The Hit Man & The Hostage

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2016)

This entertaining action thriller is distinctive because of the quality of its characterisations which add so much depth and interest to an otherwise unremarkable plot. Its story about two men who travel the streets of Los Angeles during one long night in order to carry out a series of killings, focuses on the huge differences between them and their relationship which goes through numerous changes as the night progresses. At its outset, neither man realises how life-changing their shared experience will become as one guy becomes the catalyst for the profound change that the other one goes through.
Good natured cab driver, Max Durocher (Jamie Foxx) is meticulous in everything he does and regularly works the night-shift through choice. After high-powered federal attorney Annie Farrell (Jada Pinkett Smith) gets into his cab and describes the precise route that she wants him to take to her destination in downtown L.A., Max informs her that he knows a quicker way and offers to waive her fare if he's wrong. She accepts his offer and is suitably impressed when Max is proved right. She responds positively to his unassuming manner and they share a friendly conversation during which she describes how anxious she gets before a big day in court and he tells her how therapeutic he finds it to keep a postcard picture of a tropical island behind his sun visor so that he can pause and look at it whenever he starts to feel stressed. He then gives her the postcard as he believes she needs it more than him and as she leaves his cab, Annie passes her business card to her obviously delighted driver.
Max's next fare is a well-dressed man with a briefcase who surprisingly offers him $600 to chauffeur him around to the five business calls that he has to make that night. Max is conflicted because the offer is too good to refuse but also it would mean that he'd have to break his company's rules in order to drive continuously for the length of time involved. Having decided to go ahead anyway, Max takes Vincent (Tom Cruise) to his first call which is at an apartment building and parks in the adjoining alleyway. Shortly after, a dead body falls onto the roof of the cab and the normally placid driver goes into panic-mode before Vincent returns and cleans up the mess on the car and they put the body into the trunk. Vincent admits that he's a contract killer and their previously affable relationship changes abruptly as Max effectively becomes Vincent's hostage and is forced to co-operate.
As they work their way through Vincent's business calls, Max becomes increasingly agitated and after the two men take time out to visit his hospitalised mother and she engages Vincent in conversation, Max takes the opportunity to run off with the hit man's briefcase and laptop which contains the names and addresses of Vincent's targets. Despite managing to destroy the laptop by throwing it under some passing traffic, Max soon finds that his ordeal is nowhere near over and has to take some extremely positive actions to get himself out of the predicament he's in and save Annie's life when he finds that her name is on Vincent's list.
Tom Cruise gives a strong performance as the cold-blooded hit man who ridicules Max's ambition to run his own limo business because he sees the cabbie as being a passive dreamer who'll never be anything else. Max, on the other hand, is appalled by Vincent's cynicism and philosophical outpourings which he uses to rationalise his sociopathic behaviour. Jamie Foxx is terrific and makes his character incredibly likable, decent and ultimately incredibly strong. His performance is also pivotal to the success of this movie because he's the character that its audience relates to and cares about most strongly. The supporting cast is also exceptionally good with Javier Bartem, Jada Pinkett Smith and Mark Ruffalo all excellent.
Probably this movie's greatest quality is the way in which it incorporates so much character development without ever losing the momentum that's so important to any action thriller and this, no doubt, must have contributed greatly to its huge commercial success.