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Collateral(directed by Michael Mann)
3 out of Five stars
Michael Mann's latest, Collateral, is an exercise in wasted potential. The cast is excellent, the plot intriguing, the dialogue is funny, the film's visual style is a knockout, and yet it falls apart short of the finish line.
There is a lot to like, however. Jamie Foxx (in what really could have been a career making performance in a different film) plays Max, a cab driver who dreams of one day starting his own limo service, and who picks up a fare that literally changes his life in an instant. Vincent, a well-dressed man in what appears to be his mid fifties (played with a lot of sinister charm by Tom Cruise), pays Max six hundred dollars to drive him around Los Angeles and make five stops to visit some friends on the way to the airport. sounds simple enough, but at the very first stop, one of Vincent's "friends" falls dead out of a window onto the hood of the cab. Vincent is a hired hitman, given a list of people he has to kill, and he is going to force Max to get him where he wants to go. This is an interesting set up, and for the first 2/3rds of the film, the director and screenwriter really have fun mining black comedy, and some truly brutal moments out of it. You like Max and his flustered humanity, and you like Vincent, even as he is commiting unspeakable acts of violence, he's a charming bastard. Then around the final act, something changes. The film runs out of steam and it is instantly noticeable. The characters, formerly talkative and clever, stop speaking and they start acting like action heroes, rotely walking through the "Ticking Clock" scenario that is used in so many hollywood films, chasing each other through an ending that even a child could see coming. It is sad, really because the film could have been so much better than it ended up. The actors underplayed their roles, no scenery chewing here untill the end, Mann's discomforting "you are there" direction is riveting, the dialogue is some of the best in any movie this year, and even the music is well chosen. By the time Tom Cruise's middle aged sociopath jumps onto the back of a moving subway car, you can't help but wonder if this is the ending to a different film you're watching, or if thery replaced the director for the last act, or if Mann just can't resist returning to his "Miami Vice" days of predictable action drivel....
I really really loved the first half or Collateral. It was an antidote to bad action buddy movies. too bad it crashed and burned at the end. I am just barely recommending it for Foxx and Cruise's stellar performances...
3 out of Five stars
Michael Mann's latest, Collateral, is an exercise in wasted potential. The cast is excellent, the plot intriguing, the dialogue is funny, the film's visual style is a knockout, and yet it falls apart short of the finish line.
There is a lot to like, however. Jamie Foxx (in what really could have been a career making performance in a different film) plays Max, a cab driver who dreams of one day starting his own limo service, and who picks up a fare that literally changes his life in an instant. Vincent, a well-dressed man in what appears to be his mid fifties (played with a lot of sinister charm by Tom Cruise), pays Max six hundred dollars to drive him around Los Angeles and make five stops to visit some friends on the way to the airport. sounds simple enough, but at the very first stop, one of Vincent's "friends" falls dead out of a window onto the hood of the cab. Vincent is a hired hitman, given a list of people he has to kill, and he is going to force Max to get him where he wants to go. This is an interesting set up, and for the first 2/3rds of the film, the director and screenwriter really have fun mining black comedy, and some truly brutal moments out of it. You like Max and his flustered humanity, and you like Vincent, even as he is commiting unspeakable acts of violence, he's a charming bastard. Then around the final act, something changes. The film runs out of steam and it is instantly noticeable. The characters, formerly talkative and clever, stop speaking and they start acting like action heroes, rotely walking through the "Ticking Clock" scenario that is used in so many hollywood films, chasing each other through an ending that even a child could see coming. It is sad, really because the film could have been so much better than it ended up. The actors underplayed their roles, no scenery chewing here untill the end, Mann's discomforting "you are there" direction is riveting, the dialogue is some of the best in any movie this year, and even the music is well chosen. By the time Tom Cruise's middle aged sociopath jumps onto the back of a moving subway car, you can't help but wonder if this is the ending to a different film you're watching, or if thery replaced the director for the last act, or if Mann just can't resist returning to his "Miami Vice" days of predictable action drivel....
I really really loved the first half or Collateral. It was an antidote to bad action buddy movies. too bad it crashed and burned at the end. I am just barely recommending it for Foxx and Cruise's stellar performances...