Collateral - Double Disc Edition

Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Tom Cruise	Vincent
Jamie Foxx	Max
Jada Pinkett Smith	Annie
Mark Ruffalo	Fanning
Peter Berg	Richard Weidner
Bruce McGill	Pedrosa
Irma P. Hall	Ida
Barry Shabaka Henley	Daniel
Richard T. Jones	Traffic Cop #1
Klea Scott	Fed #1
Barry "Shabaka" Henley	Daniel

Director	Michael Mann
Producer	Michael Mann; Julie Richardson
Writer	Stuart Beattie

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