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750 comments in total

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228 out of 280 people found the following comment useful :-
Thank you God, for Noir has Returned!, 3 September 2004

Author: searchanddestroy23 (searchanddestroy23@lycos.com) from New York, NY

One of the most beautifully crafted movies of the past 10 years. Why this movie is going by with very little publicity is beyond me. It has incredible screenplay, incredible directing (Michael Mann puts his trademark two cents in with the camera work and gritty feeling left from the lighting) and above all, great acting. Foxx and Cruise work together in a way unrivaled since..... Excellent story with little or no plot holes I could find. No cheesy lines, although the ending was quite rehashed from other suspense thrillers. All in all, this movie exceeded my expectations for a summer movie.

Pros:Excellent Acting, Screenplay, Plot, Script, and Directing Cons: Unoriginal Ending, seems a bit overly dramatic.

9.5/10

This was quite a beautiful movie.

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140 out of 172 people found the following comment useful :-
Mann's stylish view of a blue lit, dark LA in a rare character driven (action) film, 8 August 2004
Author: torsotheclown

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Dirty, sun baked, sprawled, crowded... LA generally has its soul borne to us in sunsets and palm trees, highways and high-rises. Michael Mann and his creative eye for detail and engrossing storytelling style showed us a different Los Angeles. One of soft lights that spill from their street lamps, blues that mix with whites and mingle with greens. His veteran hand having wrought films such as HEAT and Ali, Mann delivers a beautifully created film, which compels the audience to not just watch and listen, but to be a part of the film, and to truly challenge the characters brought to life on screen.

Tom Cruise plays Vincent, a cold contract killer in LA for a single night of hits. Through an interesting course of events, Max (Jamie Foxx), a timid cab driver who lives on dreams never full realized, gets pulled into the whirlwind of murders as the driver for a hired assassin. The majority of the film is just that, Max and Vincent. Cruise drowns himself in the role, training in weapons handling for months beforehand and plays Vincent as a cobra, a natural killer of lightning reflexes and sudden violence. A contrast to Nathan Algren of The Last Samurai, Cruise plays a morally flexible man of questionable scruples quite well, characterizing a dystopian apathy well. Foxx gives a terrific and serious performance as Max, showing well his growth through the film. Also uncharacteristically heavy, the character of Max was a challenge well met by Foxx. The admiration between the two characters is evident only via the actor's incredible performances and without such subtle and silent respect for each other, the characters (and thus the film), would fail.

A modern Film Noir, Collateral starts with a smooth beat and never skips until the final notes. Music choice is excellent, flowing into and out of the smooth and extremely choosy camera work. Without interrupting the scene, the music simply adds to the pressure and tension. The first shots of the film set its tempo; a combination of quick shots of characterization, tearing tiny pieces of meaning from a whole, and large, smooth panning shots in filtered digital, lighting in even blues smoothing all of LA's rough edges, present the film immediately as a piece to be taken in. Los Angeles is presented in all of its sprawling, seedy glory as a ponderous, living, breathing and dangerous American Hell in the most beautiful way in years. Stylized artwork in the film results in beautiful scenes of high contrast, the medium gray of Vincent mixing with the blues, blacks and whites of the background and mis en scene to create compelling visuals. The smart dialogue, written by Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean), is short, often witty and has a knife fight nature of quick cuts and ripostes. Mann's camera continues to bring the audience into the movie, slipping us into the cab to nearly intrude on the dialogue between Vincent and Max as they explore each other's limits over a series of threats, philosophical discussion and guidance in a setting so tense it nearly quivers.

For most of the movie the audience never sees the action, only the Vincent and Max. Their growth is incredible, Mann coaxing amazing performances from his leading men. Masterful use of the camera, well written dialogue and incredible acting take a movie in which nothing happens, no explosions, no thunderous gunshots, no huge arguments or fanfare, and presents it as perhaps the most compelling and intriguing film in recent years.

