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DVD Collateral
Collateral offers a change of pace for Tom Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted thriller. It's from Michael Mann, after all, and the director's stellar track record with crime thrillers (Thief, Manhunter, and especially Heat) guarantees a rich combination of intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles, during which he will execute five people in a 10-hour spree. While Stuart Beattie's screenplay deftly combines intimate character study with raw bursts of action (in keeping with Mann's directorial trademark), Foxx does the best work of his career to date (between his excellent performance in Ali and his title-role showcase in Ray), and Cruise is fiercely convincing as an ultra-disciplined sociopath. Jada Pinkett-Smith rises above the limitations of a supporting role, and Mann directs with the confidence of a master, turning L.A. into a third major character (much as it was in the Mann-produced TV series Robbery Homicide Division). Collateral is a bit slow at first, but as it develops subtle themes of elusive dreams and lives on the edge, it shifts into overdrive and races, with breathtaking precision, toward a nail-biting climax. --Jeff Shannon
A 12 year veteran cab driver (Jamie Foxx) gets a federal prosecutor (Jada Pinkett Smith) for a passenger one night at the Los Angeles Airport LAX. He guesses she's a lawyer, they form
a connection, and he asks "Important case tomorrow?" She says, "Yea". His next passanger for the night is a contract killer from out of town (Tom Cruise). When they arrive at their first destination, a man falls on the taxi and Jamie Foxx says "I think he's dead". Tom Cruise says, "Good guess". Tom Cruise forces Jamie Foxx to drive him to 5 other spots for 5 contract kills in a single night. A tug of war relationship develops between them, and eventually Jamie Foxx's mother, the L.A.P.D. and S.W.A.T.,
a federal prosecutor and a leading druglord named Felix (Javier Bardem) get thrown into the mix as Tom Cruise tries to finish his job, Jamie Foxx tries to survive the night, and the druglord
Felix tries to protect his organization. Jada Pinkett Smith plays the federal prosecutor getting ready to prosecute Felix the following day, and the people Tom Cruise has been hired to kill are the witnesses about to testify against Felix the next day. In the end, Jamie Foxx turns bodyguard as he tries to protect Jada Pinkett Smith from Tom Cruise when he learns she's his next target. Mark Ruffalo plays an L.A.P.D. detective.
A contract killer using a taxi? A professional contract killer using a taxi?
If he uses a taxi, would he tell the taxi driver he's killing people?
In this movie he does, and that's where the movie fell apart completely.
This film fell apart almost before it began.
It fell apart because it was predictable, too implausible and because it was gratuitious and lacked depth.
Why didn't the killer rent a car? Why not borrow a car? Steal a car?
This is the scriptwriters idea of a professional contract killer.
He rents a cab, leaves his tablet pc in the back seat, makes mistakes,
leaves fingerprints every place, and doesn't use a silencer on busy Los Angeles streets.
He raises his voice. He doesn't rent a car or steal a car, or dress incognito.
He uses a flashy tablet pc to remember 5 street addresses.
He has no back up of the tablet pc's data, and he runs out of bullets at the end without a spare gun.
Would a contract killer leave his tablet pc unattended in the back of a cab in Los Angeles?
There's a scene with the L.A.P.D. when Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx are pulled over for a broken
windshield. The police let them go. Why have the scene in the movie? Similarly,
there's a scene where the S.W.A.T. and L.A.P.D. are getting their machine guns ready on route to a club.
When they get there, no machine guns are fired. Tom Cruise steals the show and shoots every
bodyguard dead without getting hurt. That kind of false build up makes you feel stood up.
Throughout the film, there was a gratutious element to the violence that I was uncomfortable with and did not like.
It was violence for the violence's sake.
In some scenes I coulden't hear the words because of loud playing music or the recording level was too low.
This film makes a contribution to the notion that guns are sexy and cool and that
guns are the first course of action to resolve problems. I resent that. In films like "Heat" or "
The Last of the Mohicans", guns had a story element and were a tool to the trade or necessary.
In this film, guns are portrayed as fashion and a wardrobe accessory.
I further resented the messages of Tom Cruise where this is his "career", killing people, and
he's "good at what he does". Some of the violence in this film is for violence's sake, and not to
support a story or support a character.
There was no realism to the character played by Tom Cruise. He wasn't real.
He had no personality or idiosyncracies. He didn't act human. He was boring and robotic.
I doubt that the people who like this film have experienced violence.
It's disturbing that there are people who can take the subject matter of this film lightly and support this film.
The subject matter is killing people and making guns look sexy.
I watched this film 3 times before I wrote this review.
I wanted to like this film because Michael Mann made it.
I'm a fan of his work and have followed his work from "Miami Vice" in the 80's and the movie
"The Jericho Mile" with Peter Strauss.
Contract killers don't rent a cab and expect a stranger from out of town to cooperate on killing strangers.
A huge Michael Mann dissapointment.
Alternative Recommended Film: "The Professional" by Luc Besson.
The real Cruise
This movie is so cool because Tom Cruise totally wastes so many mofo's. In the club scene Micahel Mann shows his dynamic camera work as Vincent (Tom Cruise) kills so many people with precision skill. He snaps one guys neck, then kicks a guy's leg which snaps at the knee and later takes out one of his contracts. The movie is paced really well and we see Jamie Foxx showing his acting skills as a convincing meek yet virtuous cab driver. Whenever Vincent kills someone it looks so awesome. We need more ultra violent movies like this. The movie is also very deep and dark and we see who Vincent is and why he turned out the way he did.
