Movies Home / Entertainment Channel / Bullz-Eye Home
Buy your copy from Amazon.com
| Collateral (2004)
 
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Bruce McGill Director: Michael Mann Rating: R Category: Action/Thriller  |
Opening with the monochrome DreamWorks and Paramount logos, audiences will quickly discover that “Collateral” is a lot darker than most summer films. Directed by master-of-suspense Michael Mann (“Heat,” “The Insider”), “Collateral” is an edgy film noir that presents an intense character study of good and evil with all the right ingredients and an almost perfect execution.
Max (Jamie Foxx) is an obsessively meticulous cab driver with dreams of owning his own limo service. One day, a beautiful passenger (Jada Pinket Smith) enters his cab and they share a casual conversation like a couple of timid lovers in a Howard Hawks film, but the real relationship begins when she leaves and silver-haired Vincent (Tom Cruise) steps into the backseat. Vincent has five stops to make over the course of the night and offers Max $700 for his services. But after his first stop ends with a dead man crashing down onto his cab, Max realizes that the seemingly laid-back businessman actually makes his trade as a hit man. Forced to usher him around the city, Max watches Vincent hunt his victims through the lighted streets and filthy alleys of Los Angeles, keeping one eye on the nervous driver and the other on his next target.
Mann creates long, beautiful shots of the cab driving through the city night while his two stars engage in conversations full of quick-witted banter and streaks of sudden violence, slowly building up to the story’s conclusion in a desperate race against the clock. Cruise models the perfect villain that is both charmingly sinister and psychologically engaging, but Foxx wins more screen time and ultimately takes the audience by surprise with his best dramatic role to date.
Foxx continues to mature with each new role he brings to the screen, building off his critically-acclaimed performance in “Redemption,” and has finally proven he can be a classy Hollywood actor with the kind of talent that wins Academy Awards for men like Denzel Washington. “Collateral” steers clear of the usual overblown action-extravaganza until its slightly disappointing conclusion, but a few bumps in the road won’t ruin this dark and suspenseful ride that is well worth the fare.
~Jason Zingale
jzingale@bullz-eye.com