Collateral

Dreamworks | minutes | | | Standard DVD reviewed by: Christopher Bligh

It seems like during every summer film season, August produces at least one surprise that blows this viewer away and remains so for the next couple of years. Films like The Fugitive, The Sixth Sense and in a less successful financial but better movie because of it way SimOne, have been great examples of the closing month of the summer season and this year stands as no exception. All of those films have a certain actor or actors doing roles that expand on their persona or bring light to a new one that makes them all the more better for it. In the great hands of director Michael Mann, a tale of 2 characters suspended through yellow into the red and blue of the night in Los Angeles going from one location to another. This is a high charged tale, this is the L.A. nocturnal mileage thriller Collateral.

Max (Jamie Foxx) has dreams of a future and it's sitting right into the neat and clean environment of his yellow taxicab. Striking up a conversation with a female customer that catches his eye (Jada Pinkett-Smith), Max shares this dream he has about getting away from it all to a better place that goes beyond his exotic little picture under his visor. As he drops her off, he gets her card and an opening of confidence. This opening is closed when a sharp dressed customer at the drop off is invited after a minor brush off from Max. During their drive, this customer proposes to make some real estate stops and offer a nice sum of cash for Max's services. The customer introduces himself as Vincent (Tom Cruise). Little does Max realizes that his stops are not ordinary sign and closures but hits made for an even bigger purpose pulling Max in for a night the both of them will not forget or be left the same at it's end.

Since great movies like Heat, Manhunter, and The Insider, Michael Mann is what I call the "bright lights, big city in Panavision" director and he enhances that title with this film, even right down to the black and white studios logos giving this film a true tech-noir nocturnal mileage feel.

Los Angeles has never looked brighter, more eye popping or visual than in this film. Whenever a city is portrayed in his films, you can't help but admire the bright colorful lights that come with that. This is help from shooting the majority of the film in high definition giving a look that motion picture film can't come close to replicating.

From the arrival at the airport to the climax of the film, Mann keeps a great pace going and a tension that never lets up from one minute to the next. He gets the best out of his actors by keeping them at edge along with exposing a few weaknesses every now and then and taking advantage of that exposure. Mann is a director that is never about cliche. He's about actions and the character explorations around him that give the film another level of credibility. The film is never boring and one of the reasons why are the solid performances of Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.

As Vincent, Cruise brings a dressed to kill feel to this scruffy assassin being so good and being so bad. He has a job and must do it before night's end. He, like Max, has demons to fight within this short time period and they both come across a few roadblocks along the way that doesn't involve driving. He's the passenger that turns up the panic button and pull back lever in Max and Cruise does a masterful job at it. Tom also favors the rare non-main title credit routine as this follows in the same way Vanilla Sky did.

As Max, Foxx shows just how multi talented he is showing a man with a dream that may never come true and a constant shooting down of confidence. But within that shooting down, Max finds a way to come back up in moments of heightened tension and chaos that may not be familiar to him but like the best wild cards in that kind of crisis situation it pays off in a most unexpected way.

The way both of them play off each other is great and with an edge of your seat last third and an overall love of neon light amongst the darkness of L.A., Collateral is one hell of a ride that you'll even be catching your breath from past the end credits.

Collateral keeps the tradition of Michael Mann films in Panavision as the film is given the anamorphic treatment in the result of a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The look of the majorly digital film is amazing. The colors pop out in the night sky more vividly than expected. There is a few instances of haze throughout but the instances are minor and few and far between. The picture is flawless with the lack of film grain and scratches. There isn't a glitch to be seen or to be noticed. Many presume digital is the wave of the future for filmmaking and this is a great example of how it can be used properly. An excellent transfer.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track of Collateral is solid all the way through. The gunshots sound in a dynamic that only I had noticed both times I got to view this film on the big screen. The balance of score, dialogue and effects work nicely throughout and all can be heard through all the channels from the dialogue in the center to the effects and score throughout the outside channels. I admired the use of Bach's Air in one scene that sounded quite pretty on the stereo speakers. If only there was an isolated track to appreciate that, it would be all the more better for it but in this case it's fine indeed during this film and the track is loud, the surround is well executed and the result is music to your ears and your head as well. This disc also has a DTS track along with a English 2.0 and a French 2.0 track along with English, Spanish and French subtitles.

The back cover of the DVD will lead you to believe there is some extras on there but some key ones are not even noted and I would like to share them with you right now. There is a lack of a booklet which could've taken advantage of the two posters combined on the cover.

This is a 2-Disc affair and the first disc does have an unadvertised extra. It is a audio commentary with director Michael Mann and here he talks about some of the events going on the screen as well as the preparation he worked with both actors as well as the choice of filming in high definition. The track has no sure beginning and no sure end but hardly has any gaps and Mann speaks well on the look of some of the scenes and what drew him to the material in the first place. It is a fine track that makes this viewer anxious for the commentarytrack he will be doing on the Heat DVD in a few months.

This commentary also does something I have only seen on the Almost Famous Untitled DVD. The commentary is subtitled and can be viewed by watching the film as a text commentary or vice versa. Either way, it's a nice surprise and all extrawise on disc 1.

Disc 2 has the bulk of extras starting with City of Night: The Making of Collateral a 40 minute documentary covering the training and backstories of the characters depicted in the film along with a few things already mentioned on the commentary track by Mann. It also covers shooting in hi-def and showing some of the stuntwork in many different angles. It's a very good non-fluff piece by Laura Davis giving us a little more insight into the making of the film. Also, sit through the credits for a nice display of the different murals of Los Angeles with some more comments from Michael Mann.

Next up is a short featurette Special Delivery that shows in clips Tom Cruise in preparation of playing Vincent
posing as a Fed Ex man making a delivery in a high profile place and blending into the environment.

After that is a deleted scene with a commentary by Michael Mann showing Max and Vincent circling around LAX to lose some people on their tail during this night. It's an intriguing scene but one for understandable reasons taken out of the film.

Following that is Shooting on Location: Annie's Office going into the advantages of shooting through dark environments with a high-definition camera. There are some very good examples and is a nice short and sweet piece.

Next, being a valuable piece, is Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx in preparation rehearsal in how they grew into their characters through three scenes two rehearsals all the way to the finished film. It is an extraordinary piece and well worth the time after viewing the film.

Finally, there is Visual FX covering what measures had to be taken to achieve the look of the climax of the film. Any of these pieces should be viewed after watching the films for they have major spoilers throughout. All of these pieces can be seen all in one shot by choosing the Play All function.

On the next page of the special features, in the trailers section, there are DVD spots for Bourne Supremacy and Anchorman and a still for the Collateral soundtrack. It's still a mystery why one of the few trailers to Collateral are not included on this DVD. It would've really put the icing on this cake.

After that there are cast and filmmaker bios as well as production notes.

One more thing, there are five easter eggs, all on Disc 2, four of which are on the first screen of the special features. Going in the left direction on the selections City of Night, Special Delivery, Shooting on Location and Rehearsal, the easter eggs show a little more behind the scenes in between. The remaining egg on page 2 is going right on the selection Cast that goes into a short amusing montage of Michael Mann's signal of approval on the set.

(If only one of the easter eggs was a Collateral trailer)

The summer of 2004 was put to a thrilling end with the release of Collateral and the year of 2004 was put to a satisfactory end with the 2 disc effort of the Collateral DVD that goes very well recommended.