Grade (C+)
Some fun action and strong performances, mask some flaws the script.
“COLLIDE” stars; Nicholas Hoult, Felicity Jones, Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley, so you can see why I was curious about this one. It is directed by Eran Creevy who also did “Welcome to the Punch” which was a film I found enjoyable.
This story follows Casey, he’s an American back-packer staying in Germany and does small jobs for a local gangster played amusingly by Ben Kingsley. He meets a girl, falls in love and finds out she will need a medical emergency to save her life. To get the money Casey decides to step back into the world of drug trafficking, and when the heist of a drug running truck goes south, he finds himself on the run across Germany trying to save his girlfriend, from the ruthless drug supplier.
Now I know it’s a familiar plot but it was enough to pull interest in to it. The pace of the story was pretty swift and after building the love interest early on, and setting the fuel for the plot. The course of the story from there on out was loaded with action and it did manage to deliver some fun, albeit mindless entertainment.
There were some clear plot holes, a lot of story-line conveniences, and some suspension of disbelief is needed to really get the most out of this story. But it is fiction after-all, and despite the flaws, and things that will have you scratching your head, it was still enjoyable. Regardless of the issues this movie has, you can see the effort in the creation of the film, and the finished product does elevate the plug-and-play script.
Yes, it gets predictable, it tries a little too hard at certain points of the story, but there was enough substance here to entertain. The cast was pretty good in my opinion as well. I was expecting the additions of Hopkins and Kingsley to be mere cameos, but they actually were given a good amount of stuff to do in this script.
Hopkins did feel out of place in his role though, maybe I just see him as that awesome grandpa. But he didn’t quite feel the part although his performance was solid as expected. It was odd, but his dialogue almost felt like it was in a separate film in regards to the quality level.
For the most part the overall dialogue is routine in its progression, but when Hopkins would have his scenes it was a couple levels above the common wordplay in the movie. Almost like Hopkins read the script checked out his lines and was like, no, scribbles on a napkin, and was like, “I will be saying these lines instead.” I guess it’s hard to explain, but if the dialogue had the wit that Hopkins lines did, the overall writing of the story should have been much better.
Kingsley was fun in the film as well. I guess you could call him eccentric, but to me he was a complete nut-job and absolutely amusing in this role. He clearly enjoyed the persona and he definitely made the most out of it. Some may say it came across as forced, but to me, Kingsley doesn’t ‘force’ anything, and can play any role he would like, and do so effectively.
Nicholas Hoult was passable in the lead, he delivered some believable emotion during certain points through the movie, but the story did not do him any favors. It was almost as if he was made out of Teflon at times which did generate the eye-rolls. Also, Felicity Jones was good in this one, but she didn’t have a major imprint on the story, given her character was relegated to a simple plot device.
On the downside, this script just got super convoluted in the third-act and felt like a neat and tidy wrap up, with a tacked-on twist that honestly didn’t land at all for me. Also, like I said it was hindered with some plot holes and over predictability.
But I don’t think it was a horrible film, there was some well shot action and the cast performances were all more than enough to generate some interest. With a couple of small rewrites, and maybe toning it down here and there, the film would have felt much more compelling. As it was though it’s worth a one-time watch for action-movie fans.