Tom the Bad Guy

Rating: 8/10 (23 February 2005)

For once, Tom Cruise isn't the good guy. I was beginning to get sick of his typecast American Hero role in every movie, perhaps apart from the dismal Vanilla Sky. Then came the role of Vincent, a hit-man who is ruthless and relentless, yet at times displaying streaks of compassion and empathy towards his hired taxi driver, played by Jamie Foxx.
Sometimes you have got to 'pity' Tom Cruise. Year after year, he's hoping to get a shot at the elusive Oscar, ever since he got nominated for Jerry Maguire. Last year's majestic The Last Samurai saw his hopes of landing an Oscar nod take a blow as he was completely overshadowed by Ken Watanabe, who deservedly landed himself a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nom. Similarly this year sees Cruise taking on an uncharacteristically villainous character in Collateral in hope of fulfilling his wishes, and yet again he gets trumped by the more impressive 'supporting' performance of Jamie Foxx (strange, considering 'supporting actor' Foxx takes up more screen time than Cruise). God, he must really hate Foxx... not one but two acting noms in a year. At the end of the day, what Cruise has are just his 20 million bucks paycheck per movie to console himself with. Poor guy eh? I didn't find Foxx's role particularly memorable, so it is a surprise that he was nominated and will be a shock if he does get the gold for this show. The movie though, is masterfully handled throughout by Michael Mann, who in my opinion, deserves an Oscar nom more than Foxx for this film. A tight story, great action scenes, steady pacing and excellent chemistry between the two leads are all characteristics of this entertaining thriller. Even the much criticised ending, which I found was not that lame and unbelievable, fails to make this overall an enjoyable movie experience.
Who should watch: Anyone who doesn't believe that Tom Cruise can actually act 'evil'
Who shouldn't watch: Taxi drivers who do night shifts
Rating: 7.7