A great surprise

Rating: 10/10 (9 October 2005)

I watched both Insider and Collateral, and I didn't like any of them very much. Mann's directing style was too hard to get for me. So I was not expecting too much in the way of directing in this movie, but was I blown away! The direction is great, none of the shaky hand cam stuff from Insider and not too much L.A. shots like Collateral.
Then it's not Tom Cruise neither. It's Pacino and De Niro, and they do what they do best. The hardened criminal and the worn-out obsessive cop. They even get some screen time together, although little. But this is good, since having them together all the time would... I don't know, ruin the effect.
The supporting cast is great. Pacino's wife and De Niro's girlfriend do a great job showing how normal women would react to their dysfunctional men. The smaller roles are great too. Fichtner is a bad guy, Tom Sizemore and Val Kilmer criminals, and Ted Levine does a really horrible ogre-like psycho.
The score is good, sometimes almost hypnotic and trance-like.
* Spoiler Warning * The movie also contains the best and most realistic shootout in movie history.
*/Spoiler* A must see for, well, everyone. Even if you didn't like Mann's other movies, I assure you that this is different, better.
Marvellous. 10/10