Collateral

Year: 2004

Running time: 120 minutes

Certificate: 15

Language: English

Screenplay: Stuart Beattie

Director: Michael Mann

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo

Dave.

Vincent's night is not going to plan.

Michael Mann is probably one of the best directors around when it comes to making slick, tense crime thrillers, so you can be pretty sure even before Collateral begins you'll be in good hands from start to finish. It takes a moment or two to get over being asked to accept Tom Cruise as a cold-blooded killer, so it's a testament both the director and actor that after a few minutes of him onscreen you're no longer consciously watching Tom Cruise, but his character Vincent, and you have little doubt that he is every bit the remorseless assassin. More surprising than this however, is Jamie Foxx, previously stand up comedian, as Max, the cabbie unlucky enough to get stranded with a psychotic killer for the night. He's very believable as an average person facing extraordinary circumstances, and his grounded performance is truly superb.

There's relatively little in the way of plot - Max is a taxi driver with ambitions to be something more, who is struck by Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith), a fare he gets one day. Later that day, against his better judgement he agrees to take Vincent's offer for a fare for the night. It doesn't take long to notice that Vincent has multiple stops where he intends to assassinate different targets. Fanning is a cop played by Mark Ruffalo on the trail of bodies left behind by Vincent. There's not much more to it than that, but this leaves plenty of room for Mann to find ways to wind up the tension - see a visit to Max's sick mother and a conversation with one of the victims in a jazz bar for two of the most striking examples. The film continues to wind the tension up a little more scene by scene, until in true Michael Mann style the action explodes in a thrilling gun battle in the middle of a crowded nightclub.

The music, sound and especially the cinematography are outstanding - I could watch those gorgeous birds-eye view shots of LA at night for hours on end.

Unfortunately, the film goes off the boil a little once the characters leave the claustrophobic confines of the cab, but that's to be expected and unavoidable. Also, the contrived, predictable coincidence of Annie being Vincent's final target is a little too much, but when the overall effect is so dazzling, these are minor quarrels indeed.

Not as good as Heat, but then again, very little is.

Score: 8/10

Rachel.

Max is most definitely a man in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

When I remember watching this film, the thing that stands out most in my mind is the darkness, with the night time setting and the whole movie taking place within the course of a single evening. This darkness echoes the content of the story (assassination), which works really well. Supporting Dave's comments, Tom Cruise plays a blinder and forgetting the actor in real life and his previous roles, you find it easy to buy into him as a cold-blooded killer.

All in all a great looking film with an entertaining story. Definitely worth a watch!

Score: 7/10

Joshua at Cinemablend thinks much the same, as does Colin at Empire.