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Collateral with Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith

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Synopsis of the DVD Movie: Collateral with Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith

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.

DVD Movie Rating for: Collateral

DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews Rating 3 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Collateral

Max (Jamie Foxx) works as a Los Angeles cab driver, but is a struggling comedy writer. One night he realizes that the passenger he's been driving around all night, Vincent (Tom Cruise), is a hit man who has been killing people at each stop he dropped him. Max need to figure out a way to prevent Vincent from knocking off his last victim and get out of the situation alive

DVD Production Details of: Collateral

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx

Director: Michael Mann

Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Release Date: December 14, 2004
DVD Features:
Number of discs: 2

Collateral DVD Easter Eggs

None

Cast of the movie: Collateral

Photo Gallery of the movie: Collateral

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size high quality photos, posters and wallpapers of Collateral
Photo Gallery Collateral with Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith (2004)
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wallpapers Collateral with Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith (2004)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Reviews of the movie: Collateral

While Tom Cruise doesn't always feel the love from the critics, I often find myself defending him to naysayers. This zillionaire is not afraid to work with superstar actors and big-time directors. And now in 'Collateral' he's trying something new. Here's the All-American hero dying his hair gray, sportin' some facial hair, filling out a stone-cold gray suit, and shifting into villain mode. What's going on with the Toms lately? First Hanks is a hitman in 'Road To Perdition', now Cruise is a contract killer in 'Collateral'. Playing a heel---not to mention a heel who shoots people for a living---is a risk for a virtuous Hollywood leading man. Maybe it was the right choice. Cruise has never been the most relaxed actor anyway and here he gets to play a cold, calculating paycheck player.

Does it work? Here and there, from time to time. I respected Tommy's December '03 Oscar bait, 'Dances With Samurai', but didn't particulary enjoy it or get much out of it. For such a high-class production, the film left no mark. Even though the marvelous Michael Mann directs 'Collateral', this film has the same shrug-inducing problem. [Plus, the star is upstaged by the guy sharing the screen, as he was by Ken Watanabe in the samurai flick.] Jaime Foxx is just better than Cruise---more believable, anyway---although the megastar is compelling in this uncharacteristic role of a clear-cut bad guy. The classic protagonist/antagonist relationship is satisfactory, despite the preponderance of Deep Conversations we've heard a thousand times before. It's a drag that the Stuart Beattie script repeatedly lets them down.

The story itself is a screenplay conceit. We're supposed to believe that Vincent (Tom Cruise) is a phenomenal hitman who scoops big money for his services, even though he recklessly tears Los Angeles apart in his quest to gun down 5 witnesses in an upcoming federal trial. [A nuclear bomb would be quieter than this guy.] Max (Foxx) is a neat-freak cab driver who dreams of running a limo service on a tropical island. Vincent gives Max a handful of Ben Franklins to be his personal driver for the night. That's not a bad pitch for a movie. It's evil versus good when the killer kidnaps the cabbie. But it would be a dull story if Max drove Vincent around all night and had no idea what was really going on, so he has to find out about it sooner or later, right?

Make that sooner. And, please, somebody tell Beattie that it's not polite to box the director into a corner with this version of "sooner". You've probably seen the trailer where Cruise's first victim crashes down onto Foxx's cab. If the villain wanted to perform his murdering tasks without the innocent cabbie knowing anything about it, surely this high-priced pro would find a way to be more discreet than to put 3 slugs in a guy standing near a window. But then Foxx would remain in the dark and there'd be no movie. Trouble is, no story point flows naturally because the script is always getting in the way.

Cruise has got to be the most unprofessional hitman in the history of movie hitmen. I buy that he'd kill anyone who gets in the way (he's mighty quick with that gun, after all), but he makes as much of a mess as De Niro and company do in the bank robbery scene in Mann's wonderful 'Heat'. Vincent survives a nightclub bloodbath that he creates and breaches every code of conduct in the hitman guidebook (which should be available for purchase on Amazon.com in 2008). First of all, there's no way he would let Max live so long. The cabbie tries to escape once or twice, which is a definite no-no. He gets directly involved in Vincent's business, yet doesn't get bulleted for it. Sure, the actors get to savour some quiet moments and they even try to mess with each other during a psychological analysis late in the picture. I just didn't believe a killer would put up with the uncooperative hack all night long. If he's such a problem, grease 'im.

Jada Pinkett Smith and Mark Ruffalo are about the only other actors who register. Mrs. Big Willie is Annie, an attorney working on a huge case. She's lovely in an opening tete a tete with Foxx. Their chemistry is even better than the Cruise/Foxx formula. When she leaves that cab, I was wishing she'd get back in. To hell with this assassination story. Let's see what sexy trouble Max & Annie could get into. Ruffalo, meanwhile, is a streetwise detective who seems to have a sixth sense about what's going on---of course, no other cop believes him---and he smartly pieces together that all the dead bodies are connected. Still, as good an actor as Ruffalo is, his part could have been eliminated at no major expense to the story.

Mann gives the flick a stylish edge, of course. He's always had a beautiful sense of visual composition. His storytelling could be snappier, though. There's probably no reason other than indulgence that this isn't about 15 or 20 minutes shorter. The two-hour movie would have been more impactful if directed by a pulp great like Samuel Fuller, who would have accomplished the same thing (probably more) in about 90 minutes. There's not as much suspense as there could be. If Vincent was played by a more naturally menacing actor, the threat of sudden savagery might be more bona fide. As it is, the film just paces along as the cab diligently makes its way through the L.A. night to its underwhelming conclusion. Everybody is trying their best to make this movie a thrilling experience. Perhaps they tried too hard...

The whole concept of "collateral" is not fully explored. However, Mann is a smart enough director to let us fill in some blanks. It's not a subtle point that by the time the major players have met in a dark office building, the story has come full circle. You might even say to yourself, "hey, this is where we came in". The climax is pure slasher flick with Cruise as Michael Myers or some such unstoppable machine. If the story sucks you in, you'll probably wonder what I'm complaining about. Think about this, though---there's no logical reason that Vincent's last target should BE a target.

It's a close call, but 'Collateral' just isn't worthy of a recommendation. Mann, Cruise, and Foxx hit most of the right notes, but Beattie the scribe surely does not. Or maybe Mann directed a good script into the ground. In either case, Beattie is content to litter the road with a deus ex machina every 20 minutes or so, which is one of the laziest things a writer can do. You'd think controlling filmmakers like Mann & Cruise would have demanded one more rewrite to iron out the "oh, come on" moments. No doubt, they should have hit the floor and prayed for divine aid to tighten up the saggy screenplay. After all, what's the harm in wishing for one more act of God to get out of a big hole the screenwriter has put you in?

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.

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Last Modified: 10-Jul-2011 12:24