Review of Collateral

Just saw the movie Collateral with Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Cool, cool, movie. Directed by Michael Mann, who created the Miami Vice TV show, but produced in a darker, suspenseful style, unlike the music video pacing of Miami Vice, with an inherent humor rather than the brazen cheesiness of Don Johnson.

Collateral is about an assassin, Tom Cruise, who gets into Jamie Foxx's cab and forces him to drive Cruise to his hits. The story revolves around Foxx's struggles to resist Cruise's control, understand the nuances of the situation, and try to escape or prevent further deaths. This is an action movie, with guns and cars and cops and Cruise, but it's also a great story about a man's goals in life, his ambition and his free will. It's a philosophical movie, using events to question and explore life's meaning.

It was interesting to me how Cruise's character, Vincent, used semantics to disassociate himself from the responsibility of his actions. One line he used was, "I didn't kill him; I shot him. It was the bullet and the fall that killed him." Vincent projected an air of unaffectedness, laying a rap on the taxi driver about how inconsequential human life is, and yet if he truly believed that I doubt he would feel the need to compartmentalize his feelings about it, wouldn't need to rationalize it.

It's been a long time since I've seen an action movie that was first and foremost a compelling story. There was no point in the movie at which I thought, wow, cool special effect. Instead, I was thinking, oh, that's funny and omigod and what happens next? The movie pulls you in and there are no sour notes to ruin your suspension of disbelief. No that's just wrong or he can't do that! or he wouldn't do that.

The movie opens with Jada Smith getting in the cab and engaging Foxx in a conversation that deftly conveys the character of the taxi driver. Foxx is quite believable as a working man with integrity, with ambitions that he hasn't risen to achieve. Jada Smith, with only her face and voice in the backseat to draw on, establishes her character with expressions that reveal the impression Foxx is making on her.

This movie has humor, action, suspense, contemplation and a look at the power dynamic between an assassin and his unwilling accomplice, all wrapped up in a slick production that displays good cinematography, acting and sound.

Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Bruce McGill and Debi Mazar are faces you'll recognize in the supporting cast.

If you want a summer movie that's easy to watch and leaves you with thoughts to ponder afterwards, check out Collateral. No empty calories.


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