Collateral

It started out like any other night until Tom Cruise turned up. But how wild is this ride?

For Max (Jamie Foxx), an LA based cab driver, it started out like any other night until Vincent (Tom Cruise) offers him a bumper payday for sticking with him for the night as he makes five stops around the city of angels. What's the worst that could happen? Well Collateral turns out to far worse than whatever terrible scenarios advertising executives can dream up for Doctor Peppers' latest series of commercials. Things take a turn to the wild side and the ensuing couple of hours provide us with one of the best thrillers to have emerged for some time.

If you're looking for a comparison the closest thing I can come up with is Speed, but ditch the cheesy acting and throw in the biggest player in Hollywood, Tom Cruise, and now we're in business. Collateral sees a pair of role reversals for its two leading men as Cruise ditches the good guy image to play a cold blooded hitman and Jamie Foxx plays it serious and lays off the wise cracks. With Michael Mann in the director's chair we are presented with a slick piece of movie making that has more thrills and spills than a rollercoaster. It looks like Andre 3000 got it wrong when he asked 'What's cooler than cool?' because it sure isn't ice cold, it's Collateral!

Jamie Foxx plays Max, a Los Angeles cabbie who has been on the job for twelve years all the while dreaming of a better life. The night was like any other until he picks up a beautiful woman in the form of Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith), a federal prosecutor; they click and as he drops her off, she gives him her business card. Things seem to go from good to better as Max's next customer, a well dressed businessman, offers the cabbie a wad of cash for taking him around the city to make five stops that evening. Unbeknownst to the taxi driver beneath the cool façade and expensive suit his passenger is far more vicious than a top notch lawyer and has less remorse than a kleptomaniac, Vincent is in fact a killer for hire.

His five stops are five targets and due to Max's knowledge of the city's streets and traffic fluctuations, he thinks he'll have everything wrapped up in record time. However when his first hit goes awry Vincent is forced to hijack the cab and forces Max under gunpoint to drop him off at his four remaining stops. As the night continues the wheels begin to come off the hitman's plans as his unwitting co-passenger proves to be rather reluctant to be an accomplice to his crimes. With the police in hot pursuit and their tense relationship cracking at the seams, will Vincent be able to carry out his contract or can Max stop him in his tracks? Collateral turns out to be one heck of a ride and is more entertaining than any whacked out cabbie that you've ever encountered.

The best thing about the film is the wonderful relationship that exists between Max and Vincent; the emotional connection between Cruise and Foxx's characters proves to be quite dynamic and is topsy turvy to say the least. Vincent starts off as this cool and confident individual that enters the daydreaming cabbie's world. He immediately begins to find fault with Max, querying him as to why he is still stuck in the same dead end job after twelve years and he even eventually has a chat with the cab driver's mother. The best way to imagine this hitman is as your best friend who has just come over to dinner; he's calm, collected and knows all the right buttons to push, knowing just what to say to your parents to keep you in the good or bad books.

However Max comes out of this awkward situation and starts to undermine Vincent, chipping away at his apparent lack of humanity and even throwing a spanner into his meticulous plans. It's like watching an unstoppable force hit an immovable object, this finally gives us an answer to the age old question. Both characters are forced to adjust and by the end of the movie each individual come full circle and in terms of personality they are almost totally unrecognisable. This is all completely engrossing to watch and highly reminiscent of the wonderful interplay between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Heat.

It's hard to find any faults with this movie, it's that damn good! Michael Mann has just raised the bar by another few inches and all those hoping to emulate all of his good work had better pull out all the stops if they're going to try and outdo him. As Vincent works his way through his list of targets the tension gradually builds until we're almost at breaking point, each of the assassination scenes outdo each other despite their completely different makeup. Only one sequence, I think it's the third target, is slightly disappointing but it does give Max more time to develop as a character. We've got shootouts, tense face-offs and Tom Cruise at his dirtiest as one-by-one each of the victims are marked off. Max gets gradually more involved as the film progresses because Vincent threatens to kill innocent bystanders if he fails to cooperate in any way; having invaded the cabbie's world, Max is left exposed and struggles to cope with what's going on around him. By the time the final intended victim is revealed the situation rams home into Max's mind and things somehow step up another notch. Collateral has such a great climax and despite being the bad guy Tom Cruise manages to come out smelling of roses, can anyone say Oscar?

Collateral is for Tom Cruise what Training Day was for Denzel Washington; this is truly award winning stuff as Cruise gives a fantastic performance that shatters the mould of his typical roles. Sure his character Vincent is a bad guy but you just love to hate him, he oozes charm and charisma like some seedy punter chatting up chicks in a nightclub. Not only does his character stand in complete contrast to the majority of his previous roles in terms of psychological make-up, but also in physical appearance.

Most stars worry when their looks begin to fade but if Vincent is anything to go by then Tom Cruise will have no qualms because he is so striking as this silver fox, with Cruise's trademark smile it's time to lock up you daughters folks! The standout performances don't stop there either, of all the comedians in the world who would have thought that Jamie Foxx would make one of the most successful transitions to the big screen as a serious actor. So far most of his characters have retained some part of the comic's nature such as Steamin' Willy Beamen, the jive talkin' quarterback, in Any Given Sunday or Drew 'Bundini' Brown, Muhammad Ali's cheerleader, in Ali.

However in Collateral Foxx completely goes against the grain playing Max, a rather subdued and straight-laced LA cab driver. The comedian shows that he's more than a one trick pony and Hollywood is sure to sit up and take notice, it's been said that Will Smith has been looking for some serious roles and he's going to be kicking himself for missing out on this one! I also have to give a brief shout out to Mark Ruffalo who pops up out of nowhere again, completely unrecognisable from his last appearance. This truly is the man of a thousand faces; Superman has nothing on him because this guy can do it all: straight-laced, bad-assed or anything in between, Ruffalo is probably the most versatile actor out there at the moment.

For the first time in my life a taxi has got my blood pumping and nerves wracked for a good reason rather than having me pulling at my hair because of some exuberant charges. Cruise and Foxx are absolutely tremendous in this and if Training Day's success is anything to go by then Tom might have extra reason to be smiling when next year's Oscar nominations come rolling around. Vincent proves to be the coolest assassin around since Martin Blank in Grosse Pointe Blank and leads us through some exciting sequences which show off his deadly skills. Even if gunfights aren't your thing, Collateral is packed full of psychology and keeps your nerves on edge.

Piaras Kelly
Editor, Kikizo Movies