation. With an excellent script, and skilfully directed , Collateral proves that Tom Cruise is still Top Gun at the box office.