The greatest movie ever!

Fantastic!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

When I sat down to watch "Collision Course", I must admit that I had initially set myself up for expecting a very poor B-movie with questionable effect and possibly equally questionable acting. However, I will say that I was more than pleasantly surprised with the outcome of "Collision Course".Granted, this is not a bright, shiny moment in the history of cinema, but it was still entertaining enough for what it was, and it was actually fairly enjoyable as well. Sure, the storyline was generic and had been seen countless times before in other movies.Kate (played by Tia Carrere) is an author out promoting her new book, when she is returning back home by airplane. However, a powerful solar flare disables the systems aboard the plane, kills the pilot and injures the co-pilot. As panic sets in, the passengers must step up and find a way to return safely to the ground.The acting in the movie was adequate, and Tia Carrere performed well in "Collision Course". It was also nice to have Dee Wallace and David Chokachi star in this movie, as they did quite alright right alongside Tia Carrere."Collision Course" had fair enough special effects and CGI, although it was scarce. But what was there served their purpose well enough.Certain things throughout the movie made little or no sense at all, such as how easy it was to hack a satellite, or why planes on collision course doesn't just turn from their current path in order to prevent a midair collision, especially when at night and the flight lights are clearly visible kilometers away. Or how quickly the flight director overcame his guilt of two planes crashing and hundreds dying and wholly forgot all about it.This is an entertaining enough movie for what it was, and it turned out to be a nice surprise actually. But chances are that you have already seen a movie with a storyline fully similar to "Collision Course". And once you have seen it, then chances are slim that you will actually sit down and watch it again.

'Collision Course' tells the story of a plane which is hit by an EMP due to a solar flare. The pilot is killed, the co-pilot injured and the electronic systems including the auto-pilot are badly damaged. Kate Parks (Tia Carrere) is a passenger on board; she was married to a pilot and wrote a book about airplanes, so at least she knows a little bit more about flying than the other passengers. Jake Ross (David Chokachi, whom I remember from 'Witchblade') is happy about any help he can get from her, because another plane is, as the title mentions, on a collision course...The characters get some background story, since somehow between one emergency and the next, they find time to think about personal trouble with their family members. 'Collision Course' certainly doesn't win any prizes for innovation, but it's OK. I voted 6 of 10.

This is apparently an American TV movie in that it was produced for SyFy. I don't know enough about movie-making to understand why TV movies have a such a different feel than other movies. The writing? The acting? In any case, this movie certainly felt like a TV movie. (Yes, I watched it on TV. I've been too busy to go out.)For the first hour, I was also absolutely convinced that this had to be a Canadian TV movie, my initial impression being confirmed by the earnest hoser approach of the flight attendant, the redneck's weeping, and the "racism sucks" bit. But, nope, it was apparently not a Canadian movie.The problem is the inept writing, I guess. The airplane-movie clichés are rolled out, one after the other. The dialogue had us squirming. Why do some movie makers feel that people will bare their souls when disaster strikes? Some of the dialogue was just wrong. Why would the flight attendant who was putting in extra hours to provide for his family continue to put in extra hours after his family fell apart? After a while, we became morbidly curious to see what they would bring out next. I can only assume the director had to produce a script overnight.The over-the-top acting was appropriate for the context, I suppose. You wouldn't call it real acting, but then I don't think this would have been possible in the circumstances. I suppose they were going for cult status from the beginning. Was this a deliberate attempt at schlock?Although to be fair, there were a few mildly amusing and interesting bits, here and there. Everyone likes airplane movies, but this one wasn't realistic enough. Many of us have flown enough to experience what passengers will do in serious turbulence. (For one thing, some of the girls and women will start screaming like sirens. Ladies, it doesn't help.) There have also been some shockingly realistic plane crash scenes in the movies lately. The last ten years have seen CGI explode in its sophistication. I'm afraid we're a different audience than the ones who were gobbling this kind of thing up in 1975.How is this even science fiction? It annoys me that there is so much great science fiction out there, but so little of it gets shown on SyFy. Why aren't they showing Battlestar Galactica? Or any of the Star Trek series? Many of the movies and shows that I think of as being brilliant science fiction are not being shown. How can they even call themselves a sci fi station? They're not, right?

I gave "Collision Course" a two because it's awful good seeing such a bad movie every once in a while. But this movie wasn't quite bad enough to earn a cult following mainly because of the lead role played by the dog.Besides another SyFy "original", what do you get when melodrama, cliché dialog, poor direction, bad science and poor acting collide? Collision Course movie disaster apocalypse...the only thing missing is turning the pilot into a zombie which I substituted in my wandering imagination for the evil dog Bootsie...that turned out to be a good doggie after all. Professional acting on the part of Bootsie was refreshing but his German accent needs some work. Even Asylum's Sharknado was destined to miss the cult mark as some of the acting was too good, and although Sharknado science was bad enough to earn a shock and awe score Asylum is still having trouble hitting the cult mark.Somehow the Collision Course writers missed the low standard mark in writing worst Airplane disaster disaster ever, which is still held by "Starflight: The Plane that Couldn't Land (1983)" which starred Lee Majors. Perhaps the writers of Collision Course shamelessly turned to Mel Brooks for inspiration, afraid of direct ties to other air disaster disaster movies staring John Wayne and Charlton Heston. I must admit the natural and instinctual reaction to take charge and discuss personal histories with strangers when the autopilot fails is well developed. Although the protagonist was married to a pilot at one time is convenient, I think she would have better flying credentials had she stayed at a Holiday Inn.Although ScyFy may yet someday achieve the apparent goal of productions that merit true cult status for being awful, they need to study Troll:II. "Collision Course" only earns an "of course" in the predictable bad science "deus ex machina" department. Still you may be able to scratch your head and smile at the bravado of writers who sell for mass consumption to a market that actually believes in ghosts, ancient aliens and UFO's. I won't spoil the end which will come as a real surprise, although I would have ended the drama at the first mid-air collision and simply rolled credits, leaving room for a Part Deux.There is hope for this movie. No future species that decodes the remnants of this movie on a Venus like planet will wonder why our species became extinct. Therefore this title rates as candidate for sharing on a "Bad Movie" or "Disaster Disaster" movie night with some friends or a cat who can fill in the awkward dialog.