A macabre relationship develops between Vincent and Max which leads into sibling rivalry, relationship and life advice, moral guidance and general discussion of life which is an area generally left to close friends to breach. Poetic scenes involving an understated fight for motherly affection and a question of morality of the hows and whens to kill lead to an intense relationship that seems to bond the two men. In terminus, the two realize their admiration for the contrasting aspects of the other man and the resultant event is a confrontation, a skillfully manufactured climax. The most compelling aspect of the film is not the content but what that content means. As Max and Vincent explore each other and developed, their conversations pose questions and begin to form inquiries in the minds of the audience. Some answers are the easy ones; others are much harder to come to resolution with. There is no right answer to any of them.

Never losing momentum, the film inexorably pushes onward through its motions, the audience running after it attentively. The third act of the film comes after a climactic gunfight and seems almost a let down until once again we are at home with Max and Vincent in the cleanest cab in LA. A series of quick twists deliver a more conventional final piece of the film, hurtling toward a final confrontation. It can not be emphasized how different the final part of the film is from the former pieces, nor how important it is to the film in its entirety. An interesting and intense crime drama, Collateral delivers in a way few films have in many years and will leave you walking away from the theater wondering at the significance of the film.

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137 out of 188 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the Best movies I've seen this year, 16 December 2004

Author: Leafsman_69 from Windsor, Canada

Who would have ever thought that Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise would be an on screen duo? Well it has happened in fine fashion. Michael Mann's articulate direction and his obsession with nitetime LA have made this film fast paced an smooth looking. The basic plot revolves around Foxx as a cabbie who catches a stroke of bad luck by acquiring Cruise as a passenger. Cruise turns out to be a hit-man who is picking people off as his temporary employer sees fit. A wild ride through LA's nightlife gives way for a journey of self-realization for Foxx (whom dreams of his own limo company and tropical islands). The slick script and sophistication of the plot and character development always keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Although this movie has received good ratings, I feel that the film is slightly overlooked. Collateral serves as a great model for how thrillers should be made, and it delivers a great breakthrough performance by Foxx. Well Done!

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117 out of 150 people found the following comment useful :-
Taut thriller led by Cruise's excellent work., 7 January 2005

Author: actorman_us from Los Angeles, CA USA

For the better part of his career, Tom Cruise has played the All-American good guy. Gleaming eyed and bushy tailed, Cruise has played the roll of the hero in many films and is certainly the richer for it.

Something happened along the way, though. Cruise wanted to be considered a legitimate actor, rather than merely a "movie star." Therefore, we've seen him go against type, successfully (MAGNOLIA), and not so much (THE LAST SAMURAI). It's as if Cruise is the neglected kid in the back of the classroom who knows all of the answers but is never called upon, and therefore will go to desperate ends for attention. "Oh, Oh!! Pick me!!! Pick me!!!"

For me, Cruise hit it this time. His character in COLLATERAL is a menacing study in coldness. It is a thoroughly believable depiction of an utterly ruthless hit-man. It seems, finally, Cruise is actually BAD, rather than merely acting bad. He disdains his usual tricks in favor of a simple and very real performance.

Let us not forget Jamie Foxx. His character's transformation into a hero is rendered all the more effective by how wonderfully Foxx captures his character's initial impotence and bewilderment. It's a wonderfully effective, energetic, and yet very subtle performance.

Special kudos to Michael Mann. He has a very interesting eye when it comes to capturing the city of Los Angeles on film. His vision of L.A. in this film is one of unease and uncertainty, hardly the usual glitz and glamor treatment. This work is always compelling to the eye and paced to keep the action moving ever forward. Each scene has its own logic, contributing to the overall whole. This is first rate film-making.

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106 out of 146 people found the following comment useful :-
A Masterpiece, 25 February 2005

Author: daytony94 from United States

Collateral is a masterpiece of American cinema. Jamie Foxx is Max, a Los Angeles cab driver with dreams of his own limo company, "Island Limo". After twelve years on the job he has become quite gifted at discerning the most intimate details of his passengers' lives... just a glance at their clothes, and he knows.

His worldly insight manages to tear down the defenses of one of his passengers, a State Attorney played by Jada Pinkett Smith, who graces him with her phone number. Max hasn't even begun to revel in the pleasure of possessing the beautiful attorney's digits when he gets his next passenger, Tom Cruise as Vincent, a slick hit-man in town for a night of killing.

