COLLATERAL (2004) **1/2 I'm sorry, but I just can't get past Tom Cruise' gray hair. I mean, yeah I know lots of guys go prematurely gray, but we all know he didn't. He's very credible as the world class assassin, which doesn't surprise me at all. He's not only the poster boy for A-List celebrities, he's a very gifted actor. He has several great lines that he tosses off with an emphatic blasé that I just dare you to try at home...as many takes as you like...it's not his greatest performance, but it would be impressive from anyone. And I've never seen the streets of Los Angeles shot so well (Michael Mann directing), so realistically, yep that's really what it feels like tooling around L.A., later at night when traffic's dying down. That's particularly important in this film, too, where Jamie Foxx is a cabbie, and much of the action surrounds his cab. Jamie, Jada Pinkett Smith, Irma P. Hall and Mark Ruffalo all turn in outstanding performances-they're everything that they're supposed to be-but you're never allowed to begin to make the mistake of thinking that this is anything but a Cruise vehicle. I guess maybe I could have got past Cruise gray streaks if the film didn't suffer a distracting, constantly resetting, personality disorder. Mann's shots and approach, Cruise' best moments, are all on that intense edge of realism. The scriptwriters, unfortunately, regularly find themselves so caught up in the action that they've created that they veer straight on over into comic book land, Cruise waving tanks (or whatever) around in each arm as he guns down the armies of the night in a psycho-libretto that would have better suited Antonio Banderas or Brad Pitt. To complicate matters by simplification, much of the plot is telegraphed early on but several outstanding bits are developed beautifully. The soundtrack is a tremendous mix of the cross-cultural reality of the city; many historic sources gutted and brushed and strutting now as something new. I just want to go have Mexican food with whoever found these locations...
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