(Two Disc Edition)
Specs:
1 Hr. 49 Mins.
Color
Theatrical Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1),
French (Dolby Digital
5.1),
Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround),
English (DTS 5.1)
Michael Mann is easily one of the most exciting directors today. Most of his films usually follow the same genre, that of the urban crime drama, yet for each one of his films he imparts a distinct directorial style that makes most of his movies very special. Sadly, while he is no stranger to praise from critics he does now get the full respect that he should as one of our finest living day directors. With the film Collateral, Mann shows his talents once again albeit on a smaller scale. This is a much more intimate film than his masterpiece Heat, but equal in complexity nonetheless.
The film starts off showing two distinct characters whose paths will soon cross. One is a hitman named Vincent played with quiet subtlety by Tom Cruise. He has only one night to take care of his six marks. The other one is a man named Max (Jamie Foxx) who is a cab driver in LA. Max is a character who seems to be stuck in a rut. He says that he wants to create an ultra-cool limo company, yet he doesn't seem to be doing anything about it.
Then that night Max's life changes forever in two ways. First, he meets a beautiful lawyer he immediately falls in love with named Annie(Jada Pinket-Smith). Right after that, Vincent gets into Max's cab and hires Max for the rest of the night to do his rounds. Max, of course, doesn't realize what Vincent is really here to do. Yet, after Vincent's first victim falls out of the window onto Max's cab things change. For the rest of the night, Max will be held against his will and forced to deliver Vincent to his different marks around the city.
There are so many great things about this film, most of them quite subtle, that it's hard to know where to start. Definitely the most interesting and distinctive element of the film is it's rich atmosphere. Mann has always prided himself on placing his stories in real urban environments and making them feel authentic. That holds true to this film too. One gets the sense when watching the film that LA is in a sense another character for Mann. It's interesting to note that the action of the film takes place inside the cab, but Mann makes good use of aerial shots over the city and various shots of LA outside the cab. While the two characters inside the car go on a journey that changes both of their lives one can feel the city outside the window as a living breathing organism. This adds a pivotal layer to the film.
As mentioned before another powerful aspect to the film is it's intimacy. This is easily Mann's most quiet and graceful film as a good portion of the movie takes place inside the cab following their conversations. Don't make the mistake thinking this is an action film. Collateral certainly has action in it, and the action that is in the film is incredible well done. The climax of the movie utilizes several innovative techniques such as placing a portion of the final chase in almost pitch black allowing movement only to be defined by silhouettes.
Yet, what one takes away from this film isn't really the action, but rather the powerful character portraits of both Vincent and Max. It's always nice to see a villain portrayed in such a complex light. Not since Bill in this years Kill Bill Vol.2 have we seen such a deep portrait of a villain. The conversations and the script overall are deep, surprising, and always interesting.
Thankfully, the film is headed by two very talented people. Much like in the film Ray, Jamie Foxx shows why he is one of our great up and coming actors. This role isn't nearly is showy, yet never do we think of himself as anything else but Max. As far as Vincent goes, Tom Cruise takes a daring risk and succeeds for it. He is cold and calculated, but is able to understand the deeper facets of Vincent. Anther great performance in the film that sadly went unnoticed was Jada Pinkett Smith as Annie. She has only two scenes, yet in both scenes she makes quite an impression. She oozes charm and one only wishes we saw a bit more of her.
With Collateral Mann only shows once again why is a truly great director. He took what could have been a dopey premise but made it fascinating, engaging, and incredibly smart. One knows that a director has crafted a fine action/drama film when a typical ending has such a powerful punch. Now one wonders what will Mann do next.
Extras:
Director's Commentary:
A well made track in the sense that there are no dead spots, and Mann is extremely informative about where he got his ideas and what his approach to directing is. We learn some fascinating things about Mann himself such as the length he'll go to enrich characters such as creating complete biographies for the characters like Vincent and Max. Most of the information concerning the characters that Mann creates isn't mentioned in the film, but Mann apparently likes to know everything about a character before starting.
He also describes in detail the many layers to each scene and each character. He also details how he approached shooting in LA, and exactly why he wanted to do that.
The only problem is that he has a bit of a dry voice creating a seemingly monotone voice. Sadly, there are some directors who just do not have the voices for these tracks, and Mann is sadly one of them.
City Of Night: The Making Of Collateral
This is a surprisingly detailed documentary for a DVD. We get interviews from all the main players in the film who basically repeat what Man said on the commentary track. We also get further details about the different themes in the film, and how Mann explored these themes in the movies. Finally, we also get to more interesting directorial techniques from Mann such as sending Smith to real life lawyers to get a sense of her character.
Yet, the most interesting part of the documentary is seeing Tom Cruise going through gun training. It's fascinating to see what Cruise had to go through to get a sense of his character. We also get to see audition footage of all the actors working with each other. These things are rarely included on the DVD so it's interesting to watch it. This gives the viewers a better idea of how Mann shapes his actors in auditions.
Special Delivery
An odd feature where Tom Cruise dresses up as a delivery man to see if anyone would recognize him. Nobody does. A very odd and short feature.
Deleted Scenes
There is only one deleted scene where Vincent forces Max to lose the FBI and cops in the airport. It's a fine scene but nothing too great.
Shooting On Location: Annie's Office
This is a short but interesting extra where the audience is given a quick look at how they did an action scene with almost no light. It's very quick and not that detailed but interesting nonetheless.
Tom Cruise And Foxx Rehearsal
This is definitely the most interesting extra where we get to see further examples of the different rehearsal footage. It's fairly quick, but it's always interesting to see actors trying to develop their characters.
Visual FMX Train
This is short and nothing interesting. Mann explains that he had to use some FX on the train sequence. Nothing new here if one has already listen to the commentary and watched the documentary.
Stars ***1/2 out of ****
Review by Blake Hinton
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