Collide (2016)

Summary 
To pay for his girlfriend's medical emergency while abroad, Casey schemes to pull a drug heist for an eccentric gangster. After a failed attempt, he embarks across Europe on an action-packed chase in a race against time to save his girlfriend's life from being taken by an evil druglord.

Genre : Action
Country : UK/Germany

Cast : 
Nicholas Hoult : Casey Stein

Anthony Hopkins :  Hagen Kahl
Ben Kingsley : Geran

Director : Eran Creevy

My opinion

What I do know about you is that you're American, because my friends here tell me you were talking while you were unconscious which or course is typically American is'nt it?
And judging by your stubborn refusal to talk right now while you are fully concious, I guess that must make you an extremely, brave American or excessively stupid American.
I don't know, you tell me! Yeh.
But you and I can surely cut through all that boring back and fourth Sylvester Stallone nonsense … "Eh ah Adreine".

I was ready for a typical action B-movie with a lot of ill-timed fighting scenes, corny dialogues, outworn one-liners used by muscled men and over the top firefights using tons of ammunition. And all this to fill up a thin, highly unoriginal story. Actually, I thought this would be just a simple movie to spend my evening. And I figured it wouldn't matter if I'd doze off or not. Well, sometimes I can be wrong about something. "Collide" is an example of that. And when well-known film stars appear on the screen one after the other, the surprise effect is even bigger.

Granted, the reason why Casey (Nicholas "Equals" Hoult) finally decided to steal a truck, owned by the  dangerous and ruthless drug smuggler Hagen Kahl (Anthony Hopkins), commissioned by a nut called Geran (Ben Kingsley), is rather trite. You can't say it isn't used already in another film. The subsequent action-packed portion, with Casey continuously trying to stay out of the hands of Kahl's guard who eagerly want to get back the stolen truck, is of such caliber that you put yourself upright so you won't miss a second. What you're going to see is a series of tough fights, enormous gunfights, dazzling chases in the streets of a picturesque German town and some high-speed car chases on the "German Autobahn" around Cologne. Casey drives with (in my eyes) some expensive sports cars. Fans of "The Fast and the Furious" will be excited about that, I think. I myself am not an expert in that field. I'm already feeling ecstatic the moment I see the speedometer reaching 200 kph.

I was quite impressed by Nicholas Hoult. A cool-headed person with bright blue eyes (undoubtedly successful among females). He looks like Ed "The Transporter Refueled" Skrein (as if they are twin brothers) and he shows similarities with the young Bruce Willis in his heyday (not the last 10 years). He's also so impassive and cold-blooded. And he's also suffering from physically damages as the film progresses. Although Juliette (Felicity "The Theory of Everything" Jones) is the one who caused all the misery, you can call her part actually quite limited. And maybe people wonder what star actors like Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley are doing in such a simplistic movie. I suggest you watch the movie "Blackway" with Hopkins in a leading role. And also "Robot Overlords" with Kingsley participating in it. These aren't exactly high quality films or masterpieces either. Both are typical stories with no memorable footage (in other words, they suck). At least "Collide" is peppered with unparalleled action and sometimes masterful monologues. The discussions between the two men are a feast for the eyes and ears.

I haven't enjoyed myself with such a nonsensical action movie for a long time. Ultimately it's all about how love can encourage someone to make inconsiderate decisions and carry out dangerous acts like Casey did. "If the reason is love, then maybe it's not so crazy, and it's the only thing keeping me alive" said Casey at the beginning of the movie. Oh well, maybe it all looks senseless and feels like nonsense. Maybe some characters lack depth and some German supporting roles are pitifully poor. And yes, the German police acted rather stupid and exaggerated during their final intervention. That was indeed rather ridiculous. It was as if Osama bin Laden himself was sitting in that dingy pub. Yet it was entertaining and interesting enough. It's not groundbreaking cinema, but good enough to watch when you have nothing else to do.

My rating 6/10
Links : IMDB