User reviews

This film held my attention for about 20 minutes, then it was one absurdity after another; one convenient plot manipulation after another that caused me to lose any semblance of interest. First: no cabbie would have such total independence from the dispatcher - we hear from the dispatcher twice - the first time he gets chewed out by Cruise (yeah, like THAT is going to happen) and the second time to relay that Foxx's mother called. Absurd. Anyone that's been in a cab, much less DRIVEN one, would know that you just don't drive around L.A. all night without checking in or there would be hell to pay not to mention cops looking for you. Cabbies get robbed and/or killed all the time, their disappearance would not go undetected. Second: the body left in the trunk - did Cruise just sort of space out that teeny piece of evidence? Third: good thing a neutron bomb hit L.A. that night so there was no traffic hardly anywhere. Uh huh. It's so helpful that targets in dark, noisy clubs sit where there is bright white light on them so they can be seen clearly not to mention the ease with which our main characters get away in the midst of the (eventual) chaos as the club empties out; the coyotes/wolves crossing the street, the subsequent awful musical interlude, the pseudo-psychological banter between killer and driver were enough to make me roll my eyes. ...And the list just goes on and on. This is not an adult thriller unless you're on meds that dull the senses. This is a mess of a film in spite of the acting being good -- the writing is just sloppy. There is nothing here that Hitchcock would appreciate, as some would assert. Hitchcock had plot conveniences and "coincidences" that would seem implausible, but in the hands of a Master, they were pulled off...not here, though. This is a good example of American cinema: "people don't want anything serious to think about, they just want to be entertained for a couple of hours".

Rent this if you must, but for me, it is 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.

This movie is a contrivance from the word go that doesn't even try to end up at a destination of any meaning.

Two hours spent with Tom Cruise the psychopathic hit man of immeasurable skill who is killed in the end by his freaked out cab driver with no skill and no balls.

This flick barely stays together through the first half, the setup and killing of the jazz trumpeter in his club after hours being sketchy at best, but then the movie takes a dive after the FBI catches on as the bodies pile up, and Cruise then goes into a Chinese disco in Los Angeles to take out his fourth victim (an informant against Mexican drug dealers it would seem). There is no one on this planet who could lucidly explain even half of what transpires inside the club as Cruise shoves his way through the elbow-to-elbow crowded dance floor while appearing to be able to recognize every FBI agent inside and kill most of them even though you the viewer can't tell who is who nor imagine how anyone else could.

After exiting the club and reclaiming his cab driver outside by killing the LAPD detective who the cabbie thinks has rescued him from the evil Cruise, the cabbie freaks out and flips the cab. Cruise exits and runs off to make his next kill while the dazed and confused Cabbie is first helped by a cop then arrested when the cop discovers the body of Cruise's first victim in the open trunk.

But, as the cuffs are going on the cabbie, he peers into the back seat and sees the open laptop screen on which Cruise has the address and pictures of his victims. The final one is there and it is the attractive U.S. Attorney who the cabbie scored a date with just before Cruise got into his cab and began the nightmare hours earlier.

Now, besides the cabbie being dazed to near unconsciousness, the laptop is a good six feet away from him and the picture of his fantasy date is about two inches square…

Even an alert eagle would have trouble seeing that.

The cabbie then fights off the cop, handcuffs him and takes off running with his gun to stop Tom Cruise from making his final kill of the evening.

You know how that comes out. Even the morons who this movie was apparently made for can figure that out.

Now why would Cruise be trying to kill the U.S. Attorney doing the prosecution? The sophisticated gang who hired Cruise (who appear to operate at a level beyond the Mexican government) couldn't figure out that the Federal government has more prosecutors?

It's amazing that this kind of money could be spent and a director like Michael Mann would be involved with a flick that had a script this lame. Every cast member and plot turn in this movie is as hollow as Tom Cruise's hit man psychopathic character.

You were warned.

