The Badness of this movie can not be described in the 1000 word limit imposed by IMDb so I would only describe some of the obvious blunders.
How many young hot US attorneys take cabs to work? Then hand out their business card to the cab driver after a brief conversation?
That is the opening seen of this movie.
If you are a professional hit-man, are you going to take a Cab driver hostage and make him drive you around and kill five people in high profile case including the US attorney and then hope that JUST LIKE one previous time in nearby city, the detectives would conclude that a Cab driver with impeccable history just lost his mind?
That is the PREMISE of this movie.
If you want the detectives to conclude that Cab driver indeed lost his mind, are you going to sit in a restaurant with the Cab driver and with the owner of the restaurant that you are going to kill and expose yourself to all the employees of that restaurant? Do you think a detective following up on the case would ask the waitresses, whether the Cab driver was sitting alone by himself?
The 'Hitman' in this movie feels he is invisible and hundreds of the people around him are not able to see him.
If you are driving around town with a Dead Body in your trunk, are you going to stick with the same cab on which you threw a dead body and SMASHED its windshield? Is this the way to NOT draw attention to yourself?
Right after the third Hit, Cruise comes out and kills two more people in the alley.
Two people that Cruise shot in the alley who tried to rob his hostage, the Cab driver, actually started out as four people. However, even though there were loud gunshots, two of the four did not bother to check on their friends.
As a matter of fact, just before that, hundreds of people were passing through alley perpendicular to where the Cab was parked, and even though they could hear the car horn, they couldn't hear the gunshots, leaving Cruise and Fox to have a nice humorous conversation in peace.
The Conversation: Apparently Cabbie's Mom was raising a ruckus by calling his company, and his Boss was trying to reach him to tell him to call her at the hospital where she is at.
This is the same Boss, who Cruise (Hitman) and Fox (Cab Driver) told only a few minutes earlier that "they would shove a giant Yellow Cab up his...." if he demands that Fox pay for the damage to the Cab. Cruise actually pretends to be a US attorney passenger and threatens to prosecute the Boss for extorting Cab driver.
If your EMPLOYEE cursed you in absolutely insulting manner, are you going to convey a message from their Mom to them a few minutes later?
Then RIGHT AFTER the conversation, Cruise and Fox head to the hospital to visit Fox's Mom.
However, even before Cruise and Fox arrive at the hospital, the CORPSES of the 3 victims have ALREADY arrived at the SAME HOSPITAL, and the detective who is searching for them, shares an elevator with them.
Congratulations to LAPD for their efficiency in cleaning up Crime Scenes!
If you are a FBI agent or a LAPD detective and you have your suspect under surveillance and the CAB that you are looking for, in which you believe the assassin working for your suspect is going around and killing your witnesses, that Cab is parked at side of the building, what would you do? If you think the Cabbie is the Killer, and he meets your suspect, and you know that he is heading to next witness, what will you do? Would you try to take down the killer right at the building which you have under surveillance? Most likely.
Not in this movie.
Here the entire LAPD and FBI get into a caravan and head to the club where witness is supposed to be. Apparently they don't want to take out the killer at relatively empty spot on the side of the building, instead they prefer to shoot the killer in middle of a Night Club where hundreds of people are dancing. Since both sides (Cruise/Fox & FBI/LAPD) started out from same spot, they arrive at the club at same time!
Finally, if you are a hit-man and you leave your hostage for dead in a car wreck, and you are about to shoot the US attorney and your former hostage shows up with a gun pointed at you, are you going to ignore him? Even if you thought the guy was a total loser, the fact that he still walked out of the same car wreck as you and got to the same place as you and has a gun pointed at you, are you still going to ignore him? Cruise does and gets shot in the face, but doesn't die.
Chases the Cabbie and the US attorney in a train, and as he is about to get to them, he YELLS and warns them of his approach and thus promptly gets shot. Is this how professional killers approach ARMED victims who are anticipating them?
Last Blunder: Fox kills Cruise and then he and the girl walk off the train and he immediately takes his coat off and puts it on her.
This after they have been running for miles, jumping trains, crashing through glasses, and have been shot at repeatedly. How cold do you think the girl was at that point? How cold does it get in LA anyway?
