A compulsively watchable movie that takes what could have been a standard-issue thriller and makes it feel thrillingly alive...
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
Cruise makes a believable bad guy, surprisingly menacing and completely convincing as a hard-hearted killer.
The dynamic between cabbie and killer is at the heart of this one, and though there are some great foot chases and gunfights, it’s the little details that make it work.
A summer film for grown-ups, delivering verve and intelligence along with its pulsing visuals.
Collateral, even though cowboyed up with implausible action in a couple of pivotal scenes, is that rarest of thriller. In this one, words can also kill.
Where Mann makes it his own is in his sharp, clean execution, visceral action scenes, and images saturated in the hyperintense colors of the neon and florescent night.
Somewhere along the way, the gimmick and suspense had worn out leaving the only real gray matter as the product coloring Cruises’ hair.
It's too bad that halfway through, Collateral turns into a series of loud, chaotic, over-the-top action set pieces in which the existentialist Mann proves he's lousy at action.
Mann puts Collateral through its paces so elegantly that even the most predictable scenes deliver a wallop.
the West Coast answer to Scorsese's ('After Hours'): Both movies are soaked in urban moodiness and disillusionment... rough-edged, often jarring and emotionally elusive...
Collateral crackles with energy and purpose, a propulsive film with character on its mind and confident men and women on both sides of the camera.
Intense and unflinching, it's paralyzingly seductive and suspenseful.
Intriguing how each of 2 characters, wholly different in temperament, transferred some traits to the other within a single night.
Collateral is an engrossing thriller set in Los Angeles about a procrastinating cab driver whose life is transformed by his encounter with a merciless hit man.
Yet Mann finds a way of easing into this material; you appreciate his professionalism even as you roll your eyes.
Cruise thrills in his first killer role and has found a worthy collaborator in director Michael Mann.
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