Vincent (Cruise) is a contract killer. He models every American male's secret ego ideal: cool under pressure, decisive, the very embodiment of will. Max (Foxx) is the American everyman, a Los Angeles taxi driver who merely dreams of a release from his life of futility. Vincent forces Max to chauffeur him from hit to hit. As the bodies pile up, LAPD detective Fanning (Mark Ruffalo) is perplexed. It is left to Max to save the ultimate victim and himself from his ruthless passenger.

Cruise's new look for the film has received much comment. He appears with silvery-grey hair and a worn visage. The real beauty is supplied by Los Angeles itself. Shot at night in high definition video, the city is enchanting, lustrous and mysterious. Fans of director Mann's celebrated sense of style will exult in this depiction of the city. In an obvious homage to the enigmatic blind-woman-and-sleepingtiger scene in Manhunter, Vincent and Max come across a coyote on the freeway, a piece of genuine wildness in the amoral concrete jungle.

While Collateral is far from Mann's best film, it offers satisfying action-entertainment and a little food for thought about the delusions which feed our culture.

Here, the instantly recognisable, yet always anonymous William H. Macy (whose credits include Fargo and Boogie Nights) plays Bernie Lootz, a man so contagiously unlucky that he is employed to work a casino floor, cooling-off any lucky streak. He owes the Shangri-La's manager, Shelley Kaplow (Baldwin). But his luck changes when he strikes up a relationship with cocktail waitress Natalie (Bello, best known for roles in "ER" and Coyote Ugly). But Shelley is under threat from his backers, who want to turn the old-school Shangri-La into a modern Vegas palace, and he can't afford any slip. Both Natalie and Bernie's estranged son (and pregnant girlfriend) end up as pawns in this power game.

It's the effortless brilliance of the cast that makes this movie, in particular the leonine Alec Baldwin - ruthless, charismatic and manipulative, yet holding desperately onto an empire and way of life that's slipping away. The relationship between Bernie and Natalie is delicately drawn and convincing enough to overcome its unlikely origin. You find yourself wanting Bernie to be able to get away, have a chance at a decent life; but the oppressive air of the Shangri-La, his small, seedy life and the occasionally brutal intervention make it impossible. Unless his luck has really changed?