Like I said, those aren't the kind of box office records you want to be setting in any scenario. What is the premise behind the movie responsible for such low box office achievements? Well, it concerns Casey Stein (Nicholas Hoult), a former criminal whose moved to Germany and has been doing petty crimes for gangster Geran (Ben Kingsley). He gives up his criminal ways when he falls in love with fellow American Julliete Marne (Felicity Jones), with the two generating a romantic relationship that upends Casey's whole life. He's got an honest job at a local landfill, a great girl, everything's awesome...at least until Julliete gets's diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.
Since the couple is cash-strapped, Casey see's no other choice but to go back for one last mission with Geran in order to get some money for the love of his life. The mission Geran sends him on is to take a truck full of golf balls filled with cocaine, a task that soon goes awry and ends with Casey in the clutches of the man who owns the company that truck belongs to, billionaire Hagen Kahl (Anthony Hopkins). Now Casey is caught in the crosshairs of a vengeful rich guy with his own private army that proceeds to both chase Casey relentlessly and takes Julliete hostage. When Casey's true love is on the line, expect, in this vengeance-laced rescue mission, for some things to....COLLIDE.
It's kind of endearing that Collide hinges its entire plot on a romance straight out of a Nicholas Sparks movie, one that has only the faintest traces of sex, that detail most PG-13 and R-rated movies fixate entire romantic relationships. There's nothing wrong with that inherently, but there is a winsome "Aw shucks!" mentality to Collide being a shoot-'em-up action movie that also has a romantic relationship straight out of a Nicholas Sparks movie taking up a large chunk of its runtime. I wish we got to delve more time on this relationship though, as, despite it being so important to the overall plot, Casey and Julliete's courtship and growing romantic infatuation with each other flies by in a montage that last for a little over a minute.
That means both our protagonist (Casey) and especially the human being that's driving all of his actions (Julliette) in the movie are left feeling exceptionally undercooked. What a pity, especially since talented young actors like Nicholas Hoult and Felicity Jones feel lost working with such thinly-sketched individuals. By contrast, our two baddies in the movie, Geran and Hagen Kahl, are equally lacking in depth but at least they've got over-the-top traits that two old pro actors fully embrace. Anthony Hopkins growls and snarls his lines in a hammy fashion that turns out to be thoroughly entertaining while Kingsley goes all-in in depicting his Turkish gangster's unique quirks, including an obsession with Burt Reynolds that Kingsley sells with authentic awestruck wonder.
Aside from Kingsley and Hopkins gonzo performances as well as the presence of an earnest romance between the two leads, there isn't much in Collide that really stands out in one's mind, but it does keep one's attention at least thanks to a plot that's constantly moving and some decently executed chase scenes. Director Eran Creevy isn't bringing anything new to the table in terms of how to shoot action scenes but neither is he desecrating previously established techniques in that field. I was never riveted by Collide but I was also rarely bored, which is far more than I can say for exceedingly more expensive and high-profile action fare from this year. It's not much more than a curiosity item on two legendary actors IMDB pages but at least it's a painless and occasionally endearing curiosity.
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