The Film Buffa: 'Havoc' review
Have Tom Hardy, will travel.
Regret can slowly eat away at a human soul. Just ask Walker, a detective who has ridden on the wrong side of the shield for far too long, when we catch up with him in the first scene. Played by Tom Hardy, he carries a face of broken decisions masked by a commitment to putting away more bad guys than he turns a blind eye to. When a power-playing real estate mogul’s son goes missing after a drug deal gone wrong, Walker is tasked with finding the kid before more nefarious characters do.
Those groups include far more corrupt cops like Vincent (Timothy Olyphant), Hayes (Gordon Alexander), and Jimmy (John Cummins), along with a furious Japanese mob hellbent on finding out how the beloved son of the boss was murdered in that bloody drug deal. Please put all of that into a blender and place it on the action level of The Raid. You will have Gareth Evans’s Havoc. It was streaming on Netflix a few weeks ago, but I have yet to write a full review. Three viewings later, the time has finally come to tell you how much I like this film.
I’ll spin it for you quickly. Evans made an action lover’s paradise with just enough hard-boiled juice to the plot to balance the extreme violence that breaks out early before exploding an hour into the film. Think of John Woo’s action style, with a few cans of Red Bull included. The blend isn’t for everyone but fits Hardy’s abilities to a tee. When he’s not wowing audiences in several eclectic roles on screens big and small, he trains and competes in MMA tournaments. That translates well to the role of Walker, who must rip through a snowy Chicago to unpack a crime with deadly consequences.
It’s nice to see Olyphant take his celebrated Raylan Givens role and flip it on its head. The man can’t walk without the ease of a modern-day cowboy, so it’s nice to see that broken bad for Havoc. Forest Whitaker has a nice turn as the crooked suit manipulating Hardy’s cop into finding his criminal son. The movie’s first half is all rugged plot setup and character unfolding, but the film takes off during a nightclub sequence.
A similar sequence in John Wick reminded me of its brutality, and the techno-infused music only added to the mystique. Let’s say the characters converge there for a bloody bash that includes machetes, handguns, flying bodies, and lots of bullets. Credit to Luis Guzman who happens to appear in every other movie to spruce up the proceedings. He can fit into just about any puzzle.
The action doesn’t let up for a solid 45 minutes, and that’s all one can ask for from the guy who gave us two ridiculous Raid movies. The camera can be sped up or do a flurry of wicked movements as characters uncoil gunfire and guilt towards each other in barrages that seem to last endlessly. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is one of my favorite brands of cinema whiskey.
Hardy grounds it all. His voice is the first thing we hear, and his eyes are the last thing we see. He makes a corrupt cop, finding his conscience a little late, thought-provoking by the way he can deliver a line and a kick. The conviction shown on screen should compel even the most cynical-to-action soul to finish the ride. The actor's skill set replaces whatever restraint can’t be found in the plot and the third act.
Havoc is currently streaming on Netflix. Give it a shot.