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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 24.87%
Worth A Look: 40.21%
Average: 16.4%
Pretty Bad: 14.29%
Total Crap: 4.23%
15 reviews, 99 user ratings
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Collateral |
by Greg Muskewitz
"Collecting on Mann's lien."

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As bloated as Michael Mann movies get, something about a hitman (Tom Cruise) in Los Angeles for a designated five stops (one for each hit) and the unfortunate cabbie (Jamie Foxx) who is made accomplice to the zigzagging about town.(We get a little preamble to be witness of the goodness of the driver as he chauffeurs a lawyer from the Attorney General’s office, played by Jada Pinkett-Smith, along with Foxx making their second stand in a Mann film after Ali, but don’t let that be distraction for a greater purpose in the long run.) It takes a good, long while before there’s much sense made of anything (the whos, the wheres, the whys, the whats, the hows — given that one is so intent on keeping their head above water), and even then, things aren’t to stay as they seem. There are a lot of unnecessary diversions taken, such as the side trip to the hospital, which only gives way to an opportunity for another otherwise pointless pitstop, but all in the general vicinity of tying things together with Mann’s clumsy fingers, his jittery, jagged, jumbled m.o., additionally garbled up by ambient noise and inarticulate actors. The only help that it serves is to connect the gross coincidences that pile about, that is, before the end collision is to take place — the u-turn, the blow out, the bust, the flat, the crunch. Long before then, it’s run out of gas and has screechingly and grindingly reached where it has got to go by riding on the rims. Foxx works hard to tuck away some points for his namby-pamby out-of-type portrayal (nothing, say, Will Smith could ever humble himself to play), while Cruise and Mann keep bringing attention to his badly dyed silvering hair (and with skin as tight as his!), with the additional likes of Bacardi Silver and a lone silver wolf.[Not to be bothered with.]
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=10300&reviewer=172 originally posted: 08/07/04 18:54:04
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OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2005 Sydney Film Festival For more in the 2005 Sydney Film Festival series, click here.
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USA 06-Aug-2004 (R) DVD: 14-Dec-2004
UK N/A
Australia 14-Oct-2004
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