Collateral

Michael Mann’s sleek vision of night time L.A. is a West Coast Taxi Driver. Jamie Foxx is the cabbie who is hired by Tom Cruise, as a stylishly grizzled hit man, to drive around for a long night of bumping off informants and witnesses in a drug trial to begin the next day. Foxx certainly shows that Ray was no fluke, and Cruise is astoundingly efficient as a vision in gunmetal grey, from his suit to his beard to his hair to his professional philosophy. The noctural episodes have a satisfying arc, with succeeding snappy and tasty characterizations, and all the obligatory thrills, even some thought-provoking dialogue. In the end this is hardly more than another bastard spawn of 48 Hours, the interracial, odd couple buddy flick with all sorts of hurtling metal. But Mann’s flair for melodrama, the hypnotic mix of music and camera movement, makes the film well worth a viewing. (2004, dvd, n.) *7* (MC-71, RT-85.)