Collateral

One of Michael Mann's better films, Collateral works fairly well as a urban action film, filled with some absolutely sensational nighttime Las Angeles cinematography, which Michael Mann is known for. The camera work is easily the best thing, with Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise's performances right behind that. Jamie Foxx works well as a ordinary veteran L.A. taxi cab driver who is forced to the limit, and Tom Cruise burns up the screen with his searing performance as a cold, calculated hit man who could care less about which person he kills. Together, they form perfect chemistry, and keep the film going. But, on the other hand, the script is rather dull, and filled with countless moments of filler, just to make the film longer to a 2 hour running time, which already feels rather long, and as they keep adding more and more side characters, including a cop played by mark Ruffalo, the film begins to steer down a path of dim precision, getting rather tiresome when it should be revving you up and thrilling you out of your seat. Still, the movie is Rated R, and here are the parental concerns: There is plenty of strong violence, including several public gunfights where several people are killed, and many others are shot during the course of the film, often with lots of spurting and spraying blood. Also, there is frequent strong profanity, including many uses of f--k, sh-t, hell, g-dd-mn and a--h-le. So, it may not be Michael Mann's best movie, but it is certainly better than a lot of other movies that he has directed as of late. Reccomended.