I have seen several movies with Tom Cruise in them over the years. I have enjoyed most of those movies that I’ve seen. I’m not really a huge fan of his. I don’t automatically want to see a movie just because he will be in it. There are some of his movies that I haven’t seen, and I didn’t like some of them. I really didn’t like Vanilla Sky. I thought that The Last Samurai was better, but it isn’t one of my favorite movies either. I thought the previews for Collateral looked interesting, so I decided to see it.

Max was a cab driver in Los Angeles. He worked nights. He had plans to start his own business and was only driving a cab to save up the money to start the business. He took pride in his job and in having a very clean cab. He knew his way around the city well, and knew which routes would be faster for his customers. He actually got into a little disagreement with one woman, Annie, about that. She told him a certain way to go, and he said his way would be faster and avoid traffic. They had a nice talk during the drive and seemed to start to connect a bit. Annie was a prosecutor and she was heading back to her office to prepare for a trial that was starting the next day. She ended up giving Max her business card when she left the cab.

Vincent was Max’s next fare. Vincent and Max chatted a little on the way to where Vincent was going. Vincent was impressed with how fast Max got him there and made Max an offer. Vincent said he was in town to close a real estate deal and he needed to see some people to sign some papers and then be on a flight out at 6:00 a.m. Vincent offered Max $600, which was more than he would normally make in a night. Max said no at first, but then changed his mind. He parked the car in an alley to eat while waiting on Vincent. Then a body landed on the top of the cab.

Max was freaking out, but Vincent was very calm when he showed up. Max then figured out that Vincent had killed the man. Max didn’t want anything else to do with Vincent, but Vincent wasn’t going to let Max get away at that point. They continued on to Vincent’s second stop. Max wanted out of the situation, but he was dragged deeper into what was going on. Max tried to figure out how to stop Vincent and save the other people he was after. The police and FBI figured out what was going on and they started trying to find Max and Vincent.

CAST

Tom Cruise - Vincent
Jamie Foxx - Max
Jada Pinkett Smith - Annie
Mark Ruffalo - Fanning
Bruce McGill - Pedrosa
Javier Bardem - Felix

Collateral was directed by Michael Mann. The movie was two hours long and rated R. This is not a movie for children of any age.

Collateral was an interesting movie. I have seen some other movies that had a hitman as a character, but this movie was a bit different. Max got pulled into Vincent’s world and had some extreme circumstances to deal with. The movie took some time to establish Max’s character before Vincent showed up. Max and Annie met during that time, and had a nice conversation. There wasn’t anything really exciting going on, but it wasn’t boring to me. Some people might feel differently about that part. There were a few slower scenes later in the movie that featured some other conversations. Those scenes did add to the characters. There was a lot going on in the movie, and it was fairly fast paced. I wasn’t bored by what was going on.

Vincent was in town only to kill certain people. He killed several people during the movie, including some people that weren’t on his list but some how got in his way. There was a lot of shooting throughout the movie. It wasn’t shown on camera all the people that Vincent shot, but most were shown. Vincent did fight with a few men at one point. He was good at fighting as well. The movie was violent. Dead bodies were shown at different times. Some of them were in worse shape than others. The movie could be too violent for some people. Anyone who doesn’t like to see violence in a movie should avoid this one. There were a few lines in the movie that were a bit funny. Those helped to lighten the mood a bit.

There were several things that happened in Collateral that I didn’t expect. I did know from the previews that Vincent turned out to be a hitman. There were some other things that happened that I didn’t expect. I don’t want to say specifically what those things were since that would be spoiling things for people who haven’t seen the movie yet. There were a few things that happened that I thought were predictable. Near the end, Vincent had one more person on his hit list. That person happened to be all alone on one floor of an office building. Vincent headed to the building to take care of the last person. What happened after he got there was a lot like similar scenes that happened in many other movies. It was a typical scene with someone running from a killer. That scene was a little predictable, but it didn’t bother me that much.

The acting in Collateral was very good. Jamie Foxx was very good as Max. He was believable in the part. He didn’t over react to the extreme circumstances he found himself in. This was the first serious part I’ve seen Foxx play. I think he did very well with the part. I do know that he’s been in some other movies where he played serious parts, but I haven’t seen any of them. I did see him on In Living Color and a few silly movies he was in. Tom Cruise was very good as Vincent. He’s never played a part like this before. I think he did very well with the part. Jada Pinkett Smith didn’t have as much to do as Foxx and Cruise did, but she was very good in her part of the movie. Mark Ruffalo played the cop that started to figure out what was going on. He was good in the scenes he had. Bruce McGill turned up in a few scenes as an FBI agent. He had very little to do. He’s had bigger parts in some other movies I’ve seen him in.

CHARACTERS

Max - He was a cab driver that dreamed of starting his own limo company. He wanted everything to be perfect for the business. He took pride in having the cleanest cab around. He did what he could to get his passengers to their stop faster. He wanted to do the right thing.

Vincent - He was a hitman in Los Angeles to kill some people. Vincent took his job seriously. He wasn’t bothered by the fact that he made his living killing people.

Annie - She was a passenger in Max’s cab. She was a prosecutor. She was heading back to work to prepare for a trial that was starting the next day. She seemed to like Max.

Collateral was a violent, but entertaining movie. Fans of Tom Cruise should see this one.

Related Reviews
Exit Wounds ~ Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde ~ Matchstick Men ~ Runaway Jury ~


Recommended: Yes