"Collateral": The Best Movie of 2004?
Category: Movies...
Posted Saturday, August 07, 2004 at 10:46 PM [GMT-6]

"Collateral" was as much a pleasant surprise as "The Village" was a dismal disappointment. We saw the Tom Cruise/Jamie Foxx movie this afternoon, and I came away thinking that this was one of the most intelligent and well-made films I've seen in a long time.

Tom Cruise's bad guy isn't much different from his usual good guy. He's quick-witted, supremely capable and scarily efficient at his job as a hitman. Cruise has taken a lot of heat over the years about his acting ability, but his screen presence in "Collateral" is mesmerizing at times.

Jamie Foxx (from Terrell, Texas, ya'll) is likely the next Denzel Washington (with perhaps even more talent; his upcoming role as Ray Charles will tell us for sure), and is excellent as a cab driver who's scared to be more.

But the real star of this movie is the screenplay...conversations are surprising, smart, funny; the plot takes some unexpected turns, but not so many as to strain credulity. The characters are believable and you care about them, even Cruise's amoral killer. The only aspect of the movie that sounded a wrong note was that so many streets and buildings in LA could be so deserted.

"Collateral" is rated R for bad language and violence, but neither is gratuitously excessive.