COLLATERAL (2004)

FILMS FROM THE 21st CENTURY

(Post 32 of 50)

Some quick takes on the most relatively recent listings from the
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list

I've always liked the pace of  director Michael Mann's movies such as Heat and Thief and found I like Collateral as well for my first time viewing. Mann's movies have a lot of action, but they create characters that are real enough to care about, which isn't true in a lot of action movies for me.

Collateral is about a hit man played be Tom Cruise who hires an unsuspecting cabbie played by Jamie Foxx to take him to a hit. The viewer knows that the innocent Foxx is going to accidentally get drawn into the ruthless hitman's world, because if he dropped his fare off and just went home, you wouldn't have a movie.

But the cabbie does get involved in all sorts of wild hitman and crime stuff, and it is a bit far-fetched, but I liked the story overall and I'll give Cruise some credit for bringing a lot of bite to the hitman role.