Collateral (2004)

Considering how dislikable and obnoxious Tom Cruise is, this is one of the better movies I have ever seen him in. Top Gun stands by itself, but aside from that, I would say Collateral and Minority Report are far and away his best recent films. Cruise plays a hired killer who is driven from hit to hit by cab driver Jamie Foxx, and it all comes to a head when Cruise tries to off Jada Pinkett, whom Foxx is familiar with. As mentioned, I really liked Collateral. One of my favorite decisions made for this movie were with the phenomenal production values. It is similar to the way Traffic is filmed, with a blue lens that makes L.A. look incredibly vibrant. The movie is also done in almost a Taxi Cab Confessions documentary style that really works. Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx are both pretty good in Collateral; I did not find them to be as amazing as I had heard, certainly not Oscar-worthy, but they both performed their parts adequately. The cast is deeper than expected, including small but well played parts by Jason Statham and Mark Ruffalo. For whatever reason, this movie kind of reminds me of Phone Booth with Colin Ferrell, which was mediocre at best. I know that Phone Booth was originally a short story, and I think that’s what causes me to draw the comparison to Collateral; it seems like the type of movie that would have made excellent short fiction. My wife and I actually own this movie, and we were planning on watching it together, but she is still evacuated due to Gustav. I definitely enjoyed the film, and since my cable is still malfunctioning, I was overjoyed to find it in the DVD case. I give Collateral 3 and a half stars.