What I like and dislike about "Collateral" (2004)

Rating: 5/10 (9 June 2005)

What I like about the movie:
Michael Mann loves Los Angeles and it shows  the nighttime LA is one of the film's true stars and director uses quite a few helicopter shots to show it's beauty and magnificence. Film looks and sounds great  Mann is known for the great soundtracks in his films.
Beginning of the movie was promising: Before Vincent (a hit man with five targets) hops in the cab; Max (the cabbie who gets hired by Vincent for the night) picks up Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith). They talk about their lives, their dreams. He guesses quiet accurately what she does for living; he's got good observation skills and sense of humor. The chemistry between Foxx and Pinkett Smith is undeniable.
Cruise and Foxx both act wonderfully in the movie. I actually went to see it because I wanted to see Cruise as a ruthless bad guy who made killing people his full time job. Both, Cruise and Foxx play against their types, and it works for both of them.
There's one splendid supporting role - a jazz club owner played by Barry Shabaka Henley. The scene between him and Cruise is, IMO, the best on in the move.
What I did not like:
Where this film fails miserably is in its plotting  too many coincidences, and the movie relies on them too much. I guessed the end of the movie after first ten minutes  and it was correct.
There's an absurd nightclub sequence when people keep dancing even when the whole hell turned loose. Nothing would stop them from dancing, not even gunfire and dead bodies next to them.
The ending also belongs to the much inferior movie  with obligatory cell phone go low on battery. Cruise character's determination which is more like obsession brings to memory the crazy Nazi character played by Malcolm McDowell in The Passage (1979)  and that's not the best territory to dwell.
Overall, it was a disappointment  the movie that I wanted to like by director whom I admire with Tom Cruise playing against his type.