There are many things to enjoy, from Tom Cruise’s surprisingly authoritative performance to the unpredictable plot.
Collateral (2004)
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Reviews Counted:221
Fresh:191
Rotten:30
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Another taut and stylish thriller by Michael Mann.
Theatrical Release:Aug 6, 2004 Wide
Box Office: $100,003,492
Synopsis: Three-time Academy Award® nominee Tom Cruise ("Magnolia," "Jerry Maguire," "Born on the Fourth of July"), Jamie Foxx ("Ali," "Any Given Sunday") and Jada Pinkett Smith ("The Matrix Reloaded," "The... Three-time Academy Award® nominee Tom Cruise ("Magnolia," "Jerry Maguire," "Born on the Fourth of July"), Jamie Foxx ("Ali," "Any Given Sunday") and Jada Pinkett Smith ("The Matrix Reloaded," "The Matrix Revolutions") star in the thriller "Collateral," under the direction of three-time Academy Award® nominee Michael Mann ("The Insider"). 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. Jada Pinkett Smith stars as United States Attorney Annie Farrell. Rounding out the main cast are Mark Ruffalo ("In the Cut"), Peter Berg ("Cop Land"), Oscar® nominee Javier Bardem ("Before Night Falls") and Bruce McGill ("Runaway Jury"). A co-production of DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures, "Collateral" is being produced by Michael Mann and Julie Richardson from a screenplay by Stuart Beattie. Frank Darabont, Chuck Russell, Rob Fried and Peter Giuliano served as executive producers. -- © DreamWorks [More]
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jamie Foxx, Mark Ruffalo
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jamie Foxx, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Javier Bardem, Bruce McGill, Irma P. Hall
Director: Michael Mann
Director: Michael Mann
Screenwriter: Stuart Beattie
Producer: Michael Mann, Julie Richardson
Composer: James Newton Howard
Studio: DreamWorks Distribution LLC
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Reviews for Collateral
Collateral is the best kind of genre filmmaking: It plays by the rules, obeys the traditions and is both familiar and fresh at once.
[T]he most deliciously intoxicating Mann movie yet, slippery cool and brashly elegant, fresh and furious...
an intriguing, if predictable, ...story that benefits strongly from an everyman performance by Jamie Foxx and a dead on, chew the scenery supporting perf by Mr. Cruise
an intriguing, if predictable, ...story that benefits strongly from an everyman performance by Jamie Foxx and a dead on, chew the scenery supporting perf by Mr. Cruise
It's straight-up entertainment, not something to see and then talk about a month later, but definitely something to enjoy.
A sort of dud-brained Taxi Driver on the slick streets of Los Angeles rather than the steaming streets of New York.
Cruise has almost nothing going for him this time around in the way of props, and even less than usual in the way of character.
The best thing Mann brings to his picture is a strong sense of time and place.
Collateral isn't a shockingly original motion picture. But the strength of the lead performances and the stylish direction of Michael Mann obscure the weaknesses in plotting and credibility.
Unfortunately, Mann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie aren't content to settle for a psychological thriller, they want their action, too, and that's where the movie begins to go completely awry.
It looks terrific (as usual), and even when the movie doesn't make much sense (pretty much all the time) it is addictive.
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