"Most people - same job, same gig, doing the same thing 10 years from now. Us, we don't know what we are doing 10 minutes from now."

Movie
Otherwise known as "the other movie Jamie Foxx did this year," Jamie Foxx plays Max, a cab driver with big plans of starting up his own business. One night, when making his rounds, he picks Vincent (a graying Tom Cruise). Vincent offers Max six hundred dollars if he will drive him around for the night. He says he has much business to accomplish, but unbeknownst to Max, Vincent is actually contract killer. When Max finds out and tries to escape, Vincent inevitably holds him as a hostage.
Don’t get me wrong – Collateral was a fine movie. Michael Mann does nothing but good movies, but I guess I don’t see quite what all the fuss about this flick was. First of all, Jamie Foxx getting nominated for Best Supporting Actor was a joke. Maybe someone will disagree, but he was the star of this movie. Besides, his role wasn’t difficult. In fact, I liked it a little better the first time I saw Ethan Hawke play almost an identical role in Training Day. Seriously – any actor with any amount of talent could pull this role off. Tom Cruise plays a bad guy. While nobody is used to seeing Tom Cruise playing a bad guy, it still comes off the same. In fact, it came off as Tom Cruise playing the role of “Tom Cruise playing a bad guy.” I’m not a huge Tom Cruise fan nor am I a Tom Cruise hater. If you were to just view Collateral as a thriller, it would be top notch. Probably 5-10 good thrillers come out every year and I definitely view Collateral as one of the best thrillers that came out in the past year. It’s definitely not original nor is it unpredictable, though. Cruise is fine, Foxx is fine, and Jada Pinkett Smith is fine (in more ways than one, as usual). To me, it’s a movie you will watch and more than likely enjoy but completely forget about a week later. It reminds me a lot of the Italian Job. The first time you see it, you think it’s an absolutely great movie. Further viewing reveals that it’s not as clever as first thought. The performances, although solid, aren’t great. The direction and the camera work really are the only things that hold up as being terrific the second time you see the movie.

Video & Sound
This movie will keep you right between the legs! Do yourself a favor and don’t watch this movie at 2 AM in an apartment where you have to keep the noise down. You aren’t doing this movie justice. The look is very cool and very stylistic. In that aspect, it very much reminds me of Minority Report or The Bourne Identity. Absolutely one of the best looking films I have ever seen – no question about it! The sound absolutely rules. While some have complained that the surrounds are used as much as they seemingly should be, it didn’t bother me quite so much. I noticed that much like another Mann flick, Heat, the guns in this movie sounded better than almost any other movies I’ve ever seen. I simply cannot describe how part much you really felt like you were right in the action.

Closing Thoughts
A pretty good movie that comes close to greatness. If you are looking for the best popcorn flick of 2004, I would definitely put this ahead of Spiderman 2 and a handful of other “great” movies from last year.