Sorry but I really thought this movie was pretty stupid. I enjoyed the conversation in the taxi at the beginning, but once it became clear that Max was required to keep driving Tom around LA, bad memories of Phone Booth (even worse) came back and the stupidity quickly ensued. The actors are good but the plot is one of those silly whipped up stories that movie-makers are tending to use more and more to fill up two hours. There was no real flow to this movie, nor any subtlety or beauty. I am not a particularly demanding movie-watcher, but I require movies to have an IQ of at least 80 - this movie fell well short of that. I am surprised that it is getting so many good reviews.

More style than substance. And pretty badly styled. I didn't mind that Cruise was cast against type. I really liked Jamie Foxx. And how can you not love Jada Pinkett Smith? But the script was almost unusable from a reality point of view. Do NOT trust these hugely overinflated IMDb ratings that this movie received. I can't see how anyone could really like this movie. It doesn't leave you with anything but a bunch of loose ends and unfulfilled dreams. Highly NOT recommended. Not even a good rental. Don't waste your time and money unless you really feel like watching a movie with weird characters, a bad plot, and awful action scenes.

For one thing, if anybody believes that squeaky-clean Tom Cruise is a hit man, they need to get their heads examined. And his hair frosted sliver like that. Puh-leese....

Halloween, anybody? (laughs)

And Jamie Foxx spends the whole time grimacing and making faces for the camera. This is the guy who won the Oscar last year, right???

And of course you have to have a Halle Berry-type in the form of Jada Pinkett Smith that Jamie Foxx has to save. Now why would a high-priced lawyer like her be interested in a flunkie cab driver like Jamie Foxx? More standard same-ol same-ol, I guess... (yawn...)

I thought that was idiot Will Smith's job? No?

The cliché ending is typical. Now if Mann went for a shocker like in Se7en, I'd go up a few marks and be mighty impressed.

But naww, he played it safe. No mo silver frosted hair.

It's also shot using a DV camera instead of film. Is there something wrong with film? Please go back to film until they can make digital look like film and not digital. I suppose all the techno Gen Y types thinks it looks good, but I think the whole lighting and camera thing looks like crap, especially on the big screen. I thought I was going blind since everything seemed out of focus. Maybe it looks better on DVD. Who knows...

Sorry Mann but you blew it. Grade: F

2 out of 10

I recall seeing this years ago. Maybe because Jamie Foxx was getting Oscar hype. And I thought it was fairly cool. Probably because the Scion Tologist was playing something other than a pretty boy.

When I saw it about a decade later I realized how ridiculous the climactic scenes are. Everything from the setup, to the warning call, to the characters' actions, to some super-natural eyesight. And all built upon the ''he's in the house" type of horror-movie setup that was fresh for about 5 minutes 50 years ago.

When I saw it again tonight the whole thing was absurd. It's hard to even know where to start, but let's stick to the cultist's character. He's supposedly a world-class hitman. Admittedly, I'm not a hitman myself. But I bet if I were I'd try to take care of business while creating a lot less hullaballoo than the mydgyt creates on this night of bloodshed. Granted, he appears to be a superhero, surviving a triple MVA rollover and a bullet to the head in the space of about a half hour. Plus, he appears invisible to police helicopters.

Characters just seem to drop off. Javier Bardem was interesting. And then he disappeared. Did they cut his scenes so they could leave more of Will Smith's wife's scenes in? Bad decision. The former is a world-class actor. The latter is married to The Fresh Prince.

Kudos to Jamie Foxx's agent for being able to generate enough hype to make a hit of this dungpile.

Some people have been loving this movie, some went further by calling it a masterpiece. And the others have been wondering why so many people, let alone loving, even liked this film. The dichotomy in scrutiny is significant.

I've wondered the reason behind all of those 'over the top' ratings until the last 15 minutes. After that, I realized that those peeps who've been reviewing the movie must have just saw Tom Cruise and slapped those 10/10 ratings. There can't be any other reason.

Cheesy and shallow philosophical arguments, Jamie Foxx's below-the-bottom acting and his pseudo-humanist character, plot holes that are bigger than the plot itself, trying too hard for a ironic climax and making Tom Cruise's bound to his character only subtle thing about this movie by acting as if the viewer is stupid by making the character explain the irony and so on.

