SummaryAfter a heist goes terribly wrong, Casey Stein (Nicholas Hoult) finds himself on the run from a ruthless gang headed by mob boss Hagen (Anthony Hopkins). Now Casey has precious cargo that belongs to Hagen, who will stop at nothing to retrieve it. Left with no choice, Casey calls his former employer and drug smuggler Geran (Ben Kingsley) ...
SummaryAfter a heist goes terribly wrong, Casey Stein (Nicholas Hoult) finds himself on the run from a ruthless gang headed by mob boss Hagen (Anthony Hopkins). Now Casey has precious cargo that belongs to Hagen, who will stop at nothing to retrieve it. Left with no choice, Casey calls his former employer and drug smuggler Geran (Ben Kingsley) ...
Maybe the story didn't make the best sense, but the action was interesting and the pace of action was good. The bad guys were quite funny also, especially Ben Kingsley's character. So maybe it's not the best movie in a sense of cinematography, screenplay and actors, but if you want a good action movie which I think it's quite good.
The action sequences are strong, with spectacular crashes and explosions, dynamic camera moves and tight cuts that at times give the film an appealing breathlessness. But the cast takes a too-lax approach to this material.
Hand-in-hand with its bleeding-heart nature, Collide has the ballsy idea of making a serious action movie about a fool in love, but that just becomes one of its many bungled stunts.
In the end, Collide is a cheap genre product produced with an eye on foreign market box office. Wake me when Dominic Toretto torques his way into Havana.
Quick money always ends in a big trouble!
It's one of those films with aimless narration. Indeed, it has a nice cast and characters with the basic storyline, but that did not expand and explored well as it should have been. At least the pace of the narration looked fine. Some characters looked unnecessary, and so a couple of scenes. If these all were managed, then still it could have been a decent film. Because since it is an action- adventure, they did not generate those crucial parts like the stunts and dialogues related to the gangster thing to turn it a better film in its kind.
The two veteran actors coming together for the first time added more curiosity than flavour we are looking for. They did okay and so the rest of the cast. Ideal runtime, a few stuffs were in the favour of the film, but those were not enough for the overall success. If the same film was made from the non-English world like perhaps Germany, which was one of the producers of the film would have done better than this existing one which is very familiar with this language.
People would watch it only for Hopkins and Kingley and so did am I. But they might end in disappointment, or that could be the reason to rate it fairly better. Whatever, this is an okay film, which is barely entertaining and of all, not a boring film. So trying it for one is okay, but I think not worth if you have got plenty of options over this one.
6/10
Eran Creevy's entertaining Collide is a briskly paced B-action thriller that features gripping car chases and fight scenes despite its familiar plot and distinctive blend of over-the-top villains and bland protagonists.
A girl (Felicity Jones) needs a new kidney, his guy (Nicholas Hoult) is ready to do anything to get the money needed. So he gets back to his old criminal life, getting stuck between feuding gangsters (Anthony Hopkins, Ben Kingsley).
"Collide" is functional, fast-paced and sometimes fun, if ultimately uninvolving actioneer. I have mostly positive things to say about it althought the result is not good enough to earn a recommendation.
There will be a lot of shooting, punching and fast cars to satisfy the genre fan who just wants to see something new. The movie also has legendary actors Kingsley and Hopkins together on screen for the first time. And the young stars will not disappoint.
But the screenplay is so sloppy that it's hard to stay invested. Firstly I didn't quite buy the main story arc of young petty thief outmaneuvering two veteran criminals with small armies, especially because it was done the cheapest way possible (sudden twists whenever convenient for storytellers). I also didn't buy the young hero as a guy never making mistakes or even getting hit hard, although he was constantly hunted by men who work as killers, and have a lot of shooting experience.
Also, the story sits uncomfortably between two chairs, being neither serious enough nor tongue-in-cheek enough. You can't take it as a top-shelf actioneer, and it's not quite a flamboyant eurotrash either (many of the Jason Statham movies).
As result, some of the stuff works (the beginning, action scenes), some not. Story becomes progressively more stupid, and Hopkins and Kingsley playing "colorful" gangsters is like a ham-fisted parody of their roles in earlier, better movies.
At least young stars are doing good work. Jones is cute enough to justify all this punching and shooting, and it's always good to see Hoult ("About a Boy", the newest "Mad Max", Hank / Beast in "X-Men") in a role which doesn't serve as just a window dressing.
If he got a movie role as big and colorful as in the first season of TV series "Skins", he could be the next Hollywood hero. He looks good in action too.
Except for some decent action set pieces, Collide is a forgettable mess. The film is edited terribly and the moments that are supposed to matter don't. The performances are all okay except Ben Kingsley who was lost. Finally the plot holes and unbelievable survival skills (with little injury by the way) brings a mediocre film down a notch or two. D+