When a body drops out of a fourth story window and onto Max's cab, he becomes an unwilling partner on Vincent's murder spree. Director Michael Mann (The Insider, Ali) does a masterful job manipulating texture and tone throughout the movie, taking us to settings as diverse as a junkie's apartment, a penthouse, a hospital room, and a smoky jazz club, all the while making the city of angels a central character in the story.

The soundtrack is also excellent, with a mixture of popular music and ambient tracks perfectly-timed and synced to the story... tribal drumbeats during the chase scenes, haunting rock ballads at pivotal moments, and one track that reminded this viewer of the scene at the other end of Tom Cruise's career, when he drives his father's Porsche out of the garage in "Risky Business" to the accompaniment of a thumping synth track. A bizarre side-note, I know.

As the movie builds to a climax, the police are hunting for Max, believing he is the one on a killing spree, and Vincent stalks his final victim in a blacked-out high-rise office to a backdrop of the brilliant LA skyline, reflected in multiplicity by the office's dozens of glass cubicles.

Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, and Jada Pinkett Smith all rise to the occasion in Collateral, and together they transcend their previous appearances on film. Mark Ruffalo gives a good performance as the cop who knows everything is not what it seems.

There are a few minor plot points which didn't sufficiently suspend my disbelief (like when Max agrees to take Vincent the vicious hit-man to see his Mother in the hospital), but overall this is a fantastic movie.

Troy Dayton

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65 out of 84 people found the following comment useful :-
Best buddy team of the year., 5 August 2004
Author: John DeSando (jdesando@columbus.rr.com) from Columbus, Ohio

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Michael Mann successfully directed 'The Insider,' 'Manhunter,' and the 'Miami Vice' TV series. Tom Cruise's work in 'Magnolia, ' 'Minority Report,' and 'Vanilla Sky' shows his interest in stretching his acting experiences. Not surprisingly, then, their 'Collateral' can be placed next to 'Manchurian Candidate' and 'Bourne Supremacy' for best of the 2004 thriller race.

'Collateral' is as slick and tricky as you'd expect from director Mann, whose Hannibal Lecter 'Manhunter,' with great acting by William Petersen and Brian Cox, is a classic of the serial-killer/disturbed cop genre. In 'Collateral' Mann has a special interest in character development with Cruise playing a gray-haired hired assassin and Jamie Foxx a hapless but humane LA cabbie forcibly hired to chauffeur Cruise on a string of hits over the course of one night. Cruise is cold and barely vulnerable as the night moves on; Foxx slowly learns how to grow from the ordeal, even finding potential love from a fare prior to Cruise. Unlikely as they may seem, the two are my nominees for best buddy team of the year, far and away smarter and more amusing than Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson in 'Starsky and Hutch.'

Part of the insightful screenplay by Stuart Beattie ('Pirates of the Caribbean') is the interplay that lets Cruise's Vincent helpfully assess Max's (Foxx) aspirations to run a limo business when he's been at the preparation for a futile dozen years. Similarly, Max leads Vincent into a discussion of life's meaning, specifically the insignificance of human lives, a topic of some interest to a hit man. The language is taut and minimalist, just right for an evening of clandestine contract murder. When Max comments about one of the hits, 'You just met him once and you killed him like that?' Vincent replies, 'What? I should only kill people after I get to know them.' The bard also made murder a literate topic when his Hamlet said, 'For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak/With most miraculous organ.' The film is not miraculous, but it speaks engagingly.

One of the victims involves the two leads in a jazz club, where Vincent shows his considerable knowledge of the music and heartlessness for his victim. The sequence underscores Vincent's attraction to improvisation, which a night of mishaps brings into relief. Nice motif.

Just as Sophia Coppola made Tokyo seem like a glittering rest home in 'Lost in Translation,' Mann transforms the noirish L.A. into a neon nirvana with aerial shots that soften the ragged, undistinguished architecture. The city never looked this good at night from a helicopter.

No collateral damage to your brain to see this modern film noir.

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50 out of 56 people found the following comment useful :-
Tom Cruise - Better than I thought!, 10 July 2005

Author: mafster from South East of England

This film could be a major turning point in Tom's career. He plays Vincent with cold-blooded charm. It is wonderful to watch a character stay flawless throughout an entire film and not be OTT with Hollywood FX etc. The dialogue between Vincent and Max is brilliant and the tug of hate they exchange brings out some chilling truths.

