Collateral

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By Todd Karella
August 6, 2004

When a cab driver (Jamie Foxx) learns that the man he's been driving around all day is a hit man (Tom Cruise) who has been killing people at every stop they've made, he must figure out how to save both himself and the final target on the list.

Original Story Synopsis:

Movie-Pix Best Guess:

It sounds like an interesting premise. Has high potential and could be an excellent movie.

Tom Cruise usually picks good scripts, as long as you don't count the Mission Impossible films.

Best Guess Results:

Overall, this is a pretty good film that has plenty of character development and an excellent concept.

Unfortunately, at the end it turns into the typical Hollywood action film as the hit man becomes nearly invincible surviving a car crash, being shot in the neck and still manages to track down his victims using pure luck.

Movie-Pix Hit or Miss

~ Another reason not to be a cab driver ~

It's just another day at the office for Max (Jamie Foxx) as he drives his cab around the streets of L.A.
But Max isn't your ordinary cab driver. He's honest, kind, keeps his car impeccably clean and insists on taking his fares on the shortest route possible to save them money.
It may be his lucky day when he meets Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith), an attractive lawyer who ends up giving him her phone

number.
   That lucky feeling doesn't last long as Vincent (Tom Cruise) ends up being his next fare. Vincent offers Max $600 if he can take him to five stops and then to the airport by 6:00 am.
   While this is nearly twice the amount he makes during an entire shift, it isn't until a dead man lands on the roof of his taxi that he realizes what trouble he's really in.
   Vincent isn't the businessman that he pretended to be. He's a hit man in town for the day hired to knock off a few witnesses.

As the two drive around the city, Max is looking for a way out of his situation while Vincent has taken a liking to the young man.
Stumbling upon one of the victims, undercover detective Fanning (Mark Ruffalo) starts putting the killings together and starts tracking them down.
Vincent continues to fulfill his contract, dragging the reluctant Max along with him forcing him to go along with his plans.

This could be a fairly simple plot, but as they go from victim to victim the two begin to bond in a strange way.
The two men share parts of their lives with one another, which also helps to round out their characters.

Rated R

Vincent-Tom Cruise

Max-Jamie Foxx

Annie-Jada Pinkett Smith

Fanning-Mark Ruffalo

Max is the constant dreamer planning to open his own limo service after he makes enough money during his temporary job as a cab driver. However, he has been working his temporary job for the last 12 years.
   Even though Vincent is a contract killer, his character and personality are likeable. It's a rare film where the audience starts to root for the bad guy.
   Both Foxx and Cruise do a superb job of acting, keeping their characters both believable and interesting.
   Unfortunately, the movie falters at the end as it becomes another typical Hollywood action film.
   They both are indestructible as Max in a last ditch effort stomps on the gas and intentionally flips the Taxi. Both of them escape unhurt and neither was wearing a seatbelt.

Vincent then takes off on foot to kill the last person on his list. Max chases after him and manages to escape after shooting Vincent in the neck.
With blood pouring out Vincent follows afterwards and somehow manages to follow them even though he can't hear or see them.
He picks their exact route and even knows which train they boarded, which he just barely makes as he leaps onto the speeding subway car.

A smashed window doesn't make us stick out

It's a bird, It's a plane
It's psycho Tom Cruise

You are the weakest link, Goodbye

Like my new look?

Even though the ending is somewhat of a disappointment, the rest of the film is so good that it makes the ending tolerable and worth shelling out the $9.