Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Some good scenes can't save the uneven pace, 21 Mar 2008
A film that has sat on the shelf for a few years and that had some finance problems, resulting in a scaled down budget, Chaos is good in some parts but fails to excite.
Jason Statham stars as a suspended cop who is called back into to negotiate with bank robber Wesley Snipes. He is also saddled with a new partner Ryan Philippe.
All three play there stereotypical roles well enough, but Snipes drops out of the film for large portions (as does Statham near the end), and thus most of the action scenes are carried by Philippe.
The chaos theory is supposed to be the main driving device of the plot, but is only referenced a few times and actually quite unnecessary, as the plot could have worked without it.
The plot twists and turns and twists some more, but the pace is uneven with very few action scenes between long strands of talky talky scenes.
Over all not bad, but not enough pace to be a solid thriller and not enough action to be a explosive blockbuster add to that a final denouncement that is not that much of a surprise 'twist' and you've got a movie that was probably a good concept on paper, but quite dull on screen.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Statham leads, Snipes supports, 13 Feb 2009
Oh how the mighty have fallen! It wasn't too long ago when Wesley Snipes was top-lining your latest studio blockbuster, whereas now he is forced into making brief appearances in straight-to-DVD movies playing second fiddle to the likes of Ryan Phillippe and Jason Statham! He has always been a good actor and it is slightly sad to see him unable to continue displaying his considerable talent. You are now able to buy a `Wesley Snipes 6-Pack' boxset containing 6 of these nuggets for a knock-down price! Six!? How sad! The boxset contains all of his movies after the slide began post the release of Blade Trinity. These movies are distributed under a label known as `The Fight Factory', who are also responsible for the recent Straight-to-DVD output of Steven Segal, Jean Claude Van Damme and, most tragically, Cuba Gooding Jnr and Val Kilmer. Chaos though manages to avoid this ignominy, and is a Lionsgate picture. So let me review it:-
Wesley (in the first of the 4 scenes he appears in) and his associates hijack a hi-tech downtown bank and lockdown the sophisticated security system. Ex-Police detective Jason Statham is pressed back into service after Snipes informs police he is the only man he will negotiate with. Statham's character is disgraced, a story told in flashback, after an incident at a bridge a few years prior. Arriving at the scene of the heist Statham immediately orders the building to be hit, triggering the booby traps placed at the perimeter by Snipes and his goons - quite a spectacular scene it is too, as squads of SWAT get blown backwards by the explosion. Entering the shattered forecourt the police find the robbers have disappeared and, even more strangely, no money seems to have been taken. Statham and Phillippe are assigned to the case and tasked to track down the mastermind behind the heist and figure out what their true plan actually was.
Naming the film `Chaos' is fairly appropriate, the idea of creating so many different possibilities as to render unravelling such a scheme nigh on impossible. Though maybe the term `misdirection' would be more accurate - though that doesn't make a very catchy title! From this point on the movie is fairly respectable; the crime scenes they encounter seem suitably grimy and on a par with the authenticity of Homicide Life on the Streets or The Wire. Some of the co-stars who appear briefly in these scenes are also very plucky - realising the possible `once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity' of appearing in a movie - to really show off what they can do. Including an `unbelievably hot' Natasha Malte (Bloodrayne 2), who shines during an interrogation scene. As the action shifts forward Statham and Phillippe wade knee-deep through a multitude of white trash before stumbling upon evidence that a recently deceased fellow officer may have been somehow involved, and may also have been corrupt. At this point Statham is called upon to display an emotion that he isn't always required to show in his other movies. And, when he does, it never really comes across as convincing: that of deception. But he does master the subtlety when he has to, and it soon becomes apparent that his character is not everything he appears to be. There is a very good scene just before the final act leading you believe he has been vapourized in a massive house explosion.
The picture does fall down slightly when the twist is finally revealed. It all seems slightly convenient and doesn't logically make much sense. You would have thought that Snipes' character's previous identity would have been uncovered very early on during a police investigation. Nevertheless this is still a detailed and intelligent thriller that definitely cuts the mustard on an obviously tight budget. Phillippe puts in a decent gritty performance as the moral cop realising at the very end that he has been tricked, and worse, betrayed. And of course Snipes is also worth watching, even though he barely has the chance to say a few lines in very much a supporting role. Hollywood come in! He's paid his taxes, now give the poor bloke a chance again!
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is what it is., 1 May 2008
If you are expecting a big budget, high action, big effects movie then you should probably go and by something else. If you are wanting a high concept, highly convoluterd storyline with many subtle twists and turns then you should probably by something else.
If you are happy with an easy, uncomplicated "thriller" that makes a great Friday/Saturday Night Movie then this is for you.
Anything that has a star line-up of Jason, Wesley & Ryan is not going to set the A list alight. This is a very creditable B movie - small budget, reasonably acted and unsubtle movie.
It begins with a shooting on a bridge, includes a very explosive bank robbery and ends with a slight twist. See it as an ordinary film and this is well worth watching. Statham is good as the cop brought back from suspension at the request of the robbers; Snipes is passable as the main villian and Phillipe is average as the young rookie cop.
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