Collateral (2004)

Mark Ruffalo as a cholo LAPD officer is one of the strangest casting decisions I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

My favorite moment is when he rushes in to save Jamie Foxx and then literally three seconds later it just deflates and he gets murdered immediately. That is so fucking funny. The anticlimax of it all - chef’s kiss. I think I mostly liked Collateral, but I do have some minor quibbles. The core performances from Foxx, Cruise, and Jada Pinkett Smith are really great. It’s a tight movie and I loved the in-depth characterization everyone gets, even Vincent, who’s essentially an unstoppable Terminator but still has actual depth and psychology to him.

In terms of cinematography, I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about this. At some points it looks like the ugliest home movie from America’s Funniest Home Videos. But in some night scenes, it looks absolutely incredible. Michael Mann does this digital thing in Public Enemies too, and the sharpness sometimes works for me. I think it works better here than in Public Enemies, but I still struggle with the digital look from this era of Hollywood filmmaking - it works great for documentaries but feels off for fiction. That said, they’re doing a lot with what’s essentially a pretty shitty camera, which is genuinely impressive.

Story-wise? Simple, and I love it. Michael Mann does cops and robbers movies really well, and this pared-down approach works perfectly. But this is definitely a movie about masculinity and the parts of ourselves we have to kill in order to become masculine. I don’t love where Michael Mann ultimately lands on this - with Jamie Foxx finally “finding his voice as a man” after successfully murdering another man with a gun. That sits weird with me.

Tom Cruise looks incredible though. I love the salt and pepper look of his hair - I couldn’t tell if it’s a wig or dyed, but it looks great. The wolf analogy really worked and they made it super clear with that visual metaphor while the Audioslave song plays. By the way, I miss Audioslave. I should listen to them again today.

Cruise is terrifying in this. He’s basically a human Terminator, and I know gun nuts love his weapon handling in this movie. Even as someone who knows nothing about guns, it’s genuinely impressive to watch.

How good is Jada Pinkett Smith in this? I totally forgot about that performance. It’s pretty great, honestly. Just thought it was weird I’d completely forgotten it existed.

Anyways, I thought this was a fun thriller with some great, well-choreographed action. Michael Mann clearly cares about these characters a lot, and so do Cruise and Foxx. I loved how pared down this was for a Michael Mann movie in terms of length, budget, and scope.

I’m still mixed on where the themes end up landing, but it’s fine. It’s a fun Hollywood movie. I like it. It’s much better than most of the action schlock that was coming out in this era.

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