I was never much of a Jamie Fox fan as far as his stand-up and TV work goes, so it was a breath of fresh air to see him in a serious role. It was also neat to see Tom Cruise as a bad guy, which he pulls off rather well. Director Michael Mann delivers a taught, harrowing suspense movie with a gripping human element.
Jamie Fox is the most effective actor in the film, because (besides the fact that he is the focal point) all during the movie I kept wondering if I could handle such a situation and whether I would try and bail. Cruise’s cold, calculating delivery contains the same intensity we saw when he chewed out Matt Lauer over psychiatry on the Today Show.
Other than the use of light and dark, given the film’s nighttime setting, which was good and there was some symbolism in it, Collateral kind of fell apart at the end for me. There was a too much coincidence involved, especially when you consider the size of Miami, where the film takes place. The likelihood of these two pairing up is just a bit outrageous, but without the coincidence, the movie would have been pointless other than to serve as a human drama. At least the coincidence leads to some closure for the film.
Other than a hard-to-believe final act, my only other complaint is with Tom Cruise’s hair coloring. It’s not very consistent and you can tell when it was touched up. I heard they wanted Richard Gere originally for Cruise’s part, and I see it in the dye job. Cruise really does look like a younger, harder Gere. But, aside from the nitty-gritty, Collateral works as a string-pulling thriller.
I was never much of a Jamie Fox fan as far as his stand-up and TV work goes, so it was a breath of fresh air to see him in a serious role. It was also neat to see Tom Cruise as a bad guy, which he pulls off rather well. Director Michael Mann delivers a taught, harrowing suspense movie with a gripping human element.
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