I didn’t wanna see Michael Mann’s movie, Collateral, because of it’s star Tom Cruise. I wanted to see Collateral because of Cruise’s costar, Jamie Foxx.
Jamie Foxx first showed me his dramatic acting skills in the football flick, Any Given Sunday. Then he showed some more in a smaller role as a trainer in ALI. When I first heard about Tom Cruise’s first all out villain role(?…HELLO! HE played Lestat in Interview With The Vampire!!!) I didn’t really care, even though the premise of spending a whole night driving a contract killer around in a cab sounded kind of interesting. But when I heard Foxx would be the cabbie, I had to put it on my list.

I have to say, despite some flaws that call for a little too much suspension of disbelief, Collateral is a pretty great flick. The dynamic between cold hearted killer Cruise and desperate Foxx is very compelling, and the chemistry between the two is dead on. Screenwriter Stuart Beattie created two very complex characters and almost immediately I was fascinated by one while I was completely rooting for the other. Tom Cruise really does a great job as this ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to complete his jobs. He’s charismatic, but cold and calculating…great job by the former Mr. Kidman!
An Jamie Foxx…just great. A lot of his acting is basically facial expressions in response to Cruise’s words, and Foxx is perfect. An everyman thrown into an unreal nightmare, Foxx’s “Max” is very scared but still has the where with all to keep it together, and I hope he gets a lot of recognition for the role!

Jada Pinkett Smith has a smaller role in the film and does a nice job with the character. Peter Berg and Mark Ruffalo have even smaller roles, and do very nicely too. But this is all Cruise and Foxx, and Beattie’s screenplay.
Good stuff!