“COLLIDE” — 2 stars — Nicholas Hoult, Felicity Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Kingsley; PG-13 (violence, frenetic action, some sexuality, language and drug material); in general release
Of the four leading actors in “Collide,” two have been knighted. They have also won Oscars. A third was nominated for best actress two years ago. Even the fourth was the lead in a great zombie comedy a few years back.
A quality cast can elevate mediocre material in the right circumstances. But in this case, the quality cast just leaves you wishing the material was a little less mediocre. “Collide” checks a lot of action-suspense boxes, but never manages to put its pieces into a worthwhile product.
Somewhere in the middle of a lot of expensive cars and speeding bullets, “Collide” is the story of a man trying to save the woman he loves. Casey Stein (Nicholas Hoult) is a career car thief who tries to go straight after meeting a beautiful bartender named Juliette Marne (Felicity Jones) at a German rave. Life is beautiful right up until Juliette reveals her secret: She needs a kidney transplant, and fast.
Casey and Juliette are American expatriates in Europe, so they can’t get any financial help for the operation. So, against Juliette’s wishes, Casey decides to pull off the classic “one last job” in order to get the money. He teams up with his old partner, Matthias (Marwan Kenzari), and takes a gig from his old boss, Geran (Sir Ben Kingsley).
Geran is a piece of drug-dealing cartoon sleaze, draped in gold, cavorting with hookers and staring at the world through exotic sunglasses. He wants to be a full partner with the more civilized and respected Hagen Kahl (Sir Anthony Hopkins), but Kahl keeps the Turkish Geran under his well-manicured thumb, preferring to keep his identity as a drug kingpin off the radar. This is probably why Geran orders Casey to steal a semi truck full of Kahl’s cocaine.
Kahl foils Geran’s plan, of course, and takes Casey hostage for just long enough to read Juliette’s name on his wristband. When Casey gets free and steals a Jaguar stuffed with 5 million euros, the race is on. Either Casey gets to Juliette with the money and they get her operation, or Kahl gets to Juliette and kills her before taking his money back from Casey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbcHm8JsXsQCasey’s love for Juliette is supposed to be the driving force here, but whether you point your finger at an underdeveloped story or shallow characters or just a lack of chemistry, “Collide’s” plot quickly starts to feel like an excuse to put Hoult behind the wheel of as many fast cars as possible, chased by as many bullets as you can handle.
At the same time, “Collide” feels like it suffers from a lack of action, as director Eran Creevy teases us with an action prologue in order to cover for the fact that it takes his story so long to get up to speed. Hopkins and Kingsley do their part, taking their characters to extremes, but their hammy performances feel more like desperation than fun, and Hoult and Jones struggle to move the emotional needles on their end of the dial.
There are flashes of style and character here that suggest “Collide” had the potential to be an underrated cult hit, but Creevy is never able to inject enough personality into his project to make his disparate parts feel like more than a paint-by-numbers project. The parts are there, and they are quality parts, but they are held together with cinematic duct tape. “Collide” isn’t bad so much as it is a routine, but it could have been a romp.
“Collide” is rated PG-13 for violence, frenetic action, some sexuality, language and drug material; running time: 99 minutes.
Joshua Terry is a freelance writer and photographer who also teaches English composition for Weber State University. You can also find him on