It takes a genius like Michael Mann to make a movie this bad.
How many young hot US attorneys take cabs to work? Then hand out their business card to the cab driver after a brief conversation?
That is the opening seen of this movie.
If you are a professional hit-man, are you going to take a Cab driver hostage and make him drive you around and kill five people in high profile case including the US attorney and then hope that JUST LIKE one previous time in nearby city, the detectives would conclude that a Cab driver with impeccable history just lost his mind?
That is the PREMISE of this movie.
If you want the detectives to conclude that Cab driver indeed lost his mind, are you going to sit in a restaurant with the Cab driver and with the owner of the restaurant that you are going to kill and expose yourself to all the employees of that restaurant? Do you think a detective following up on the case would ask the waitresses, whether the Cab driver was sitting alone by himself?
The 'Hitman' in this movie feels he is invisible and hundreds of the people around him are not able to see him.
If you are driving around town with a Dead Body in your trunk, are you going to stick with the same cab on which you threw a dead body and SMASHED its windshield? Is this the way to NOT draw attention to yourself?
Right after the third Hit, Cruise comes out and kills two more people in the alley.
Two people that Cruise shot in the alley who tried to rob his hostage, the Cab driver, actually started out as four people. However, even though there were loud gunshots, two of the four did not bother to check on their friends.
As a matter of fact, just before that, hundreds of people were passing through alley perpendicular to where the Cab was parked, and even though they could hear the car horn, they couldn't hear the gunshots, leaving Cruise and Fox to have a nice humorous conversation in peace.
The Conversation: Apparently Cabbie's Mom was raising a ruckus by calling his company, and his Boss was trying to reach him to tell him to call her at the hospital where she is at.
This is the same Boss, who Cruise (Hitman) and Fox (Cab Driver) told only a few minutes earlier that "they would shove a giant Yellow Cab up his...." if he demands that Fox pay for the damage to the Cab. Cruise actually pretends to be a US attorney passenger and threatens to prosecute the Boss for extorting Cab driver.
If your EMPLOYEE cursed you in absolutely insulting manner, are you going to convey a message from their Mom to them a few minutes later?
Then RIGHT AFTER the conversation, Cruise and Fox head to the hospital to visit Fox's Mom.
However, even before Cruise and Fox arrive at the hospital, the CORPSES of the 3 victims have ALREADY arrived at the SAME HOSPITAL, and the detective who is searching for them, shares an elevator with them.
Congratulations to LAPD for their efficiency in cleaning up Crime Scenes!
If you are a FBI agent or a LAPD detective and you have your suspect under surveillance and the CAB that you are looking for, in which you believe the assassin working for your suspect is going around and killing your witnesses, that Cab is parked at side of the building, what would you do? If you think the Cabbie is the Killer, and he meets your suspect, and you know that he is heading to next witness, what will you do? Would you try to take down the killer right at the building which you have under surveillance? Most likely.
Not in this movie.
Here the entire LAPD and FBI get into a caravan and head to the club where witness is supposed to be. Apparently they don't want to take out the killer at relatively empty spot on the side of the building, instead they prefer to shoot the killer in middle of a Night Club where hundreds of people are dancing. Since both sides (Cruise/Fox & FBI/LAPD) started out from same spot, they arrive at the club at same time!
Finally, if you are a hit-man and you leave your hostage for dead in a car wreck, and you are about to shoot the US attorney and your former hostage shows up with a gun pointed at you, are you going to ignore him? Even if you thought the guy was a total loser, the fact that he still walked out of the same car wreck as you and got to the same place as you and has a gun pointed at you, are you still going to ignore him? Cruise does and gets shot in the face, but doesn't die.
Chases the Cabbie and the US attorney in a train, and as he is about to get to them, he YELLS and warns them of his approach and thus promptly gets shot. Is this how professional killers approach ARMED victims who are anticipating them?
Last Blunder: Fox kills Cruise and then he and the girl walk off the train and he immediately takes his coat off and puts it on her.
This after they have been running for miles, jumping trains, crashing through glasses, and have been shot at repeatedly. How cold do you think the girl was at that point? How cold does it get in LA anyway?
It takes a genius like Michael Mann to make a movie this bad.