Review of Collateral (2004) by Hoops2448 — 14 Oct 2011

Collateral is one of those films that tries to be brilliant (and comes pretty close too) but ends up shooting itself in the foot. The film tells the story of Max (Jamie Foxx) an LA cab driver who unfortunately picks up Vincent (Tom Cruise) and agrees to take him around LA all night.

Vincent has 5 stops but Max soon discovers that at every stop Vincent is killing people. This starts a cat and mouse series of events all in the space of one cab as Max continues to drive Vincent around.

The concept is a good one and its handled by director Michael Mann with his signature over the top action but its also very subdued and allows the actors to add certain elements to their characters that a popcorn action film would not.

In fact Tom Cruise has one of his best performances as Vincent, a very intelligent and sadistic portrayal of someone we really should hate but through his actions we end up not being able to look away.

The reason that Collateral narrowly misses brilliance is that Mann seems to lose focus at the end of the film with everything that made Collateral great (the confined space, the tense conversation and the occasional dead body) disappearing in favour of a, simply put, stupid ending which employs the cliched Hollywood ending with a big chase but it does it with so little care for specifics (unlike the rest of the film) that it just seemed incredibly rushed and as if no effort was put in at all.

Collateral has all the hallmarks of a brilliant film but thanks to the ending it feels like a summer popcorn flick with no heart. My advice, turn it off at the car crash (you'll know which one) and imagine an ending that doesn't make you want to shout at the screen.