Collide - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Collide

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Collide is one of those films that makes you wonder what type of blackmail, or payday, was offered to the main stars to get them to sign onto the project. We’ve got Nicholas Hoult, Felicity Jones (who is ridiculously popular right now) and award-winning actors Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kinsley as a quad set of main characters in a film that looks (and probably WAS) like it was filmed over the course of a 2-week period on a budget of $50,000. The stupidity and moronic action is used to string together a series of vignette like scenes that make very little sense on their own, and even less sense when strung together. The premise is about as cliched as they come, which I can deal with, but the straight to home video style of quick cut editing, mixed with very lazy acting from all involved leaves me very VERY soured (and I’m one who has a weakness for low budget action films).

Casey Stein (Nicholas Hoult) is an American living in Germany who just so happens to find the love of his love, Juliette Marne (Felicity Jones), another American, in the strange country. The thing is, Casey is a driver for a well-known drug dealer named Geran (Ben Kingsley) and Juliette wants none of it. In romantic gesture, Casey drops his job working for Geran and goes on to work menial labor while he and Juliette fall deeply in love. A love that soon is stressed to the breaking point when Casey finds out that Juliette needs a liver transplant, and the only way she can get one (since she’s on a work visa) is to go back to the states and pay for one out of their own pocket. Pockets which are most DEFINITELY not deep enough. So, in order to facilitate his love’s recovery, Casey agrees to highjack a truck full of drugs for Geran.

Like usual, things are NOT as simple as they seem. Not only is it a chore to hijack the truck, but this particular truck belongs to sir Hagen Kahl, who just so happens to be Geran’s boss. The lord of the German drug trade himself. The mission gets botched and Casey escapes, but now he has an endless stream of Kahl’s minions after him, and the ex driver now has to escape gun wielding maniacs, Geran’s crazy drug induced plans, make sure that Juliette is unharmed, AND get out of this mess in one piece himself.

Collide is basically a nonstop ride of action scenes and car chases (some of which are actually pretty impressive), and nothing else. The plot is paper thin, with the grounding element of the story being the doe eyed “love” between Casey and Juliette. A love that is played rather unconvincingly as the two brits play Americans, in Germany with the passion and believability of two dead paperweights. Once Casey and his buddy snag the truck and get the heist underway things pick up a bit, but the first 30+ minutes of the story is watching the two leads stare at each other with dead eyes. Well, deader eyes than usual, as Nicholas Hoult has always had a bit of a zombie stare to him. Felicity tries to infuse some character and flair to Juliette, but she’s not given much wiggle room, and her limited scenes do very little to convince you that she’s really in this for anything more than a quick paycheck.

Plot holes galore. Collide is a flea brained mess from start to finish, and even the inclusion of two famous A-listers (or ex A listers I might say) does very little. Kinglsely and Hopkins ham it up to the nth degree playing the two drug dealers, with almost hilarious results if it wasn’t so sad. Both men have turned in INCREDIBLE performances over the years (and naturally some stinkers), but once again, you get the feeling that everyone is in the movie just for a quick and dirty payday so they can afford another pool in the backyard between films (well, besides Hoult who doesn’t have much of a career to begin with).




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for violence, frenetic action, some sexuality, language, and drug material




Video:

While not exactly shot with a lot of money, the digital shoot for Collide is presented on Blu-ray with a fairly impressive 2.39:1 AVC encode. The film is fairly natural looking most of the time, but is given an overly warm look that makes good use of earthy tones with some golden afterglow. Facial detail is well articulated on screen and the dimly light scenes have quite a bit of shadow detailing going on. The really bright autobahn sequences look insanely detailed with crisp details and brilliantly sharp colors and the overall look of the film maintains a very healthy level of clarity. It’s not going to blow you away like a Transformers movie, but for a low budget film the disc looks incredible. Besides some very minor banding there really is no artifcating, and with only 100 minutes of footage on the disc the bitrate is more than healthy enough to keep it looking pristine.






Audio:

Well, the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is EASILY the highlight of Universal’s 2 disc package. Aggressive and powerful, the low end dominates the track with a pulsing bass line that just reverberates throughout the entire 1 hour and 40 minute runtime. Dialog is still well placed in the center, and despite Felicity Jones’ weak American accent (she desperately keeps trying to let her English accent slip back in every other line) there is no auditory discrepancies. Surrounds are used extensively with the intense autobahn car crashes and races, and the whole experience is very energetic and exciting.
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Extras:

• Previews

Final Score: ​

Collide is a frenetic little action movie with big dreams, but a low budget and way too many DTV flaws in the process. The film is filled with quick cut editing, poor pacing, and even poorer acting all the way around, and can’t seem to find any real traction besides never slowing down until the end (which ends in a classic double take where you realize that everything was planned from the beginning and is not as hopeless as it seems). Audio and video are very good for a DTV film, but once again there’s no extras on the disc except for a handful of previous for other Universal Studios films. Honestly, even as a fan of cheap DTV schlock like Seagal and Van Damme films, I couldn’t muster up enough enthusiasm to give this even a mediocre thumbs up. Just skip it.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Felicity Jones, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins
Directed by: Eran Creevy
Written by: Eran Creevy, F. Scott Frazier
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DVS DD 2.0
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 100 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May 30th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Skip It

 

[JimShaw]

Michael, great review.

I buy a lot of Blu-rays and was considering Collide.

You just saved me money.

Thanks

 

[Michael Scott]

I think you're safe saving your money on this one

 

[Todd Anderson]

Yup, agree with Jim. Mike takes another bullet for the masses.

Thanks brother!

 

[JimShaw]

Michael

Do you get movie discs to review from studios OR do you have to purchase?

 

[JBrax]

Thanks Mike, skipped.

 

[Michael Scott]

Michael

Do you get movie discs to review from studios OR do you have to purchase?

It depends. Some we get review product for, others I'll purchase

 

[JimShaw]

Being a reviewer, to me, would be tough to do. It wouldn't be long before every Bad, OK or Great movie I wrote about would look the same using the same wording, phrases, etc.

It would be hard to develop new thoughts with each new review.

You do a great job. I'm impressed.


Jim

 

[Michael Scott]

believe me, it s a constant struggle. I sometimes catch myself repeating what I just said previously and have to stop and re work it until it's more unique. ESPECIALLY in the video and audio analysis. there's only so many times you can describe bass and surround usage without it sounding repetitious.

and yes, some films do start to blend together a bit after a while. which means when I find a truly GOOD movie, it stands out starkly

 

[JBrax]

Being a reviewer, to me, would be tough to do. It wouldn't be long before every Bad, OK or Great movie I wrote about would look the same using the same wording, phrases, etc.

It would be hard to develop new thoughts with each new review.

You do a great job. I'm impressed.


Jim

I'd like to double like this post!

 

[Jon Liu]

I REALLY wonder how they get the likes of Ben Kingsley and Sir Anthony Hopkins to do movies such as this... do they bribe them, as you said? Who knows...

Thanks for taking one for the team!