Cruise vs. Foxx

Rating: 9/10 (15 July 2015)

Collateral is pretty much a long, very interesting conversation between two opposite characters. On one side, you have Foxx, who plays a relaxed, nice, friendly but clever taxi driver that is only trying to make a living and save up for later plans. But then you have Cruise, whose character is an ice cold killer, who is "indifferent". He shows absolutely no feelings towards killing people. I like the way they develop the characters in the movie and the performances are great.
Interestingly, although Cruise is the bad guy, by the end of the movie I found myself wondering, who should I cheer for? Someone is going to die, but I liked both characters so much, I couldn't decide which one should live and who should die. That is a great sign from the movie.
There are flaws, in my opinion, as some scenes don't pack the punch I wanted them to, for example: when Foxx goes to a club to talk to Felix, the scene is supposed to be one of the most intense in the film. Not to say that it's not intense, cause it is, but it felt to me like it should have packed a harder punch. Another example was the club shootout, a scene that should have been awesome. It's only good, mainly because it doesn't focus on Cruise like it should, and instead, we get way too many shots of other people in the club.
Some things in the dialogue also feel rushed and not as "clean" as they should sound. Like when Foxx handcuffs the cop to the car after the crash and tells him like Vincent told him: "When did this become a negotiation?" It just feels like some of that dialogue could have been avoided.
I liked the ending, I loved that Foxx, although unskilled in the art of manslaughter could kill Cruise and he didn't believe it.
Collateral is a great movie and, although it doesn't have the best cinematography at parts and the dialogue feels a bit rushed at times, the movie is still very much worth it.