Delayed Reaction: Collateral

Premise: A taxi driver is forced to be an accomplice to a hitman over one long Los Angeles night.

 

There are good and bad things about how "kids these days" get to discover TV and movies. I think that it hurts their viewing diet to be able to select anything they want at any time. It means they only end up watching what they think they would like. Many of my fondest memories are finding something random on HBO and watching because it's what was on. It made me more willing to try movies and stick with them that I never would've otherwise. However, I truly envy that "kids there days" get to start every movie on their own terms. It took me years to actually see the opening scenes of The Shawshank Redemption or Seabiscuit. Same with dozens of other movies. That changes the experience of watching them. So does watching something just because it's on.

 

I watched Collateral at some point in the mid-00s because it was on. I didn't know much about it. I wasn't planning on watching it. I just watched it because it was on. As a result, I don't remember it very well. I'm pretty sure that got in the way of me appreciating it too. Because, I decided to rewatch it after the Black Check podcast turned me onto Michael Mann. It turns out, this movie rules.

 

This is a rare Tom Cruise performance. He's the villain. He wears - maybe even advances - his age. It's a fully charismatic performance that isn't a "movie star" performance. Jamie Foxx is great too. We almost never get this kind of performance from him, especially after he won the Oscar this year for Ray. He tends to try too hard to prove that he's a movie star, but in this, he's a believable guy. He isn't playacting a normal guy. It's not like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where his early performance winks at you and says "I'm just doing this so my transformation later looks even more extreme". No, in Collateral, he's a somewhat charming, normal cab driver. That's what makes his occasional swagger later in the film feel like such a triumph. There's nothing in the earlier performance to make me assume that's coming. The two leads (Oscar nominations be damned) play off each other so well.

 

It really is a great Los Angeles movie. Michael Mann famously shot most of this movie digitally instead of on film because it made it much easier to film at night, and the choice paid off. It looks great. Even the occasional graininess works for it. I don't think anything call ever truly capture how spread-out Los Angeles is. Collateral tries and does about as well as any movie. They are driving all over, and it's not the landmark areas. I don't live there, so I can't say if the movie feels like THE real Los Angeles. I will say that it sure feels like A real Los Angeles.

 

Verdict: Strongly Recommend