Collateral
11:58 AM 08/11/04
There are those movies that have a bad case of the "impossibles", and there are those who suffer from just a slight touch of it. Collateral would be the latter. Quite unfortunate, if you ask me. Tom Cruise movies often seem to imply more than a reasonable amount of research and due diligence devoted to making it palatable, even its from a futuristic perspective. The Minority Report is a great example. I think almost all the goodies that were showcased in the movie are fairly palatable. Transparent LCD screens, albeit monochrome yet, have been around for a while. Wearable computers are gaining ground. The MagLev and the hovercraft may take a while, but I'll buy it - given that its the future and all that.
The movies that have a bad case of the "impossibles" are just bad, or are intended to be laugh riots, or are both. The other category are usually good, believable, and has the audience focussing on the story because of the focus on realism. Collateral had an interesting little detail, which, if you've seen the movie, is fairly critical to the movie - and is fairly unrealistic. LCD flat panels in taxicabs don't stay turned on when forcibly detached (and usually can't be that easily detached, either). In addition, one can't plug a USB flash drive into an LCD flat panel that's curiously still working after being detached from its supporting hardware and power source. USB flash drives went driver-free only after Windows 2000, and I wonder if taxicab LCD flat panels run that specific OS. I would guess that those would run some stripped-down OS or used an ASIC that was programmed only to do the call acceptance / transaction processing functions. And WHERE does one find a USB port on a taxicab LCD flat panel to plug a USB flash drive into? Couple all this with the fact that the USB flash drive contains critical information without which the rest of the story would come to a dead stop; and you'll see how deep the touch of the "impossibles" goes.
The plot is pretty clear after the first thirty minutes of the movie. Tom Cruise is a hired gun, and Jamie Foxx is a cab driver with bad karma. Also, not too long after the first murder has an overenthusiastic gumshoe making a remark about another similar set of murders that ended with the cab driver committing suicide; and we have some expectations about Jamie's fate at the end of the movie. No twists so far.
Perhaps the suit's too tight (spot the split at the end). Perhaps he focussed too hard on weight training and didn't get enough flexibility workouts. Whatever the case may be, Tom's gun-pulls and other assassin-basics actions seemed a tad too slow and unreal. Perhaps I'm too used to bullet-time, but they just seemed a tad too unpractised for someone who's "done this for a living" (as Tom repeatedly stresses throughout the movie) for "six years in the private sector". In addition, he's got the silencer on at times, and it isn't on at other times. I would think a hired gun doing his / her thing in a city would never unscrew the silencer from the muzzle of the gun till the job was done. Ditto for all the emotion he put into killing people during the nightclub sequence. I would think someone "who does this for a living" would be a lot more calm and collected about doing everything that went with the line of work.
And going after the attorney struck me as unnecessary as well. Without witnesses in a criminal defense case, my guess would be that an attorney couldn't do much other than wax eloquent and work towards having the case dismissed for lack of evidence. Not having any experience either with criminal defense legalities or hired gun moralities, I'll agree that my opinions would be far from factual, but hey, whaddyagonnadoaboudit?!
Its not that bad, just a tad slower than most Cruise movies. Jamie's known to be a comedian, and that aspect of his background is sadly missing as well. I'm glad the movie's making its millions, but I hope it continues to for a while. As I understand it, Tom Cruise doesn't come cheap...
The Bourne Supremacy
11:51 AM 8/7/2004
If you polled a reasonable cross-section of spooks and paper-pushers from all the three three-letter security agencies for the top ten things that they're told not to do, I'm guessing "To not be near an open, glass window facing the street while on the job" would be way up there. Barring this modest gaffe, the Bourne Supremacy is everything its promos claim it to be. Fast, fast, fast - almost up to the point of eyestrain, and loads of public transport. By that measure, its almost fitting that the movie ends in NYC.
It works well as a sequel. Our boy Jason gets to be the slippery eel all over again, and the plot swerves (literally) to eliminate most of the "character garnish" from the original. Meaning, if they were to make another movie, the creative talent would have the liberty to craft up an entirely new set of characters without making fans think about a dropped link.
I couldn't help but draw an analogy between the character of Jason Bourne and Batman. If that didn't tickle you pink enough to fall laughing out of your chair, read on. Jason Bourne's mortal, ditto Batman. He is an orphan, ditto Batman. Wealth, health and a place to rest for the night are never concerns, ditto Batman. The opponents have grandiose setups and outnumber him tenfold, ditto Batman. Quick-kicking, less-talking - ditto Batman. Significant other who barely knows his real identity, ditto Batman. ALWAYS has the right gadget to do the job at hand, ditto Batman. Perpetual morose expression, ditto Batman. Walks away into the night, ditto Batman. See, I told you there was something there...
It ain't exactly a whodunit. The bad guy's got a face almost from the very start, and that's good enough for me. In addition, I couldn't really figure out why JB's dreams are always about his gigs and not about who he really is. The personal information at the end if a nice touch, though. Another interesting touch is that passports (but, strangely, not visas...) are a concern in JB's travels. Its not as if he zips from one country to another like the other breed of supercool secret agents that Hollywood's getting us used to. Of course, I would still wonder how one can possibly carry all that cash on person at all times, but lets cut him some slack there. Perhaps he's got the AmEx black to go with his dark ensemble.
All in all, a good movie. Would I buy the DVD when it comes out? I dunno...but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I liked it. I'm sure you will too.
For the detail detectives amongst you, here's a question: Does HandSpring make a Treo that uses an easy-to-remove SIM, and is this phone available and functional in Italy? The quick SIM clone bit struck me as a tad improbable.