Only good thing about this movie is that it ends. Yes, a cheesy comment for a cheesy movie.

Learned from this movie to never pick one based on ratings or reviews...

I found this very lame, no thriller, no suspense at all and above all no complete or great story.

I was surprised because it holds two great actors.

This movie was really slow paced and wasnt all that good, had 3 good scenes but thats it and the camra angles were not good.

Before telling about this movie I would like to question Tom Cruise why does he accept such movies(even Lions for Lambs was very boring). The movie had no story. It is totally dull and boring right from the minute one. The plot has very little to offer. The movie theme is totally dark. Only a few shots of Tom Cruise are a bit interesting. Otherwise as a whole the movie has nothing to offer. It totally lacks pace except for the last ten minutes. All the murders are very boring. The movie does not look like a motion picture at all. Even the camera work isn't right. Only you should watch it for the performances for Tom Cruise and Foxx. I would not recommend this to anyone unless they want to waste around 90 min of their life on this stupid movie.I hope that I would see Tom Cruise in some meaningful movie at least in the near future.

This movie was predictable and boring. There was no chemistry between the main actors and the acting itself was badly done. Cruise moved slowly and no one would believe the tough cold-blooded killer, ready to take out an army of enemies, just because he is so conscious and so well trained - he was not! Jean Reno (Leon the professional) was a tough one and even Denzel Washington (Man on Fire) was really tough and well trained. Cruise character could never decide between nice guy and mean bad guy. To much talking, to much meaningful looks...I am truly disappointed by this one. And then the strange coincidence in the end...I could not believe that...and that was, when the movie became a complete waste of time for me.

... I have a bridge to sell you!

I realize most people are not good at math, but the sheer immensity of the odds of this NOT happening should be immediately apparent.

It's beyond any coincidence that in a city of 5 millions, the precise 3 main characters meet, and the precipitating events happen in order: the lawyer takes that particular cab, during the ride she becomes attracted to the cabbie enough to give him her phone number, the killer takes the same cab, and he murders a guy whose body falls on the cab.

Even if you're gullible enough to "swallow" the impossible scenario, there's an extremely efficient and cold professional killer who keeps putting up with an antagonizing cabbie over and over again for no good reason.

Then there's a slew of sloppy details: the last door on a subway train is unlocked, Peter Berg looks straight into the camera at 1h 13 min (fire the editors!), so does Jada P. Smith, etc.

Apparently, with a rating of 7.5 from 300k+ votes, this dumb movie hit its intended audience with an IQ below 80.

This movie did start out like any other...of Tom Cruises movies. He in all the years he's been in Hollywood, still has not learned to act. Granted he is much better than he was in his early days, however, a man of his status, pay and notoriety, should provide more substance.

The movie without providing any spoilers, was drab, it moved along with the grace and fervor of an 87 year old with a hip replacement and arthritis. The plot was exceptionally unexceptional, and provided little meat. I found myself waiting desperately for this to be over, or at least hoping for a good "wrap up" at the end.

The one saving grace was the acting of Jamie Foxx. He certainly has come a long way since the Wayne Brother days.He actually made me believe that he was just the OCD cab driver pitching a dream. The nuances of the way he held himself leave much to discuss if and when he moves on to more humble parts like these. He is one to keep an eye on.

The only thing that really stuck in my memory about Collateral is the suit Tom Cruise was wearing. Actually, i bought a similar one some time down the line.

The movie has an intriguing start yet quickly proves to be a poor script backed by substantial budget. Or maybe i had too high expectations... Anyhow, i quickly forgot that i'm watching what should be a suspenseful thriller and perceived it as bad comedy. I laughed through the rest of the movie which might have disturbed the other viewers in the theater. Sorry about that.

Jamie Foxx offers his standard performance and saves the world from Tom Cruise. The latter had one of those roles that should display his skills but are superfluous due to poor script, unlike in, for example Minority Report (2002). Jada Pinkett Smith was there, as well, but was a side role, in true sense of the word.

This movie goes directly into the "goofs" column as every single scene of it is a "goof" on its own.