everyone says that this is the first time tom cruise has played the bad guy, but — hello? interview with a vampire, anyone? ok, so this movie was a tad bit different. he didn’t have long hair, or fangs, … or a vampire complex. and he wasn’t a frenchie.

jamie foxx also turns in a surprisingly good performance. i wouldn’t go so far as to say “a star is born”, but he carried his own pretty well. for once in my life, i didn’t think of him as wanda from in living color. tom cruise also does a good job with his role as the baddie. i didn’t buy that he was a fifty year old man because, aside from the salt-and-pepper hair, he was still pretty much a stud. michael mann directs collateral very well, with the jostling camera and the heavily shadowed shots. while confidence makes los angeles look good with vibrant lighting, collateral does the same by utilizing the dark.

story-wise, collateral was weaksauce. i felt that tom cruise’s character, vincent, was trying to teach the taxi driver that life is futile, so what’s the harm in taking someone’s life, but it just felt so forced that i couldn’t take it seriously. the ending, i assume, is supposed to make the audience feel something for vincent or grasp the lesson he was trying to teach, but it all seemed so abrupt and ultimately meaningless.