Collateral

Collateral (2004)

Runtime: 120 minutes

Directed by: Michael Mann

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg

From: Paramount/Dreamworks

Note that I decided to revisit Collateral BEFORE the Academy Awards happened this past Sunday.

There is a backstory w/ me and this movie. I hadn't seen it since a theatrical experience... in the middle of nowhere Massachusetts the day after a relative was married in Cape Cod. True story; I had unexpected free time and as a cinema was by the hotel and Collateral seemed the most appealing out of what they were showing... A big reason why I hadn't revisited the movie for discussion here and elsewhere: I more liked it then loved it. As that's an unpopular opinion, I never pulled the trigger until last night, despite several opportunities to do so. This was also a DVR watch as this was one of quite a few movies I recorded the few days earlier in March I had HBO and Cinemax channels for free. Later in the review I'll mention what it was back in '04 that made me downgrade the movie as a whole and whether or not my opinion has changed almost 18 years later. The fact that Jada Pinkett Smith has been in the news cycle since the Oscars is a big reason why this was watched last night instead of sometime in April.

Sure, the premise of an assassin having a taxi driver ferry him around to various spots in Los Angeles while the assassin murders FIVE different people does strain credulity, at least a bit. Then again, Tom Cruise's villain character Vincent isn't the most plausible in general. Then again that's just nitpicking and as I usually dig Michael Mann quite a bit, I'm willing to go on this long cab ride. For certain, Cruise and Jamie Foxx are great in their roles, along w/ their interplay w/ each other. Foxx is definitely likable while Cruise is a complex bad guy. The early digital look that Mann used did not age as bad as I feared. There are many nice shots of Los Angeles and I dug the music-whether it be the score, the soundtrack, or the jazz heard in one scene.

Unfortunately I still don't love the plot. What disappointed me at the time was that there was at least one opportunity for our hero to get the hell away from the bad guy-as in, a nice apparently viable opportunity-and yet it doesn't happen. The second time around I saw even more story-related things that I was not a fan of, which I won't spoil. Still, it's not a major deal that my opinion of this is not as strong as many others; that doesn't change my take on the greatness of Heat, Thief or Manhunter. Oh, and I should mention that the supporting cast featured people I knew in '04 (Jason Statham apparently playing his Transporter character in a cameo, Smith in a small yet memorable & critical part, Peter Berg, Bruce McGill) and those I didn't (Mark Ruffalo, Javier Bardem).

It's not a movie I regret seeing a second time; I am just pretty confident that there won't be a third.