Collateral

surf

surf

Veteran
I saw this film a few days ago. I liked the story. There were nice night shots (but Lost in Tranlation's were better). I like the city form the sky, from the helicopter. But some scenes were too dark. In the sky-scraper scene, when the lights were gone, I saw nothing. That was bad. And there was another annoying thing, it looked that it was shot in 60fps. It lost the feeling of the film. In my opinion it could have been done better.
 
i like this film alot. I think its beautiful and there will be alot of guff for saying that.
 
Filmjunkie677 said:
A Michael Mann Film.

My favorite director. I like anything this man makes. I loved the look of it. I love grain.
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Michael Mann's certainly a fine director. Collateral was not his best, after all, he did Heat, The Last of the Mohicans, The Insider and Manhunter, but it was entertaining and a good watch. And it wasn't his worst movie either, has everyone forgotten what he did to F. Paul Wilson's The Keep?
 
The Keep is the one Mann film I've never seen. I've looked for it on VHS and have had trouble finding it.

I love Mann.

From "Thief" to "Collateral". All his films. I just love the way he shoots a picture. His cinematography. Composition and framing are out of this world.

"Heat" is one of my favorite films EVER.

"Ali" was the only film I was disappointed with. It didn't feel like a Mann film.
 
Generally speaking, I'm not the biggest Mann fann...er fan. I see many of his films (especially those of late) as being stylized for the sake of being stylized.

The Last of the Mohicans is hands down his finest achievement as a director IMO.

Heat, though entertaining when viewed as an Action/Crime flick, is not the cinematic masterpiece that some elevate it up to be.

The Keep I have always enjoyed, and in my eyes it is a close second to Mohicans. Granted, it couldn't be more distant from the novel that spawned it...but it stands on its own two feet as a solid film. It is not unlike The Shining in this regard (not that I a comparing the two.) Kubrick's vision didn't exactly see eye-to-eye with King's, but the film took on a life all it's own.

:beer:
 
I really like Collateral. I agree it wasn't his finest film, but it was far from his worst. I though Jamie Foxx did a good job in this film. Tom Cruise was alright...
 
I loved Collateral. Even more so than Heat.

It had a great chemistry going between Fox and Cruise. I loved the cinematography. The decision to shoot digital really helps the story.

But the reason i like this one more than Heat is the pacing. Heat tended to drag here and there in ways that irked me a bit. However i feel that Collateral has near perfect pacing. Its a great action movie. And the ending. God damn i love that ending.

Poetry in pictures my friends.



I also Absolutely love Mohicans. I haven't seen it in a while and might rekindle the love tonight.
 
Blaine said:
Michael Mann's certainly a fine director. Collateral was not his best, after all, he did Heat, The Last of the Mohicans, The Insider and Manhunter, but it was entertaining and a good watch. And it wasn't his worst movie either, has everyone forgotten what he did to F. Paul Wilson's The Keep?
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The best 2 things about The Keep were the love scene (if I remember correctly) and the creature created by Bob Keen, known as the British Tom Savini. Otherwise it was disjointed and dull.

The Machinist said:
I also Absolutely love Mohicans. I haven't seen it in a while and might rekindle the love tonight.
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Try to find it on VHS widescreen. The DVD release (dir. cut) changed some scenes and messed-up the wonderful score. I was forced to hunt down the VHS rental in a mom-and-pop video store and capture it to DVD, but the quality is quite good.
 
The Machinist said:
The decision to shoot digital really helps the story.
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well I really do not like that digital footage. Too clean too "home-video-like" at 60fps
 
Try to find it on VHS widescreen.
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Laserdisc Widescreen.

Mohicans and Blade Runner are the only two i haven't upgraded to DVD because of the changes made.



Too clean too "home-video-like" at 60fps
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I think i see where you're coming from.

But i still maintain it works to the advantage of the story.
 
surf said:
I like the city form the sky, from the helicopter. But some scenes were too dark. In the sky-scraper scene, when the lights were gone, I saw nothing. That was bad.
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Actually, the skyscraper scene was money because the latitude of those Sony cameras allowed the available light in the room to exist with the bright outside lights. What you saw was a nice use of negative space in the form of silhouettes to increase the tension. There were no lights on Jada for the entire scene, it was all ambient. From my understanding of film, this would be very hard to pull off without overexposing the outside or further underexposing the inside.

Mann has some interesting comments on the commentary that explain many of the scenes and the advantages of going digital in this movie.
 
KingVidiot said:
Mann has some interesting comments on the commentary that explain many of the scenes and the advantages of going digital in this movie.
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Looks like it's time to listen to the commentary.
 
drat, i was hoping to wait for an HD dvd of Collateral to come out before I picked it up, but it appears i'm going to need it for the commentary, post haste
 
The film vs HD thing mentioned above is not accurate - the media myth that HD "sees" more into the shadows is incorrect - mann shot some of the film with the gain up and this is a similar result one gets from pushing film - ie : grain - you can shoot a super fast stock like 500 and easily push it to 2000 asa.

I recently shot a commercial where we tested kodak and fuji up to 12000 asa and they produced grainy but beautiful images - the eventual shoot was conducted at 4000 asa and the set was actually really dark to the eye yet exposed perfectly on film and even required some slight crushing in the grade. The director finally said that he could have even pushed it a little further. (4000 asa will easily produce images exactly like collaterals night cityscapes) - the HD-sees-more-in-the-shadows dialogue was spin for reporters who wanted something to say about the format that joe sixpack could understand.
 
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