2 hours edge-of-seat, great thrill ride

Rating: 8/10 (29 December 2014)

"Collateral" is a film that came out 10 years ago and is a definite contender for Tom Cruise's finest career performance (Vincent). It is basically a two-man show, similar to "Training Day", with the White guy being the bad guy however. Strangely enough, Jamie Foxx got the Academy Award nomination though, and what is even more strange is that it was in the supporting category. Foxx' Max was everything but supporting here. Without him, no movie. It is about a contract killer who forces a taxi driver to lead him through Los Angeles, so he can kill those five people he is supposed to kill.
This movie has only one real weakness. They wanted to go for a happy ending so bad that they just sacrificed all credibility for it. Max, a man who never held a gun in his hand, managed to kill a professional contract killer at the top of his game (what police officers and heavily armed bodyguards did not manage) while, at the same time, he has to make sure his future girlfriend won't get killed. And as if that was not enough already, he manages to take out a cop some minutes before. There are some other minor criticisms. For example, it feels too much of a coincidence how Ruffalo's character Fanning appears first at the crime scene early on and later stands in the elevator with Vincent and Max. Another one would be that Max' love interest does appear of course on Vincent's list. It's not really credible, but it's acceptable for the fun of the film and definitely not as bad as they screwed up with the ending. If they really wanted to go out on a high note they should have just finished without Vincent killing Max or they could have left the ending open. The real Max is the one who tries to throw something through the glass without success, clueless and inexperienced.
This movie has more than a handful truly tense and great scenes and references. One would be the Asian club scene with a great song playing there. Another would be the talk with Felix, although Max almost was a bit too much of a hero for me there. Then there is also the scene where those thugs try to get away with Vincent's suitcase, the subway reference, or the two cops who almost open the trunk. Very tense scene and I really wished they would just go away. In retrospective you also have to say that this movie has a brilliant cast. Foxx (actually that same year) and Bardem are Academy Award winners by now. Ruffalo looks likely to score his second nomination this year and Tom Cruise...well he already was a big star back then and still is today. Jada Pinkett is okay, but does not really have much to work with. Director Michael Mann worked with her husband on his previous project and got him a lead actor Oscar nomination.
I liked a lot how things kept going wrong in this movie from one second to the next. There were so many game-changing moments, such as the corpse who fell on the car, the flight at the hospital, Max' car crash idea, Fanning's murder and many more. Fanning's murder by the way was one of the highlights. You actually never knew, but hoped that he could save Max as he was the only one who realized what was going on. But nope, not with a guy like Vincent. Also, the relationship between Max and Vincent was interesting. It seems he lets Max live after the car crash although he killed his driver in the past and said earlier that people he works with should not see him. Apart from that, he helps Max many times in the film. He defends him when he talks to his boss. He kills somebody right before they can kill Max. He gets him back his purse. He tells him to call Pinkett's character etc. There seems to be some kind of connection, at least from Vincent's side.
This was already the third time or so I watched this movie written by Stuart Beattie and it is something that truly stays in the mind, much more than his work on "Pirates of the Caribbean". It's all the small components going together and one I did not mention already is probably that it plays pretty much in real time almost. We go through the night through various settings with Vincent and Max, settings that fit the whole atmosphere nicely. And what a journey it is. Highly recommended.