Hit Me!
Main Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tom Cruise, Jada Pinkett Smith
Director: Michael Mann
This movie reminds me of a Hitchcock drama: an innocent man caught up in events that yank him out of his daily life into something dangerous and mysterious. Jamie Foxx plays just such a character named Max. He is a cab driver, but a thoughtful one, who wants to start his own company. eventually. We learn of this, and a bit about him, as he flirts with a lawyer (Smith) passenger on a routine fare.
His next fare, a man named Vincent (Cruise), is not routine. I would have reminded Max that something “too good to be true” is. well, too good to be true. Vincent offers Max a good sum of money to drive him around exclusively. Max gives in, but finds out in a gruesome way just what Vincent’s “business” is.
This taut thriller is mainly focused on the two men. Vincent is smooth, too smooth by half, and seems to have all the answers. But Max does a good job in keeping his cool, and even sweats out a very dangerous meeting with some thugs brilliantly. The interaction between the true is the meat of the movie, and it succeeds.
I can definitely recommend Collateral. A good thriller, although the ending does leave the realm of belief and goes improbable, but I understand the director/writer was trying to end on a cute, ironic note. So I’ll give them a pass. Other than this it is solid all the way.
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