Director:
Michael Mann

Cast:
Tom Cruise
Jamie Foxx
Jada Pinkett Smith
Javier Badem

Official URL:

http://www.Collateral.com

Country: USA
Rating: R
Studio Name: Dreamworks Pictures
Running Time: 2 hr 20 mins
Release Date: August 6, 2004

Critics's Rating:
(3 1/2 Reels) 

August 6, 2004

By Veronica Mixon

Michael Mann, director of Manhunter, Ali and The Insider, gets better and better as a filmmaker. He loves a good story but mostly Mann loves to explore people -- their motives, the way they live and the things that they do which explain their personalities. Like many of his past films, Collateral unfolds slowly, wonderfully, as we ride through the night with Los Angeles cabby, Max (Jamie Foxx). He’s a steady guy with a dream of his own limousine business and he knows the best way to maneuver the traffic of the LA streets as dusk turns into night better than anyone. So, when Vincent (Tom Cruise) offers him $600 to be his personal chauffer for the night, Max cautiously accepts. Of course, this turns out to be a problem. Vincent is a hit man dressed like a lawyer and he boldly dispatches his victims with icy perfection. His mission is to kill five witnesses in a major drug case in one night and when Max realizes what’s going on – the first victim crashes into the cab’s windshield – the intensity is raised to the nth degree. Now Max is a hostage and forced to help Vincent.

Collateral looks like your typical buddy movie with a black and white guy from different places butting heads but this time the two men are truly at odds. Vincent is sleek, efficient and nearly invisible with steel grey hair and in his gray-tone suit. Most people do not suspect trouble. Furthermore as Max rails in disbelief, Vincent taunts him for his under achievements. When the two share a drink with a jazz musician (Barry Shabaka Henley), Vincent turns on the charm and lulls his mark, Max and the audience into a false sense of calm. We like Vincent until he goes to work with shocking efficiency. Certainly Max wakes up and realizes that he muster finally muster some courage because he’s life is on the life.

There are some fine performances in Collateral. Jada Pinkett Smith (Matrix Revolution) appears as an overworked, insecure U.S. attorney who stumbles into a mild flirtation with Max. Javier Bardem is excellent as an angry drug dealer that has a confrontation with Max and Mark Ruffalo (In the Cut) delivers another fine performance as a street wise cop. Tom Cruise may be changing his good-guy image with dark, more evil roles (remember Lestat in Interview with a Vampire) since he’s reached maturity and has achieved great success. But, the true surprise is Jamie Foxx, who turned an acting corner a few years back with he starred in Oliver Stones’ Any Given Sunday. Certainly when you work with the best people in the business, the opportunities are astounding and creating the hard-working, sad-sack dreamer, Foxx proves that he has the dramatic chops for just about anything.

Collateral may have the usual obligatory ending, however, the drama and performances that Michael Mann created in the first two-thirds of the film is first rate. Cruise and Foxx are very good together. The characters that they play annoy one another to such an extent that the sparks between them ignite into genuine human emotion. They are buddies and enemies at the same time.

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