Collateral follows Max, a cab driver played by Jamie Foxx, as he makes his rounds throughout Los Angeles. He gets thrown into the middle of a conspiracy when he realizes he’s driving around a hitman, played by Tom Cruise, that’s been paid to kill certain people.

When Max drops the hitman off at his first stop, he hears gunshots and a body falls on his taxi, breaking his windshield. For the rest of the night, the assassin recruits Max to drive him around to his five remaining hits before taking him to LAX, Los Angeles airport, to catch the next plane out of town.

Collateral could very well be the first dramatic role for Jamie Foxx. There’s nothing funny about this movie. No jokes, no hilarious remarks, just pure drama. Foxx does a great job in breaking away from his “funny guy” persona and falling into a serious supporting actor role. He does a great job in conveying his emotions and thoughts to the camera and delivers each line like he was actually driving a hitman around Los Angeles in a cab.

Cruise plays Victor, the hitman who is been hired to take out the witnesses and the prosecuting attorney fora case that’s causing a lot of stress around Los Angeles. The FBI and the LAPD are working on the same case and Cruise is riding around LA in the back of a cab, taking out their witnesses and prosecuting attorney.

Collateral is a great movie. The plot moves fast and you don’t know what’s going to happen next. Collateral is also a horrible movie at points because it seems that the plot keeps dragging on and on. You want to scream at the movie screen, “HURRY UP ALREADY!”

Ironically, I fell asleep during the first 20 minutes of the movie, but once Cruise started shooting people, I was wide awake.

Cruise plays the part of a hitman well, but viewers might not believe that Cruise IS the hitman. Cruise takes on the same heartlessness and cold, unfeeling emotions as any hitman would have. However, when you look up at the screen, you don’t see a hitman. You see Tom Cruise playing a hitman.

The acting is somewhat convincing but the plot and storyline are so slow that you just want the five witnesses to die already so you can catch Taco Bell before it closes. I wouldn’t recommend this movie if there are other blockbuster movies out, but if you don’t have anything to do, and no other movie sounds good, watch it. It’s not all that bad.