Security2004.
Director: Michael Mann.
With Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg and Bruce McGill.
SUMMARY:
Paramount celebrates the 20th anniversary of Michael Mann’s thrilling action film Security with a reissue of the 2020 4K Ultra HD disc in a new SteelBook package. The film looks great and you get a Blu-ray with most of the bonus features (nothing new here) plus a code for a digital copy. Highly recommended if you’re a fan of this film and don’t already have it in 4K Ultra HD.
I was never a big Tom Cruise fan, but I always appreciated him when he went against type, such as in his role as Lestat in Interview with a vampire and this film, Securityin which he played a merciless assassin named Vincent.
Jamie Foxx also plays Max Durocher, a taxi driver who dreams of opening a limousine service that offers a first-class experience to his customers. Unfortunately for him, Vincent gets into his taxi and tells him that he has to visit a number of addresses that evening, supposedly as part of a real estate deal.
When a dead man falls onto the roof of Max’s car at the first stop, he is horrified to discover that Vincent has been hired to commit a series of murders that evening and that he has to drive him around at gunpoint.
Meanwhile, LAPD Detective Ray Fanning (Mark Ruffalo) visits the scene of the first crime and discovers that the victim was a police informant. When the second victim turns out to be a criminal defense attorney, Ray is convinced that a hitman is working through a list related to a pending criminal case. However, his colleagues believe that the hitman must be the taxi driver who killed the real driver and assumed his identity, which puts Max in danger when he appears on the security camera footage.
Across Los Angeles, a game of cat and mouse erupts between Max, Vincent and the LAPD, and as the chase leads to Vincent’s final victim, Max realizes to his horror that he knows this person. SecurityThe climax involves Max trying to save this person (I’m avoiding specific details so as not to spoil anything for first-time viewers) while also having to deal with Vincent’s relentless, almost robotic pursuit of his prey.
Director Michael Mann shot this film mostly with handheld cameras, which gave the action a cinéma vérité feel that elicited a visceral reaction from me as the plot unfolded. The cast is great throughout, and Stuart Beattie’s script gives them very natural-sounding dialogue. Even Vincent shows a human side as he jokes with Max and tries to calm the cab driver down while he goes about his evil tasks.
It’s a shame that Jamie Foxx never managed to live up to the heights of 2004, when he was nominated for an Oscar the following year for this film and his portrayal of Ray Charles, for which he took home an Oscar. While he has worked consistently, none of his live-action roles have had the same impact as this year.
Paramount has reissued Security in 4K Ultra HD format in 20th Anniversary SteelBook packaging. This is my first time hearing this film in a home video format, but I believe it’s the same release as the 2020 edition, which wasn’t a SteelBook. As with the previous edition, the only extra on the 4K disc is a commentary track, the rest of the bonus features are relegated to the included Blu-ray. You also get a code for a digital copy.
The studio didn’t commission any new extras for this release, but what’s here provides a solid overview of the film, starting with a commentary from Mann. The director delivers a comprehensive discussion of the film, covering a wide range of topics, from the differences between Beattie’s script and the finished film to the fight training of Tom Cruise, who is known for preferring to do his own stunts whenever possible.
Here are the rest of the extras:
• City of Night: The Making of “Collateral” (41 minutes): This making-of complements the commentary brilliantly by showing us a lot of what Mann is talking about. Mann, members of the cast and other people chime in to talk about the film and there’s plenty of behind-the-scenes footage to illustrate what they’re talking about.
• Special delivery (1 minute): This amusing, if very short, featurette shows us what happened when Tom Cruise tried to impersonate a FedEx delivery driver without being recognized. While Vincent wears a suit and isn’t trying to imitate anyone in the service industry, he does try to blend in with his surroundings, so this is a look at Cruise’s attempt to do something similar.
• Deleted Scene with Commentary (2 minutes): This deleted footage shows Max and Vincent trying to escape the LAPD. Mann’s commentary explains that it was cut to maintain the momentum of the story.
• Filming on location: Annie’s office (2 minutes): Part of the climax takes place in an office building plunged into darkness by Vincent, and this is a brief insight into the difficulties of filming in such an environment.
• Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx rehearse (4 minutes): The rehearsal footage of the two main actors is compared to the final versions of these scenes so we can see how their performances have changed.
• Visual Effects: MTA Train (2 minutes): The final part of the film takes place on a train and this short featurette explains why Mann decided to shoot the film in front of a green screen.
The teaser and cinema trailer, the latter in 4K on this disc, round off this release.
Assessment of the flickering myth – Movies: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
SEE ALSO: Collateral at 20: The story behind the stylish neo-noir crime drama
