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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Dreamworks Video
Salesrank: 6835
Released: December 14, 2004 |
| Our Price: $3.36 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
VINCENT IS A COOL, CALCULATING CONTRACT KILLER AT THE TOP OF HIS GAME. MAX IS A CABBIE WITH BIG DREAMS LOOKING FOR HIS NEXT FARE. THIS FATEFUL NIGHT, MAX WILL TRANSPORT VINCENT ON HIS NEXT MISSION - ONE NIGHT, 5 STOPS, 5 HITS & A PERFECT GETAWAY. TOGETHER, THEY FIND THEMSELVES IN A NON-STOP RACE AGAINST TIME.
Description of Collateral (Two-Disc Special Edition):
Collateral offers a change of pace for Tom Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted thriller. It's from Michael Mann, after all, and the director's stellar track record with crime thrillers (Thief, Manhunter, and especially Heat) guarantees a rich combination of intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles, during which he will execute five people in a 10-hour spree. While Stuart Beattie's screenplay deftly combines intimate character study with raw bursts of action (in keeping with Mann's directorial trademark), Foxx does the best work of his career to date (between his excellent performance in Ali and his title-role showcase in Ray), and Cruise is fiercely convincing as an ultra-disciplined sociopath. Jada Pinkett-Smith rises above the limitations of a supporting role, and Mann directs with the confidence of a master, turning L.A. into a third major character (much as it was in the Mann-produced TV series Robbery Homicide Division). Collateral is a bit slow at first, but as it develops subtle themes of elusive dreams and lives on the edge, it shifts into overdrive and races, with breathtaking precision, toward a nail-biting climax. --Jeff Shannon
Collateral (Two-Disc Special Edition) Reviews:
EXCELLENT 2 DISCS SET! WELL PACED ACTION FILM WITH GOOD CHARACTERS! 
2009-09-20 - I saw this film a few years ago and decided to give it another look. While the film is contrived at times, it is helped greatly by a wonderfully cold performance by Tom Cruise. The film is well paced and builds slowly to an intense climax. Fox and Pickett should also be commended for turning in believable performances under crazy situations. The film probably rated a little over 4 stars, but the two discs DVD set is stellar and brings this super charged action film up to a top rating!
Pretentious rubbish 
2009-08-28 - This product bites the big one. Visually chaotic, the auditory equivalent of having your ears used for a public lavatory, and with a plot as crisp and distinct as a moldering roadkill carcass, "Collateral" is thoroughly sucky, despite Tom Cruise's putative "best ever" performance.
Avoid this thing even if it's free. Life is too short to waste any of it on such trash.
Excellent Condition
2009-06-04 - I received the DVD promptly and it was in excellent condition. No problems at all.
Engrossing
2009-05-22 - On the surface a crime drama, but to me a meditation on death like Bergman's Seventh Seal with Jamie Foxx as the knight and Tom Cruise as the grim reaper. Life is a battle fought in darkness and shadows but as the end scenes show at least a partial victory is possible. The film's noir atmosphere is beautiful and the plot is entertaining throughout. The actors all hit their parts perfectly. Recommended.
One night in Los Angeles . . .
2009-05-08 - Los Angeles, California. Present Day.
Max (Jamie Foxx) is one of a thousand cab drivers in the city. He keeps his cab squeaky clean during his night shift, he knows his streets and his signals, and he always reaches his passengers' destinations in time. He's been driving a cab for 12 years, but he's got some big dreams. He wants to own a limo company, and is only comfortable talking about it to those who look like they would never laugh their butts off at him. One of these people is a prosecutor named Annie Farrell (Jada Pinkett Smith). She gives him her card after a drive to the Justice Department, and Max can't decide at the moment if he wants to call her later or not. What comes next is something that is completely unexpected.
The next passenger in Max's cab is a man named Vincent (Tom Cruise). He looks to be a business man, with a clean gray suit and a luxurious-looking briefcase. Vincent makes a deal with Max: make five stops for the night and he'll give the driver 600 dollars total. Max hesitates, and slowly accepts the offer. At the first stop, the cab is parked in the alley of an apartment building where the first stop is located. Vincent enters the building, while Max takes his time eating a deli sandwich and examining photos of automobiles, which probably gives him motivation for his "big dream". With the exception of the radio, everything is silent . . . until a dead body crashes on the top of the taxi. Seeing the broken window on top of the apartment building, and Vincent returning with no look of shock on his face, Max discovers . . .
Max: "You killed him?!"
Vincent: "No, I shot him. The bullets and the fall killed him."
Max has become the driver for a hitman who has been contracted to kill five people in one night.
"Collateral" is a movie that focuses on these two men of extreme differences. Vincent is a cold-blooded killer who does what he sets out to do, and if something happens, he decides to "improvise" and "adapt" if the change is either unstoppable or too abrupt. Max, on the other hand, does not use improvisation. He plans everything from the start with no distractions, hoping to fulfill his dreams of owning his own limo company that he's puting up. Vincent never loved L.A.; Max is comfortable living in the city. Vincent loves Jazz; Max does not. And so on. These two men find themselves questioning each other's motives and beliefs, which leads to an ultimate confrontation in the end.
The city of Los Angeles becomes an important "character" in the film. The foggy nights, the city lights, the unavoidable crime, the towering skyline, everything looks beautiful. Director Michael Mann has really captured the look and feel of L.A. in an almost perfect way. The digital cinematography makes it all worthwhile.
Cruise, Foxx, Pinket Smith, and Ruffalo make a fine acting ensemble. Even though I'm not a big fan of Cruise, I'd say that this is a big surprise. Here he is not seen as a hero, but a villain. He is a cold-blooded contract killer who knows how to properly use a gun. But the truth is, you don't know if you should love or hate Vincent. Aside from the story of his parents, we don't know much about his past, and what drove him to this path. I could say that he does have a heart, but his job is what shatters that statement. Foxx manages to play the part of the average guy very well. He finds himself in a hazardous situation, and he doesn't know what will happen to him when it's over. He should've won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, but his win for "Ray" clearly makes up for it. Pinkett Smith's role is smaller in the film, but it is influential in that she becomes part of Vincent's questioning of Max's life. She is a fine actress, and she never misses a beat here. Ruffalo may be a bit off at times, but he is still believable as the Detective who starts to see that the killings may be linked to something more serious. I never realized it was Javier Bardem who played Felix until I saw "No Country for Old Men." He looks and sounds creepy here, but not as creepy as Chigurh.
This is one of my favorite movies in general. The atmosphere of Los Angeles, the acting of Cruise and Foxx, and the music (kudos to Audioslave, Paul Oakenfold, and James Newton Howard) are just few of the reasons for the admiration. This is yet another film (along with The Godfather 1 & 2, No Country for Old Men, Terminator 2, 2001: A Space Odyssey, etc.) that I'll never get tired of watching repeatedly.
Grade: A
