Emlyn A – Google

Don't listen to these fanboys. I loved Richie's movies when they were small, guerrilla flicks set in England; they had interesting characters, settings, and stories. (And The Gentlemen was good.) This one is an over-funded boondoggle set in...LA. Totally out of character, It's trying to be HEAT and failing with bad dialog, 1-dimensional characters, and predictable faceoffs. Some of the accents are just...no, and the plot is so full of holes... I give it 3 stars because McCallany, Donovan, and Eastwood were good enough to keep watching. He cast Eddie Marsan and then did nothing with him. I almost shut it off in the first 15 minutes.

I could almost give this 5 stars, it's that good. No idea if this was ever at the theaters but don't let the Netflix branding fool you: this is quality movie-making. It's a moody, slow-burn whodunnit with the same layers you'd find in Heat or Sicario. Amazing atmospheric music that often catches you off-guard. The movie doesn't talk down, it's very smart with storytelling; never gives too much away. The casting is excellent...OK, with the exception of Timberlake who is fine, but nothing to write home about. There are some twists that make this more than just a standard cops n robbers flick. Watch it.

Not sure I understand the low ratings from Rotten Tomatoes etc. This is a very well paced, well conceived action thriller with a strong cast and quite excellent action sequences. A couple of odd casting choices (I love Billy Bob Thornton, just not in this; the HQ commanders are far too young) but Chris Evans knocked this out of the park. Gosling always solid. The music is also notable here. Ignore the detractors, this is a surprisingly good action flick.

I think I must have watched the 60fps version of this film because it looked like the whole thing was shot on home video. I don't want to be unkind but I've never understood the the point of hyperreal video quality; I want *escapism* not reality. Michael Mann's movies work so well *because* they're escapism, so when you yank us, scene after scene, into reality the whole affair becomes trivialized, less engrossing, and less effective at storytelling. The music of Heat is excellent; I can see how some of the same approaches were used here, but it doesn't work. Also, the film is very dark—many nighttime scenes—which ends up making one scene very much like another. Depp and Bale are excellent, but the script wasn't all there. I so wanted to love this movie.

I think Michael Mann's Heat is one of the best crime thrillers ever made, and I can see some similarities in how Collateral was made. But this movie just doesn't succeed for me. The acting is good but the story just doesn't work; too many plot holes and not nearly enough character motivation. SPOILER ALERT. Why would an ostensibly intelligent hit man trust his scheme to some random cab driver? Why drive around in a cab all night doing hits when it's got a giant dent in the roof and blood on a smashed windshield? And that has *already* been pulled over by the cops? With a body in the trunk? Where did the cab driver suddenly get the balls to mouth off to mobsters? Why would a hit man shoot a couple of muggers, multiple times, risking attracting more attention of law enforcement? Why would cops enter a nightclub full of people, guns drawn—and why, after gun violence has already erupted, is the music still playing and people are still on the dance floor? Why would a hit man stand in a doorway firing blindly at a man who is doing the same back at him? I thought he "did this for a living"? A US District lawyer riding a cab from LAX? Oofff.

How did they manage to keep almost none of what made the first three movies so good? None of the fight choreography was anywhere close, just shaky cameras. None of the inventiveness and almost all of it we've seen before—only done worse. The bike chase was dumb, the car chase was absurd and there's nothing sexy or interesting about Vegas. What a disappointment. Vikander was the best thing in this.