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
(20 votes)
2.
Three-time Academy Award® nominee Tom Cruise ("Magnolia," "Jerry Maguire," "Born on the Fourth of July"), Jamie Foxx ("Ali," "Any Given Sunday") and Jada Pinkett Smith ("The Matrix Reloaded," "The Matrix Revolutions") star in the thriller "Collateral," under the direction of three-time Academy Award® nominee Michael Mann ("The Insider").
Max (Jamie Foxx) has lived the mundane life of a cab driver for 12 years. The faces have come and gone from his rearview mirror, people and places he's long since forgotten...until tonight. Vincent (Tom Cruise) is a contract killer. When an offshore narcotrafficking cartel learns they're about to be indicted by a federal grand jury, they mount an operation to identify and kill the key witnesses, and the last stage is tonight. Tonight, Vincent arrived in L.A...and five bodies are supposed to fall.
Circumstances cause Vincent to hijack Max's taxicab, and Max becomes collateral-an expendable person in the wrong place at the wrong time. Through the night Vincent forces Max to drive him to each assigned destination. And as the LAPD and FBI race to intercept them, Max and Vincent's survival becomes dependent on each other in ways neither would have imagined.
Jada Pinkett Smith stars as United States Attorney Annie Farrell. Rounding out the main cast are Mark Ruffalo ("In the Cut"), Peter Berg ("Cop Land"), Oscar® nominee Javier Bardem ("Before Night Falls") and Bruce McGill ("Runaway Jury").
Max (Jamie Foxx) has lived the mundane life of a cab driver for 12 years. The faces have come and gone from his rearview mirror, people and places he’s long since forgotten…until tonight. Vincent (Tom Cruise) is a contract killer. When an offshore narco-trafficking cartel learns they are about to be indicted by a federal grand jury, they mount an operation to identify and kill the key witnesses, and the last stage is tonight. Tonight, Vincent arrives in L.A….and five bodies are supposed to fall.
Circumstances cause Vincent to hijack Max’s taxicab, and Max becomes collateral—an expendable person in the wrong place at the wrong time. Through the night Vincent forces Max to drive him to each assigned destination. And as the LAPD and FBI race to intercept them, Max and Vincent’s survival becomes dependent on each other in ways neither would have imagined.
(14 votes)
4.
Tom Cruise delivers an Oscar-worthy performance in the heart pounding, pulse racing action thriller, Collateral. Also starring Jamie Foxx, this gritty, riveting, in-your-face "knockout" (Newsweek), is being hailed as "a wild ride" (Entertainment Weekly).
(15 votes)
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