Collateral is an action-packed movie that pits mild-mannered cab driver, Jamie Foxx against Tom Cruise as a hired assassin. The film starts with a hazy scenes of a Los Angeles evening . For cab driver Foxx it is just another night in the city, another chance to make some money and drive around dreaming of the business he someday wants to start. His first fare is Jada Pinkett Smith who plays a lawyer who has a bantering conversation with him about the quickest way to get downtown. After he drops her off, his next fare is Vincent, the Tom Cruise character and then the fun begins. What begins as a standard ride suddenly veers into nightmare territory. The movie does a good job of keeping the action steady as Cruise begins his job of exterminating a series of people, not knowing that police detective Mark Ruffalo is on his tail. As the movie develops, the situations get more intense for Foxx as his character gets thrown into increasingly more dangerous situations.

Foxx does a decent job as an everyday guy who is suddenly thrown into extraordinary circumstances. He is the character we are supposed to care the most about but at times he seems to be uncomfortable in the role of straight man to Cruise’s wise-talking lunatic. The best moments do come from the interaction between these two characters but Cruise’s natural charisma is almost a liability because he threatens to outshine Foxx. Cruise seems to relish the chance to be an out-and-out villain. His gray-haired Vincent is charming but ultimately without redeeming qualities. Cruise’s toothy grin and quick delivery are show to great effect in this role. His physical training for other movies such as Last Samurai has left him with a catlike grace that comes out in the action scenes.

Michael Mann’s direction shows Los Angeles in all its glittery glory. The film takes place in downtown Los Angeles in one evening. Mann films L.A. as a land of broken glass and broken dreams. The city itself plays a starring role in the movie as Foxx drives Cruise through the wide nearly-vacant streets.

As the body count piles up and the action gets larger the movie loses some of its drama and plausibility. The larger the scope of the movie gets the less thrilling it becomes. Luckily toward the end, the focus again becomes the relationship between Vincent and Max. Ultimately the film lacks enough depth to be truly moving but as a well-made, if not innovative, action movie, it does quite well.