Review: In 4K Blu-ray, 'Collateral' Finally Looks the Way It Was Meant To

In the history of Tom Cruise's many projects, "Collateral" may be one of his most interesting roles. His character is the villain of the story, a vessel for Cruise to really let loose and counteract all the notoriety he had built up as a hero in other films. It's a fiery performance that's directed within an inch of its life by Michael Mann, a normally astute director of larger-than-life performances. In Mann's greatest films, you can see that even the most wanton of performances from actors are scaled back in favor of economy within the story. For Mann, every movement is calculated, and performance must support that.

"Collateral" comes to 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and Digital from Paramount Home Entertainment with a new 4K remaster supervised by Mann himself. This is an odd film to upscale to 4K, as it was shot on a combination of 35mm and earlier digital cameras, and the disparity is still clear here. While greater contrast is achieved through the new Dolby Vision and HDR10 encoding, this is not the night-and-day improvement over the previous Blu-ray that people may be looking for. And that's okay! It's a natural presentation of a film that revels in the deep, crushing blacks of Los Angeles nighttime.

Max (Jamie Foxx) is a Los Angeles cab driver with dreams of opening up his own limo company. One night, he picks up Vincent (Tom Cruise), who offers Max an incredibly high payout for stopping at several locations. But soon Max learns the hard way that Vincent is a hitman who's going on a killing spree to fulfill multiple contracts in one night. Soon, he becomes the hunted.

"Collateral" was a sizable hit for all parties involved when it was released in 2004, as it earned Foxx an Oscar nomination and Tom Cruise won an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain. But as has become customary with Michael Mann, it's much more than just some stylish noir boasting slick visuals and even slicker violence. Rather, it imbues the story with existential dread and packs each frame with the unknowable. Here are two men passing through this physical realm, only to be inextricably linked to one another. Under the direction of any other filmmaker, a lone wolf walking on the streets of LA as an Audioslave song plays may be one of the hokiest things ever committed to celluloid. But here, it's a howl at existence and, well, destiny.

All of the special features from the previous Blu-ray release have been carried over. No new features have been added, but that won't matter for fans of the film, as this is the best presentation of the film probably ever. When "Collateral" first came out, it wasn't projected digitally, so you couldn't get the best idea of the digital work Mann was going for. But now you can see it as it was intended, even if it's on the small screen at home. This is one of Mann's best films, and it's a damn pleasure to see it get a 4K Blu-ray release on par with Mann's own digital fetishism.

Special features include:

� Audio commentary by Michael Mann
� City of Night: The Making of Collateral
� Special Delivery
� Deleted Scene with Commentary
� Shooting on Location: Annie's Office
� Tom Cruise & Jamie Foxx Rehearse
� Visual FX: MTA Train
� Teaser Trailer
� Theatrical Trailer

"Collateral" is now available in a 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and Digital combo pack from Paramount Home Entertainment.