The advertisement for COLLIDE leads you to believe that it is a "thrill-a-minute, fast-paced, speeding ride through the Autobahn."
Oh, that I wish it was.
COLLIDE tells the story of an American backpacker, with some sort of shady background, who goes to "any length" to save his girlfriend. This length puts him in the middle of two European drug lords.
At 1 hour, 36 minutes, the best thing I can say about COLLIDE is that it is short, but it seemed a heckuva lot longer.
Nicholas Hoult (MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, X:MEN - APOCALYPSE) stars as Casey Stein and Felicty Jones (STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE and THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING) stars as his American girlfriend. Both are British and have very peculiar American accents...oh...and no real chemistry with each other. They stumble through this film and never really hold the audiences attention and, fundamentally, I did not really care what happened to them.
And that is because the two warring drug dealers were played (or should I say OVER played) by Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley - two actors who haven't seen a scene they couldn't chew - and chew they do. This is, actually, the only real spark in this film. When these two are on screen, they are somewhat entertaining, all things considered.
Of course, compared to the rest of the film, that's like saying they are the most sober men in a drunk tank - the bar for quality in this film is not very high.
The direction, by Eran Creevy is pedestrian at best. The action scenes, while avoiding - for the most part - relying on "shaky-cam", are unspectacular, unthrilling and dull while the acting scenes are hammy, over-the-top or underplayed to such an extent that everyone involved seemed bored.
And, so was I, unless Hopkins and/or Kingsley were on screen, then I perked up a bit.
Letter Grade: C (only because of Hopkins and Kingsley)
4 (out of 10) Stars and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)
Oh, that I wish it was.
COLLIDE tells the story of an American backpacker, with some sort of shady background, who goes to "any length" to save his girlfriend. This length puts him in the middle of two European drug lords.
At 1 hour, 36 minutes, the best thing I can say about COLLIDE is that it is short, but it seemed a heckuva lot longer.
Nicholas Hoult (MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, X:MEN - APOCALYPSE) stars as Casey Stein and Felicty Jones (STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE and THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING) stars as his American girlfriend. Both are British and have very peculiar American accents...oh...and no real chemistry with each other. They stumble through this film and never really hold the audiences attention and, fundamentally, I did not really care what happened to them.
And that is because the two warring drug dealers were played (or should I say OVER played) by Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley - two actors who haven't seen a scene they couldn't chew - and chew they do. This is, actually, the only real spark in this film. When these two are on screen, they are somewhat entertaining, all things considered.
Of course, compared to the rest of the film, that's like saying they are the most sober men in a drunk tank - the bar for quality in this film is not very high.
The direction, by Eran Creevy is pedestrian at best. The action scenes, while avoiding - for the most part - relying on "shaky-cam", are unspectacular, unthrilling and dull while the acting scenes are hammy, over-the-top or underplayed to such an extent that everyone involved seemed bored.
And, so was I, unless Hopkins and/or Kingsley were on screen, then I perked up a bit.
Letter Grade: C (only because of Hopkins and Kingsley)
4 (out of 10) Stars and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)