Better living through guns
From a craft point of view, of course, the film is superb: Cruise and Foxx give tight performances, and Michael Mann can direct stylish action set-pieces in his sleep. Everyone involved in this project is at the peak of their powers. So the question becomes, Why didn't they know better?
I really loved Mann's "Heat," so it breaks my heart to have to point out that this film is mostly nonsense. Maybe it's because the story, though at least engrossing on the surface level, lacks enough internal resonance to generate anything like 'meaning' or 'importance.' Instead, as so often in American culture, importance is supposed to be implicitly assumed because people are waving guns around.
Cruise, in his always polished and convincing manner, nevertheless spouts a lot of fake philosophical hooey about the cosmos and self-actualization, and we're supposed to listen seriously because (ready for this, folks?) he's a hit man (oooh), and he's got a gun (oh my). Jamie Foxx's character can't live up to who he wants to be, until he finds the inner strength to (get this) fire a gun. As in so much hip-hop music, simply waving a piece around is expected to absolve the speaker of being silly or shallow. Maybe that's just life, but I suspect that it isn't: the power to kill may be menacing, but as Christ pointed out to Pilate, it isn't really 'power' at all. Pity no one in this film notices.
It's a shame, because there's enough brains and talent in this movie to levitate the Pentagon. If you want an agreeable little thriller, I suppose it's a good job, except for some disappointing lapses of story logic, and a few let-downs when you're led to believe something cool and clever is about to happen, and instead, you get more waving around of guns. I'm not an activist on the subject, I just like a bit of artistic insight along with my grand-opera silliness; and I feel cheated when an artist excuses shallowness, or covers it over, with the glamor of violence, and nothing else. Oh well. They've all done enough stellar work that we can let them slide on this one. Try a bit harder next time, guys, and I bet you make a masterpiece.
When we met our hero, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) in THE BOURNE IDENTITY,
he was trying not to remember what happened last time and ends up
in a beachhouse. This film, as great as the first one has Bourne
trying to escape the beachhouse when the CIA (led by Joan Allen)
wants him dead, killing his girlfriend (Franka Potente) and taking
harmless Nicky (Julia Stiles) as hostage, leading Bourne many places
(incvluding India, Germany, Moscow, and more). Breathtaking,
entertaining sequel has as much car chases as THE ITALIAN JOB
and still the suspense of Robert Ludlum's book. A sequel
is expected next year, just for your imformation. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Greengrass DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 6 to 11 days
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As paranoid cop Del Spooner, Will Smith (Independence Day, Men in Black) displays both his trademark quips and some impressive pectoral muscles in I, Robot. Only Spooner suspects that the robots that provide the near future with menial labor are going to turn on mankind--he's just not sure how. When a leading roboticist dies suspiciously, Spooner pursues a trail that may prove his suspicions. Don't expect much of a connection to Isaac Asimov's classic science fiction stories; I, Robot, the action movie, isn't prepared for any ruminations on the significance of artificial intelligence. This likable, efficient movie won't break any new ground, but it does have an idea or two to accompany its jolts and thrills, which puts it ahead of most recent action flicks.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Will Smith - Bridget Moynahan - Bruce Greenwood Director(s): Alex Proyas DVD Release Date: Released the 14 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The Manchurian Candidate, a classic of paranoid cinema from the 1960s, gets a cunning update, rife with hot-topic references to corporate war profiteering and electronic voting machines. Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington, Training Day) has been haunted by nightmares ever since a firefight during the first Gulf War--a battle in which he believes he was saved by the heroism of Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber, Kate & Leopold). But Marco's nightmares suggest otherwise and drive him to investigate what happened, which may threaten Shaw's candidacy for vice-president. Meryl Streep plays Shaw's mother, a senior senator who manipulates everyone around her with an iron will and a sharp tongue. The Manchurian Candidate loses steam towards the end, but up until then... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Denzel Washington - Liev Schreiber - Kimberly Elise - Meryl Streep Director(s): Jonathan Demme DVD Release Date: Released the 21 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Jamie Foxx's uncannily accurate performance isn't the only good thing about Ray. Riding high on a wave of Oscar buzz, Foxx proved himself worthy of all the hype by portraying blind R&B legend Ray Charles in a warts-and-all performance that Charles approved shortly before his death in June 2004. Despite a few dramatic embellishments of actual incidents (such as the suggestion that the accidental drowning of Charles's younger brother caused all the inner demons that Charles would battle into adulthood), the film does a remarkable job of summarizing Charles's strengths as a musical innovator and his weaknesses as a philandering heroin addict who recorded some of his best songs while flying high as a kite. Foxx seems to be channeling Charles himself, and as he did with the life of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jamie Foxx - Kerry Washington - Regina King Director(s): Taylor Hackford DVD Release Date: Released the 01 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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More than a few critics hailed Spider-Man 2 as "the best superhero movie ever," and there's no compelling reason to argue--thanks to a bigger budget, better special effects, and a dynamic, character-driven plot, it's a notch above Spider-Man in terms of emotional depth and rich comic-book sensibility. Ordinary People Oscar-winner Alvin Sargent received screenplay credit, and celebrated author and comic-book expert Michael Chabon worked on the story, but it's director Sam Raimi's affinity for the material that brings Spidey 2 to vivid life. When a fusion experiment goes terribly wrong, a brilliant physicist (Alfred Molina) is turned into Spidey's newest nemesis, the deranged, mechanically tentacled "Doctor Octopus," obsessed with completing his experiment and... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Sam Raimi DVD Release Date: Released the 30 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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