I love the way this movie has been filmed. It almost shows you the dark side of LA as well as the dark side of life.

The soundtrack cruises through the film beautifully. It is well timed at crucial scenes and when the film is done, you just want to buy the soundtrack to listen to.

Everyone that I have recommended this film to have been well pleased. However, Tom Cruise was sensational in this film and I was never keen on him. This film sits high in the rankings table for me and I am telling those who haven't seen it - YOU MUST!

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48 out of 58 people found the following comment useful :-
The best performances yet from Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx...an excellent film, 19 August 2004

Author: Andrew DiMonte (ThatIsNoArrow) from My House, Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

'Collateral' features the career best performances of two seemingly different actors: Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. Cruise is a heavy-hitter; every one of his movies usually makes good dough, and a lot are good. Foxx, up until now, has been reduced to your typical funny black guy roles in nearly every one of his movies. When you hear their names mentioned for the same movie, you don't think it's stupid or impossible, just that the product movie will be some sort of run of the mill, action/comedy buddy picture.

When I first read the synopsis for 'Collateral' I thought I knew what it would be like: a PG-13 action comedy that is more concerned with A) getting stuff blowed up good and B) setting its characters up as very cool instead of very complex. It only makes sense…I mean; Adam Sandler was in Foxx's role for a while before dropping out.

Anyway, I was wrong, and glad about it.

The plot follows Max (Jamie Foxx), a quiet, mild-mannered L.A. cab driver that knows all the best routes in town. This becomes clear early on in a tender scene where he picks up a lawyer (Jada Pinkett Smith) and they bet on whose routes will get them to her destination faster. On the way they talk and get to know each other, and we get to know Max. Sure, Smith's character has significance later on, but this scene would be just as important if she didn't.

Max's next fare is Vincent (Tom Cruise), a grey-haired, hard looking real estate agent who, judging by his facial hair, looks like he spent his last two days on an airplane. He convinces and pays Max to drive him around to his five real estate deals that night. Max is reluctant, but Vincent is a fine-looking guy so he accepts.

The next thing that happens is a surprise. If you have somehow managed to dodge all information on this film then don't read on.

While parked in an alley waiting for Vincent on his first job, a body suddenly falls onto the top of Max's cab. Max is shocked, and when Vincent appears in the alleyway he cries for help. Vincent is cool and unaffected though, and he explains to Max that he is not, in fact, a real estate agent but a hit man, and Max is his getaway driver, whether he likes it or not.

What follows is a complex character study and a simple thriller packed into one night, most of which takes place in a cab. Vincent and Max start off at odds, and though they do not become friends, they gain a deep understanding of each other as the night goes on. Vincent constantly tells Max his world view, that if we're all just specks on a dot in the universe, who cares if one person is murdered? Max ignores this and realizes that Vincent 'lacks the standard parts that others have'. Vincent also analyzes Max…he tells him that he talks and does not do, that he's spent his life planning but taking no risks. They trade their analyses in a later scene that's supremely directed and acted.

The film is mostly a cab ride/conversation between the two leads, which breaks occasionally to show us the cop on pursuit (Mark Ruffalo) and some of Vincent's hits, and Irma P. Hall as Max's mother in a scene that's funny and revealing. We also have Barry Shabaka Henley as a jazz club owner in a scene that's possibly the film's best, it's suspenseful, heartbreaking, and practically tears open Cruise, Foxx and Henley's characters.

And what characters this movie has! Vincent is one of the screen's best villains; he's cool and menacing, but also very complex. He seems like a sociopath murderer, but he's more than that, and you can see the pain inside when he's mistaken as one. He's humanized when he is around people he likes, like Max and Henley's nightclub owner. He has elements of other famous villains, like Henry Fonda's Frank character from 'Once Upon a Time in the West' and Orson Welles' Harry Lime from 'The Third Man'. And just as Harry Lime has his famous cuckoo clock speech, Vincent has his own speech, about a man dieing on a subway train and not being noticed for hours. Cruise executes his character perfectly; it's both his finest character and his finest performance.

