☆★☆★☆★☆★
Roger Ebert gave Collateral three and a half stars and described its five stops as short films joined by the killer and driver’s continuing conversation.
In the discussion (1)
- The panel endorses Ebert’s short-film observation because each stop acts like a distinct episode in the night.
Russell Crowe as Vincent earns enthusiasm; Adam Sandler as Max and Edward Norton in either lead are uncertain, while Val Kilmer’s planned Fanning is the painful lost option.
In the discussion (5)
- Mimi Leder and Janusz Kamiński were attached before Crowe’s interest brought Mann to the project; Spike Lee, Scorsese, and Spielberg were also approached.
- Crowe would make a different but exciting Vincent, while Sandler would make the movie funnier but might prevent viewers from accepting Max.
- Edward Norton was reportedly offered both leads, Colin Farrell Vincent, and Cuba Gooding Jr. Max.
- Val Kilmer withdrew from Fanning because of Alexander, leaving the hosts imagining his facial-hair choices and 80-take phone scene.
- Dennis Farina was the original Bruce McGill possibility.
Research covers Stuart Beattie’s teenage cab-ride premise, Mann’s character biographies, and Vincent’s sixteen kills.
In the discussion (3)
- Beattie reportedly conceived a calm killer behind an unsuspecting cab driver while riding home from Sydney airport at seventeen.
- Mann wrote unseen background documents so the actors could answer questions about Vincent and Max’s earlier lives.
- The hosts count sixteen people killed by Vincent.
The surviving cab, jazz expertise, open-air double murder, empty station, travel-time certainty, and implausibly unused freeway bridges generate the nits.
In the discussion (5)
- A body falling four floors should cave in the cab roof and prevent a full night of driving.
- Vincent may know Miles Davis history because he prepared for Daniel, but the breadth of his jazz fluency still feels tailored to the scene.
- Two loud close-range killings near Santa Monica should cause more attention than the easy escape suggests.
- The operating train station has no staff or other people, and Max treats Los Angeles drive estimates as exact despite traffic variability.
- The film uses pedestrian freeway bridges that the hosts have never seen Angelenos use outside action movies.
Questions ask how Felix’s case proceeds, why a major witness visits Fever, whether Max and Vincent should switch roles, and why Mann repeatedly names characters Vincent.
In the discussion (4)
- With most witnesses dead and Annie alive, the panel is unsure whether Felix faces a mistrial, a retrial, or a viable prosecution.
- A key witness going to a crowded nightclub instead of witness protection exposes the prosecution’s weak security.
- Switching Foxx and Cruise is judged worse but intriguing; a Gosling and Michael B. Jordan remake is another hypothetical.
- Mann’s repeated use of Vincent, including in Heat, remains unexplained.
Roger Ebert's review