"Yo Homie, Is That My Briefcase?"

One movie that ranks in the top five of my favorite movies of all time is the action - drama film, Collateral. Released in August of 2004, Collateral is another one of those films that calls into question destiny, fate and free will with a true crime back drop in the city of Angels.

Tom Cruise stars as Vincent, an intelligent, witty and pragmatic assassin in L.A. to do his hits for a narco cartel and get out before sunrise. Max, played by Jamie Foxx, is a mundane taxi driver oblivious to Vincent's killer self. Max soon learns who Vincent truly is after taxing Vincent to his first hit and the film kicks into high gear until its end.

The cinematography of the film was truly impressive. It was shot using an HD camera that added realistic and gritty visuals to the film and made the shots of Los Angeles come alive as if it were to a main character in the film. The choice of filming locations worked as well such as subway tunnels, parking garages, alleyways and ethnic music clubs. It portrayed the city as a living entity not just a simple inanimate setting.



Foxx and Cruise gave two of the best performances of their careers in this film. The film's was full of sharp and witty dialouge. Vincent's seriousness and cunning-ness was best articulated in the following line (my favorite line from the film) : "Okay, look, here's the deal. Man, you were gonna drive me around tonight, never be the wiser, but El Gordo got in front of a window, did his high dive, we're into Plan B. Still breathing? Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it." Cruise's delivery was so cool and ballsy I was like "FUCK YEAH!" Foxx also delivered a powerful scene when he posed as Vincent for a meet with the cartel representative that ordered the hits (played by Javier Bordem, something I just realized like yesterday):



The film's score was quite cosmopolitan. James Newton Howard's percussive instrumentals during suspenseful scenes added piercing tension.
The film was more than just a hitman killing and an innocent guy getting caught up in the mix. Vincent represented fate with his fine zeal of sticking to the plan and not making an diversions. When Max did make diversions violence soon followed:



Max represented free will by challenging the wrecking force that is Vincent. Max tested fate constantly through the film in his failed escape attempt after they visited his mother in the hospital, destroying Vincent's dossier, contacting Detective Fanning (played by a chulo looking Mark Ruffolo) and his failed attempt to prevent Vincent from serving the hit on Jazz man (played by Barry Shabaka):



In the end, free will succeeded. After Max discovered the last target on Vincent's hit list was Annie(played by Jada Pickett Smith), the federal prosecutor and passenger of his who he was quite enamored with, Max outsmarted Vincent. In a shootout in the federal building and a chase throughout downtown L.A. which ended on a subway train, Vincent succumbed to Max in a hail of gunfire.



Finally, as a fan of Michael Mann's true crime works, there was no way I'd sleep on this. I was pumped for this movie since seeing the trailer in the spring of 2004. I re watched five seasons of Miami Vice before the release of the 2006 remake(a highly underrated movie). I've watched Heat so many times that I've memorized the notably dialogue. Mann is one of the preeminent directors of the American cinema. Can't wait for Public Enemies.

COP IT!!