If you can get beyond that (and I can't), Foxx is pretty good, Mann's direction is okay, distinctive and clear. Cruise doesn't wreck the picture--which says a lot. The few moments when he actually raises his voice, however, it's Chip and Dale all over again, and Mann's skidding on thin ice (him and Kubrick, actually). Can you imagine what Robert Downey Jr. can do with this role?
1/23/05
Collateral
Saw Mann's Collateral. Still can't get over how absurd the notion is (why would hiring a taxicab make more sense than renting a car, say? How do you control the driver in the meantime (Cruise could barely control Foxx). Why do five targets a day? Okay, if news of the first gets out, security tightens on the other four (why didn't it, incidentally, especially on the last one?)--wouldn't it make more sense to hire five hitmen and kill all five targets at once? And (SPOILERS) why would killing the lawyer matter? The testimony is irreplaceable, but I don't think the lawyer is--ask for a postponement and get someone else. On the other hand, why would anyone want to stop a lawyer from getting killed (okay, it's Jada Pinkett; maybe if she would quit her job...).
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2 comments:
You're right, Noel. An friend visited the production a few times and told me all about the maniacal research Mann, as usual, did, and obliged everyone to do - Cruise had to "kill" a member of Mann's staff for practice - but no one thought about those crater-sized holes in the script. Maybe Mann's best, and I like Cruise better than you do, but come on - Public Enemy is a ten times beter film.
Hi Bill! This is Bill, isn't it?
Yep, I do think Kang Woo-Suk's Public Enemy is far better, simply because the character was believable. You loved him the same time you're exasperated by him.
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