Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Vincent is a cool calculating contract killer at the top of his game. Max is a cabbie with big dreams looking for his next fare. This fateful night max will transport vincent on his next mission - one night 5 stops 5 hits & a perfect getaway. Together they find themselves in a non-stop race against time. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/22/2006 Starring: Tom Cruise Jada Picket Smith Run time: 120 minutes Rating: R

Amazon.com:
Collateral offers a change of pace for Tom Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted thriller. It's from Michael Mann, after all, and the director's stellar track record with crime thrillers (Thief, Manhunter, and especially Heat) guarantees a rich combination of intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles, during which he will execute five people in a 10-hour spree. While Stuart Beattie's screenplay deftly combines intimate character study with raw bursts of action (in keeping with Mann's directorial trademark), Foxx does the best work of his career to date (between his excellent performance in Ali and his title-role showcase in Ray), and Cruise is fiercely convincing as an ultra-disciplined sociopath. Jada Pinkett-Smith rises above the limitations of a supporting role, and Mann directs with the confidence of a master, turning L.A. into a third major character (much as it was in the Mann-produced TV series Robbery Homicide Division). Collateral is a bit slow at first, but as it develops subtle themes of elusive dreams and lives on the edge, it shifts into overdrive and races, with breathtaking precision, toward a nail-biting climax. --Jeff Shannon

Rating : - Opposing Forces Collide on the Streets of L.A.
Director Michael Mann (Manhunter and Heat) is well known for being a precise and methodical filmmaker. He often focuses on minute but important aspects of both the story and the characters therein, which has earned him the reputation of being an "actor's director". This unique interaction between Mann and his cast is exemplified in the suspense film, Collateral, which features an impressive cast of actors, all of whom give naturalistic and psychologically complex performances. The story, about a cab driver who is forced to drive a hitman around the city of Los Angeles while he assassinates his targets, is quite literally driven by its vividly realized characters. These characters, who are three-dimensional and feel almost familiar, are brought to life by an all-star cast. The cast includes Tom Cruise as Vincent, Jamie Foxx as Max, Jada Pinkett Smith as Annie, and Mark Ruffalo as Detective Fanning. Each member of the cast gives a great performance, especially Jada Pinkett Smith and Mark Ruffalo, who aren't what would be considered the main characters and yet they create memorable personas. But the real scene-stealers are the performances of Foxx and Cruise, whose characters are dynamic despite being polar opposites.

Vincent is a slickly dressed, cold and calculating hitman, who has buried his emotions for years in order to make himself a more efficient killer. Max is an obsessive-compulsive, perfectionist of a cabdriver, who has allowed his lifelong dreams to slip by because he lacks the confidence and the initiative to make them a reality. But on one fateful night, these two strangers' lives will collide and neither will be the same.
When Vincent asks Max if he will drive him around the city while he makes five stops, Max is at first hesitant and unsure... until Vincent offers him $700. But during their first stop, while Vincent is inside of an apartment complex, a body falls from the balcony and comes crashing down onto the roof of Max's cab. It immediately becomes clear that Vincent has killed the man and Max knows that he has now essentially become a hostage. As Max is forced to drive Vincent to his remaining stops while Vincent assassinates his targets, the two share conversations and begin to see each other for who and what they truly are. This has an effect on the both of them, though a different effect. As Max becomes more assertive and confident, Vincent is reintroduced to his more human side. Meanwhile a narcotics detective named Fanning is tracking down Vincent because he knows that someone's responsible for the deaths of certain witnesses for the prosecution of a major drug trafficker named Felix. And it is Felix that has hired Vincent to eliminate these witnesses. It's not long before the FBI becomes involved and they believe that Max is the killer, not Vincent who they don't even know exists.
Soon Max is angered by Vincent's general disregard for life and he is empowered by the realization that he does have some control over what happens to him. When Max discovers that Vincent's final target is a beautiful criminal prosecutor named Annie, who Max had befriended earlier in the evening, Max is forced to race Vincent to save her. Max, the passive cabbie is pitted against Vincent, the sociopathic contract killer. Yet on this night anything can happen.

Collateral gave Michael Mann the unique opportunity of shooting a film in Los Angeles after dark and he delighted in showing audiences a side to the city that they may not have known existed before. Using, predominantly, a Hi Def digital camera, he creates a vision of Los Angeles that is simultaneously stark, oppressive, beautiful, and colorful. Mann also exposes the economic differences and the cultural diversity of L.A., which gives the film a different flavor from other films that have shot there.
Though highly stylized and at times a little predictable, Collateral is one of the best suspense films of the past decade. The reason being that it's rare to have such naturalistic actors playing such believable characters while they are trapped in the most extraordinary of circumstances. This is where Mann excels as a filmmaker, telling stories that are somewhat far-fetched and yet it doesn't matter because as an audience we have a sincere emotional investment in the characters. As we watch Max and Vincent confide in each other, and as we see them both become torn by internal conflict, we can't help but empathize with their plights and wonder, "What would I do in that situation?"


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