World Famous Comics: Collateral (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Collateral (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg Directed By: Michael Mann Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Dreamworks Video Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: December 14, 2004 Running Time: 120 minutes Theatrical Release Date: August 06, 2004
Amazon.com: Collateral offers a change of pace for Tom Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted thriller. It's from Michael Mann, after all, and the director's stellar track record with crime thrillers (Thief, Manhunter, and especially Heat) guarantees a rich combination of intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles, during which he will execute five people in a 10-hour spree. While Stuart Beattie's screenplay deftly combines intimate character study with raw bursts of action (in keeping with Mann's directorial trademark), Foxx does the best work of his career to date (between his excellent performance in Ali and his title-role showcase in Ray), and Cruise is fiercely convincing as an ultra-disciplined sociopath. Jada Pinkett-Smith rises above the limitations of a supporting role, and Mann directs with the confidence of a master, turning L.A. into a third major character (much as it was in the Mann-produced TV series Robbery Homicide Division). Collateral is a bit slow at first, but as it develops subtle themes of elusive dreams and lives on the edge, it shifts into overdrive and races, with breathtaking precision, toward a nail-biting climax. --Jeff Shannon
Good I watched this movie four times this week already, since it first premiered on DVD (saw it three times at the movie theaters). I have to admit ... I saw "HEAT" eight times at the movie theaters (my personal record), so you can say that I'm "biased" towards Michael Mann's films. His characters are always so REAL, and rich. I never feel like I'm watching stereotypical movie characters. I feel like I'm "peeking in" on someone's life. That's how I felt with Max and Vincent. They seemed so real to me. Most "hit man" roles don't seem real to me, but the character of Vincent did, as played by mega-star Tom Cruise. Jamie Foxx almost stole the movie though with his best performance to date, with the possible exception of "Ray." I loved everything about this movie, and his performance, particularly when he went to meet up with bad guy "Felix." That scene was CLASSIC. This movie gets FIVE STARS in my book. It's one you will want to watch over and over again.
Good I heard the plot outline and thought to myself this doesn't have the makings for a good movie. Why would a hit man choose a cabbie to drive him around? Why would this be interesting? But, I had similar thoughts before seeing "The Insider" - why would a movie about a corporate whistle blower be interesting. Now, "The Insider", along with "Heat", "The Last of the Mohicans", and "Manhunter" are some of my favorite movies. After seeing Collateral, I surprisingly really didn't have a problem with the issue of why a hit-man would have a cabbie drive him around from hit to hit. But, it didn't live up to other Michael Mann movies that I love. It seemed like a long version of an RHD episode. If you want an entertaining movie, this will suffice. If you want Michael Mann at the top of his form, this isn't it.
It remains superficial gray rather than noir This film is not particularly rich as for the content. A professional killer has been hired to eliminate all the witnesses and even the cops and other prosecution personnel in some criminal case. Banal. He does not want to drive his own car and he does not want to hire a car and an accomplice to drive him around. So he comes at night and just hires a taxi and its driver. That makes him difficult to trace. But that creates some problems because the taxi-driver is not really willing to do the job. And then the two are like mutual prisoners or custodians. One cannot work without the other and one cannot escape from the other. Yet the taxi-driver, after a long series of killings, finds the courage to cause an accident which means the arrival of the cops, but that also means the discovery of the first body that had been put in the trunk and the taxi driver's discovery that the next and last target is the woman he had transported just before this embarrassing and invading client. He decides to escape from the cop who is trying to arrest him, and who was alone on his car patrol, and to prevent the killing of the girl. He will even go slightly further. But that's not the main interest of the film. We could have predicted all that from the very start. Then it's only details. The interest is the rhythm and the twists in the fabric of the tale. In fact it is economical in blood and even bullets because it centers on the psychological profile of the taxi-driver and the relation he establishes with his customer. Strangely enough it is more psychological than we could have expected and that saves the film from banality.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Los Angeles CAN be beautiful I don't want to hype this movie too much but rather try to put everything in perspective that people are complaining (or not) about. First the movie: Collateral is a great film with plenty of action & suspense. What makes this movie is the fact that it takes place completely at night - not that this is so unusual but it's in an urban environment (LA) and Michael Mann (Director) managed to film this in a way that has not been done before. The way LA looks at night - there's just something about it and it's right here. Some reviews complain about things like "the cab drives around with a heavily dented roof and never gets caught" - but honestly, how many people would notice that on a cab at night? The viewer gets wrapped up in the story easily, and both Cruise & Foxx deliver great performances (and I'm not a fan of either one of them). Bonus disc has some very nice features also.
LA Plays Itself Tom Cruise got a lot of favorable press at the time of this film's release for playing an unredeemed and unredeemable killer. He is good, to be sure. You won't quickly forget his steely, relentless hitman. He's like demon from an icy hell. Still, while not exactly a one-note performance, he takes a back seat to Jamie Foxx (literally AND figuratively) in this taut thriller. Foxx, of course, has the advantage of portraying a Mensch, not a psychopath. You feel for him every moment he is in the clutches of Cruise's madman. And just when you think he might get out, he always gets sucked back in. It is as nightmarish a scenario as any horror film.
Even the predictable elements (like the fact that Jada Pinckett Smith's character will somehow wind up getting embroiled in the mayhem) are fraught with twists and turns. Her involvement ups the ante for Foxx's taxi driver hero Max. He has already proven himself more resourceful and resilient than viewers might have guessed at first. By the end of the film, Max proves himself more than the killer's equal, matching him manoeuvre for manoeuvre.
At the film's beginning, Max is revealed as a cab driver who knows Los Angeles like the proverbial back of his hand. He can tell you exactly how long it will take to get from one point to another in that sprawling city. Affable and modest about his talents, he nonetheless conveys quite early on that, in the contest of wills with this murderous outsider, he will prove to have home turf advantage.
And what a home turf it is. As many have stated, LA by night is as much a character in the film as the two principles. It's seamy glamour has seldom been better portrayed. Contemporary Los Angeles takes on an almost surreal, foreboding aura. It's like BLADE RUNNER, without the sci-fi elements. That creepy. And that good.
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