Collateral (DVD)

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The big-budget action movie is a formula that has been tried and tested so much so that it has become its own cliché. So recognizable are these themes that they became their own movie, sans story, in the lampooning film "Team America: World Police." Many people, myself included, have grown tired of the big-bang, special-effects laden Summer action movie. While "Collateral" strives to be more, and succeeds through the majority of its run-time, it falls into many of the same clichés that strike its contemporaries.

"Collateral" is the story of two men who are drawn together by chance and luck who become more inseparable as the film rolls on. Vincent (Tom Cruise) is in L.A. on a mission. He´s a professional hitman who is an expert at his craft and runs with a very distinct method of operation that generally absolves him of blame and conscience. He hooks up with Max (Jamie Foxx) as his driver for the night to move him expediently though the city and ultimately will have him take the blame.

The first half-to-two-thirds of the movie takes a chance to sit back and focus on an extremely (cinematically speaking) short timeframe to understand the machinations and motivations of those involved. Character, like most Mann movies, is what drives the story here, and we´re fortunate to find two extremely complex men with multiple layers waiting to be unfurled. Vincent lives in a world of justified killing, at least in his own mind. Trained in the special forces and coming from an abusive home, he finds ways to rationalize his actions, looking at himself as the hero. His dialogue isn´t clear because he is deluding himself as well as trying to justify his actions to others.

Max, meanwhile, is taken along for Vincent´s ride, unaware that he will ultimately serve as the patsy for Vincent´s crimes. Like Vincent, Max has deluded himself to believe that he´s more than simply a cab driver. He has dreams of running how own limo company but in the 17 years he´s been driving cabs has been unable to marshal the funds due to poor investments and gambling losses. That hasn´t stopped him from lying to his mother about his already-successful business and letting his dreams take over his reality. Max and Vincent bring a level of complexity to the screen that´s rarely seen because, until the middle of the second act, we really don´t know if Vincent is on the level. The philosophical exchanges the two have while riding between locations are extremely revealing, if you´re able to distill the discourse to its actual meaning. It is these moments, the chance to peer into the minds of our principals, sets "Collateral" apart from other movies of its ilk.

Mann´s cinematography is well-done, possessing a surreal and gritty quality that places the audience into a mindset that is very reflective of Max´s journey through the film. It is familiar and recognizable but through a fog. Though Vincent speaks out on how he despises Los Angeles, Mann treats it with love and respect. In the commentary he´ll point out landmarks he made it a point to include because of the tone it sets in the film. I´ve never been to L.A. but can feel Mann´s, a Chicago native, love and admiration for the City of Angels. His locations are excellent and the sets capture the diversity of the city along with its expansive nature.

As I said earlier, the movie succeeds through the majority of its running. The acting is excellent, the story superb and original, and the movie really had me believing in its world. Unfortunately the film falls, in the final quarter, into a clichéd territory. Rather than have the film go in an unforeseen direction, it pulls back in a throwaway moment from earlier in the film that defined Max´s character and begins a chase and shootout that has been done many times before. It´s still excellently performed and presented, but for a film that had been, to that point, interesting and different, I was disappointed to be able to predict the final act of the film. It´s got some wonderful ironic moments that play back to brief statements in the first portions of the movie, but still had me rolling my eyes and shaking my head as Max becomes an out-of-character action hero. I could follow the train of thoughts through most of the movie but the ending seemed too scripted to me. For a movie that strove for realism in look and tone, this radical departure seemed like a cop-out.

On the whole, I can easily recommend "Collateral" on the strengths of the performances. Although there were some logical leaps on the parts of the police early in the film, I can say that the majority of the movie is original, smart, and clever. Mann´s movie brings out some great characters that create a good movie out of a decent story. Stylish and beautiful, "Collateral" is a nice change of pace.

Video:
Shot in high definition, "Collateral" looks magnificent. A lot of natural lighting is used and there is a large amount of grain that´s distracting in well-lit and daylight scenes, however it was all present in the theatrical presentation of the movie. "Collateral" isn´t going to look as great as most movies released this year because it´s not meant to look like a Hollywood movie, it is meant to look real. The image has tremendous depth but everything looks a little muted, fuzzy, and washed out. While these might be perceived as flaws, it´s all part of the stylish picture Mann has created. The transfer suffers from no film artifacts and looks great.

Audio:
There are two flavors for the audio on "Collateral" and both sound magnificent. Unsurprisingly I´m going to give the edge to the dts soundtrack because it sounds a smidge crisper and contains a great clarity especially evident during the gunplay scene in the nightclub and during the airplane arrival in the beginning of the film. The rears are used sparingly but when they are activated they are used to set a mood and cause immersion in the movie, to great effect. The dialogue, essential in this movie, is clear and crisp and the music has a great range.

Extras:
Being a two-disc set, you would expect to be deluged with information on the making of this film and you would be right. The first, and most notable extra, is the solo commentary by filmmaker Michael Mann. He spends a lot of the time early describing the action-on-screen and making comments on the motivations of the actors that are fairly routine, but later on starts to delve into the making of the feature, some of the backstory they created for Vincent, and the ways he used HD cameras and natural lighting for effect. Overall it´s a worthy listen, if you do slap your head because Mann says something obvious.

The second disc contains the bulk of the extra materials. "City of Night: The Making of Collateral" is exactly what it sounds like, a feature-length documentary that explores how Michael Mann and company were drawn to the project and how they went about committing it to screen. The majority of the information is duplicated in the commentary but I prefer it here with some instant visual references and more principal commentators including designers and actors. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes material included here, including on-set footage and background weapons training. It´s one thing to hear Mann talk about what Cruise went through, it´s another to see him to build this character from the ground up. The same goes for the driving training Foxx received and the work put into his neurosis. Not only is this documentary everything that the commentary is, it´s more succinct and I prefer it. An excellent addition.

"Special Deliver" is a one-minute scene of Tom Cruise learning to be unrecognizable by doing the job of a FedEx deliveryman.

There is only one deleted scene included in this set, the elimination of tails as Vincent gets set to go to Fever and nail his target. It´s a good scene that makes Vincent seem more professional and gives the police more time to find their target. It does break up the flow of the story and it makes sense to have removed. It´s presented with commentary by Mann.