"Collateral" is the latest offering from director Michael Mann, who gave us "Heat", and most recently, "Ali". Much like Muhammed's opponents, this one was down for the count before the movie even started.
The film opens with Max (Jamie Foxx), a modest taxi cab driver who picks up Annie, a defense attourney (Jada Pinkett Smith), at which time they engaged in friendly conversation regarding the quickest routes, including a wager as to who would be right, which sets up Max's love interest/connection to Smith.
Enter a hitman by the name of Vincent, played by a silver haired, scruffy Tom Cruise. Vincent makes Max an offer which he can't refuse, no questions asked, which is the subseqent buyout of Max's trust and cooperation. As Vince is chauffered around town, all suspicions are confirmed that this won't be any ordinary shift, while the body count pile up, so do Max's fears.
Going into the movie expecting absolutely nothing, I was still interested in seeing how Cruise would execute his heel turn. Playing out much like a rogue version of Ethan Hunt, it wasn't much of a stretch from his "M:I" character. He wasn't as abrasive or sarcastic, and Cruise's attempts at reasoning, coupled with browbeating psychoanalysis with Fox, seemed ungenuine and pointless, respectively.
Jamie Foxx however was extremely refreshing. He played an excellent "Average Joe", who turned up the heat when need be in a very convincing, and sly manner. [SPOILER - highlight to read]: There was a scene in which he was sent into a Latino nightclub by Vincent, to pose as himself, and in Max's encounter, he went from nervous wreck to stone faced assassin in 3 seconds flat. His acting was the closest thing to "Collateral" as I could expect, in exchange for my for $5.25.
The story had potential. Quiet night, cabbie is approached by a hitman with a generous offer, and we watch what transpires. Instead, it's potential turned into monotony, with predictible outcomes, a character who takes the law into his own hands, and a cliche "suspenseful" ending to tie up lose ends, which is inevitable 1/2 through the movie. The ending was spoiled early. The one thing I can appreciate is Cruise's delivery of Vince's hits, deadpan expressions and nonchalant mannerisms, as well as the murder's visuals.
In closing, the movie was very basic. A unique storyline with poor execution, no twists, yet still commendable performances from the 2 lesser known stars of the film.
Last edited by Cory Chaos on Aug 6th, 2004 at 09:35 PM
cinemadiction is exactly right about this one.. saves me the trouble of writing much... a few other complaints with it [SPOILER - highlight to read]: the fbi just kinda disapeared and even though they had the license plate of the cab cops just cruised on by... and also vincent would of never missed him when shooting through the glass in the building and definantly not on the train..
i do wanna add that jamie foxx's performance was very good, and i liked mark ruffalo in it as well.. although i was disapointed because i saw[SPOILER - highlight to read]: jason stathom at the start but he never returned
[SPOILER - highlight to read]: Story:
Max (Jamie Foxx) is a taxi driver in Los Angeles. He picks up a person who is a good looking lady named Annie (Jada-Pinkett Smith) who is a lawyer. When Max drives her to her location he gets her number, then as you would think "it started just like anyother night". Until...he took a man named Vincent (Tom Cruise) to his destination and found out that Vincent wanted Max to drive him around to all these different destinations.
As you get to Vince's first destination, he shoots a man and he falls out of a window onto Max's cab. Then Vincent comes out to say to Max that he has a gun and he is a killer, making Max think that he will drive Vincent around to kill people.
The man that was thrown out of the window was named Ramone. There is an FBI agent that was supposed to meet him there who is named Ray Fanning (Mark Ruffilo) and finds out that there was a crime scene there, but doesn't know who the killer is...yet. After a while Max starts to get mad at Vincent when they meet Max's mother in the hospital. Max is supposed to see his mother everyday to make sure she is okay, and today he brought Vincent with him and she seemed to like Vincent more than she even likes Max. Max seemed like he wanted to leave so much that he stole Vincent's "Mystery Briefcase" and throws it off a bridge.
As it gets later that night, Vincent tells Max to go into a building looking for a man named Phoenix to get a chip to a laptop to find out who this one person is. Before he goes in, Vincent tells Max to say that he is Vincent because he said that he would meet Phoenix and Vince didn't want to go in there. When he gets the chip he goes off to a dance club to look for the man named Peter, which turns into a shooting spree.
Once Max gets so mad at Vincent that he crashes the cab and flips and gets very damaged while they are still in it. And as the cops come they find out that the body to the man who "fell" out of the window was in the truck and the cops start to get mad at Max and try to handcuff him. While this was happening Vincent had already ran away hoping he wouldn't get killed and going off to kill Annie. (while Vincent was in the cab, he was complaining because Max got Annie's phone number and never called her, and also said that "our lives are too short, who knows...she might be gone the next day...")
As Vincent is going after Annie Max finally calls her to tell her that Vincent is after her. As Max tries to save Annie Vincent is off to find her and is only 2 floors under her...what kind of twist could Vincent leave in his steps?
Pros:
This movie had an ending full of Twists and turns (in my oppinion). Tom played his role as Vincent like in his other movies like Mission Impossible. Jamie Foxx, I always thought was a comedian and he proved me wrong by making himself worthy of a Dramatic Role which he played great!
Cons:
They made the movie a little strached out and put more stuff in there than was needed. They could also have added more action to make it look as good as the trailer made it look.
The Bottom Line:
Collateral was a great movie that anyone who is in for a thriller would enjoy!
Rating:
**** out of ****
4 stars out of 4 stars
Last edited by BadKitty on Aug 9th, 2004 at 08:32 AM
You may as well have, given you gave the movie away all the way through the final 10 minutes [SPOILER - highlight to read]: on the Metro. I don't care, personally, since I already reviewed it, the way it should be done..
i might have spoiled a little at the end of the review but i told the story maybe i could have entered spoiler tags like when [SPOILER - highlight to read]: vincent was in the building right under annie and stuff like that, but come on things happen!
Plot out the synopsis, introduce the main characters, exploit the main conflict without spoiling the story, weigh the pros and cons, then wrap it up with a concise, closing paragraph with which you either sell or bunk the movie.
Last edited by Cory Chaos on Aug 9th, 2004 at 04:38 PM
How did you get into a R rated movie..lol. I'm not expecting anything out of you, my man. But if you're going to try and review a movie, just say what the movie was about, what you liked, what you disliked and that's all.
KMC Community Forums
"Collateral"
Aug 6th, 2004 09:24 PM
