Michael Mann sets the tone most gracefully, introducing heart-of-gold cabbie Jamie Foxx with an unusually long and perfectly-played scene in which he bonds with Jada Pinkett Smith on an airport-to-downtown fare that finds the two flirtatiously debating efficient routing and big dreams. This scene is so unexpected and well done, and set into the film with such effortless confidence that it approaches Zen, that even before the action plot gets underway, you're prepared to accept that this will not be your run-of-the-mill Panic Room kind of shit. And indeed, for the first hour-and-a-half, what you get is a completely fresh take on the "mismatched buddy" thriller. Tom Cruise plays a soulless killer-for-hire, who embroils Foxx in an evening of crazed sociopathic killing when he hires Foxx's cab to tote him from murder to murder. Foxx is roped into the role believably when Cruise's first killing goes awry, and from there on, Cruise exerts his trademark Cruise Control™ to make Foxx almost equally complicit (though unwilling) in continuing the killing spree. A number of memorable and original scenes serve to develop the characters to a depth you don't normally see in this kind of flick, and provide suspense without predictablity. Perhaps best of all is an extended riff on "improvisation" that finds Cruise dragging Foxx into a jazz club to see a would-be trumpet perform: they have drinks, spin tales, and finally, Cruise abruptly shoots the guy. Moments like this one bring out much more understanding of the main characters than the usual "Task force captain calls brilliant loose-cannon detective into his office and reads him his CV." Instead, we are simply plopped directly inside the action as it unfolds, much like Foxx's character. Had the film ended with Foxx's equally abrupt shooting of Cruise near the film's climax, Collateral would far outclass Reservoir Dogs in terms of execution and freshness. Unfortunately, the last 45 minutes topple over into the same ol', same ol' bullshit, with Cruise as absurdly unstoppable as Robert Patrick in Terminator 2. The big final scenes involve the "wild footchase through a big building with the power out" as well as the "pursuit through a speeding train" paradigms … which is all the more sad, since what precedes these tired sequences is so bloody good. That Jada Pinkett Smith figures in to the last part of the story is both perfectly predictable and completely unbelievable. Had Mann had the good sense to leave Jada's character at the door where Foxx drops her off, this movie would pack a lot more punch, almost to the point of reviving 70s thriller standards. I can't say Collateral ends up being great, but I can say I still wish it had been. Though the last bit is as disappointing as can be, there is still a lot of cool shit to behold. The jury's still out on Tom Cruise's eerily late-80s Richard Gere look, however.
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