Economy Size Geek

Collateral (2004)

You know I wanted to see this and then I didn’t. I got it from Netflix and didn’t watch it. I recorded it on the Replay and almost deleted it.

With all the TomKat/Tom 2.0 stuff I end up reading on Defamer - I’m not sure I really want to see a Tom Cruise movie for a while (Yes I mean you War of the Worlds)

I ended up watcing this with my brother since he was up for it.

This movie is very character driven. There are two main characters Vincent(Cruise) and Max (Jamie Foxx). The film takes place in a single night and follows both thru it. I don’t consider this a spoiler - but if you don’t already know it - Vincent is a hit man.

The interesting thing about the movie is the way it largely unfolds in Max’s cab. Both men reveal what they are by what they do. In Vincent’s case that means killing people he doesn’t know because he is paid to do that. If you get in his way - he will kill you.

Max on the other hand is a cabbie in denial. He is saving up for something bigger - he’s only a cabbie temporarily for 12 years.

This is relaly the crux of the whole thing - One is a sociapath - who does what he does because he is good at it and he doesn’t care about anyone. The other is cares about people - even strangers - but doesn’t really do anything.

In the writing books this is an absolutely classical story arc - and that isn’t meant as a put down - quite the contrary. It’s classic because it works so well -it’s what we go to see movies for.

I also have to say that although there were a couple of cliches in the film - they avoided a number of them - like when you are moving to avoid the killer don’t step on something that makes noise.

So in the end i”m glad I watched it. Cruise was oddly believable as the heartless killing machine.

Bottom Line: If you can handle the killing, it turns out to be a pretty good movie. Just remember that Cruise is a heartless bastard and it will all be ok.