But the film would die without both the Max character and Jamie Foxx. Max is just an average guy with his own dreams and goals and flaws, thrown into a desperate, dangerous situation forcing him to thwart a man he fears. He tries and tries for the whole night, tearful and shaky by the end, and he has an awesome scene where he turns the tables on Vincent and puts himself in control of their duo, causing Vincent to flip out.

The movie is directed perfectly, with silences and cinematography that capture the emptiness of the night. Michael Mann manages to make the streets and skyscrapers of L.A. beautiful, both his direction and the grainy cinematography is worthy of an Oscar.

This is one of the year's best films, and with hope it will be up for many Oscars, including Cruise and Foxx in the leading categories. Cruise and Foxx both mastered their roles, this is the best acting I've seen in years, it'll be a crime if the Academy doesn't honor them (especially after nominating 'Training Day', a movie with a very similar plot line that wasn't nearly as complex a character study).

Another magnificent aspect is the ending. I wont spoil it, I'll just say that Vincent finds out the answer to the question, 'Who notices?' The symbolism of this scene is delicious, and it is emotional, dramatic, exciting and perfectly acted. A must-see, this is one of the best movies in a long while, 8.5/10.

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42 out of 51 people found the following comment useful :-
Cruise control is outfoxxed!, 28 June 2005

Author: Captain_Peroxide from Sheffield, England

It is hard to lavish enough praise on the acting on display here from the two main protagonists. Jamie Foxx shows signs of the charisma and ability that made him a cert for the best actor Oscar for Ray. Meanwhile Tom Cruise is a sheer revelation as the psychotic but professional hit-man Vincent.

Cabbie Max (Foxx) picks up Vincent (Cruise) expecting just another job. When Vincent offers to double his nightly earnings if he drives him all night he accepts, until Vincent's mission is revealed. What follows is a night of hell for Max, reluctantly driving Vincent from hit to hit, all the while trying to stay alive and do the right thing, two goals which may ultimately be unachievable together. What is most fascinating about Cruise's character though is the sheer indifference he shows towards his victims. He does not hate them, he doesn't even know them, he has just been assigned to kill them and does so with absolutely no remorse. When a body crashes on to his cab, followed by Vincent's re-appearance, Max is shocked by the answer to his accusatory 'you killed him!" - No, I shot him, the bullets and the fall killed him." This matter-of-fact approach is indicative of Vincent's professionalism, and adds a really chilling level of apathy to the character.

It is certainly refreshing to see Cruise in such a different role, and it is one which he really gets his teeth into, producing a sociopath contract killer, seemingly with no remorse and no redeeming qualities. He pulls it off with a genuinely sinister edge on the character, and the final half hour is particularly impressive from an acting point of view.

Jamie Foxx however is certainly by no means acted off the screen. His likable cabbie with relaxed attitude to life (well, until he meets Cruise) shows many of the qualities he used to really bring Ray Charles to life later.

The action too is well staged by Michael Mann, in probably his best work since Heat. It is easy to track the action through the relatively simple plot, and the set piece scenes are competently done without being spectacular. A very good above average thriller, but most notable for Cruise's revelation of another string to his acting bow. A superbly acted film.

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53 out of 73 people found the following comment useful :-
Stylish film noir, 3 October 2004

Author: Chris Docker (eyeforfilm) from Scotland, United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Over-used scenes on the subway and cat and mouse in a tall office block and comparatively minor flaws in what is otherwise a superb thriller from director Michael Mann (who made the similarly evocative 'Heat'). The story revolves around a taxi driver who is pulled into the tangled web of a trained assassin, much against his will. It is shot in DVD which enables Mann to produce very rich colours at nightime - not like the garish or washed out colours that are often what you get with celluloid night time shoots. It helps to produce a visually succulent but also very lovingly portrayed Los Angeles. The scene in the jazz club is so convincing you actually feel Miles Davis was there - and the subtext about jazz as a metaphor for life is one of the gems in what is generally a very tight script (about structure - but the important thing being the spontaneous melody that lies *behind* the tune). But the over-riding impact is from Tom Cruise, playing one of his memorable characters since his cameo in Magnolia. His performance is so convincing - he could be a role model for that type of bad guy.

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