Customer Reviews
why boring? - By: HenriSYLO, 25 Jun 2008 
I fully understand that some people will find the movie boring, espeicallly for those who expect they will get the same experience from the stimuli in playing PS I, II, III... The film is a great stuff if you savour the content, the details & the visual feast...etc.
BORING, BORING, BORING....................... - By: B. M. Walker, 07 Nov 2007 
If you want to admire the actors technical skills, great.
If you want entertainment value it bottoms out -boring, boring, boring
Saved by the Foxx - By: Jay, 29 May 2007 
This film is massively overhyped yet is saved from the performance of Jamie Foxx who plays a cab driver who realizes that he is chauffeuring a contract killer, Cruise. Thee are many inaccuracies in the plot notably Cruise is supposed to be a cold blooded hitman yet he is as good as one of the baddies in the A team. Hitmen are supposed to kill their prey in cold blood without any traces, Cruise is just a messy urban terrorist. His mindgames with Foxx are the only redeeming part of his role but nothing else. I can't be wrong !
Damaged Collateral - By: Trevor Willsmer, 26 Oct 2006 Collateral may well be the single most ridiculous & utterly absurd screenplay ever put into production by a major studio in this century. While the inexplicable critical praise for the film might be expected to result in some failure to live up to expectations, this fails on even the most basic levels of construction for the very dumbest of action movies - & this certainly is the dumbest piece of hokum I've seen in the past ten years. I'm simply at a loss as to how anyone could think this thrill-free thriller even a competent piece of drama, let alone a masterpiece.
One of the problems with people who make more than one good movie is that we very unreasonably expect them to keep on making good movies instead of just being grateful for what they've given us in the past. So I'll go on being grateful to Mann for Manhunter, Heat, The Insider, The Jericho Mile & Last of the Mohicans (even if he is determined to re-edit the heart out of them if left unchecked) & mark this one down as a paycheck. It's just a shame that, unlike Terrence Malick, nobody set up a trust fund for him so that he wouldn't have to make movies this bad just to pay the bills.
The film starts off with a disadvantage - the high concept setup is a hard premise to sell, & the film singularly fails to do so. But instead of going off in the `we know this is stupid, but let's have fun with it' route, instead it tries to play it as serious psychodrama & character piece while offering some of the most ridiculous plotting imaginable.
Cruise is supposedly a top of his game hitman, but is the most spectacularly inept killer the screen has ever seen, revealing himself to dozens of witnesses, beating up & shooting people in crowded nightclubs (the film's utter lowpoint) & even accompanying his reluctant chauffeur on a visit to his mother in hospital. Short of taking over a Presidential press conference at gunpoint, it's hard to imagine him drawing more attention to himself in almost every single scene. By the final reel when he turns into an indestructible relentless Tominator stalking the pair, you suddenly start to appreciate the finely crafted plots & elegant dialogue found in the works of Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme & Olivier Gruner, none of whom have ever descended to such preposterous lows. It's notable that Jason Statham kept his name off the credits in this one, & he had no such qualms over Revolver.
By the time the unbelievable coincidence of the passenger Foxx fallls for being - shock, horror - the last name on the list is wheeled on, we've sat through so many much more unbelievable coincidences & idiotic lapses in logic & credibility that it almost seems rational. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this is just taking the piss.
Not that faulty suspension is the only thing wrong with this vehicle. None of the individual scenes ever convince or work on their own terms, with every development or line of dialog not just horribly telegraphed but practicallly written in the sky. Characterization is equallly facile & predictable, with only vague moments hinting at possibilities glossed over en route to the next botched setpiece. The performances are variable: Cruise, Foxx, Javier Bardem and, most surprisingly, Jada Pinkett Smith are fine but not outstanding, but Mark Ruffalo becomes increasingly laughable as it becomes ever clearer that the depth of his characterization extends to doing a not very good John Travolta/Chilli Palmer impersonation.
I take no pleasure in writing off this utter trainwreck of a movie. There could have been a good little straight-to-video movie in this, but the end result is a completely unacceptable piece of junk that goes straight into my All-time Ten Worst list. Garbage.
Fantastic - By: neuro, 01 May 2006 This is Michael Mann at his most visceral. Shot in Los Angeles at night on DV, "Collateral" feels more like documentary than entertainment. Mann manages to evoke everyman fearful compliance from taxi driver Foxx, & unsettling hairtrigger violence from hitman Cruise. His real life antics aside, Cruise is at the best I've ever seen him. This movie is worth watching not only for the action, writing & tremendous plot, but for the stunning photography. Watching this & Heat makes you believe Mann loves California, & you'll love this movie too by its end.
