New York City Detective Patrick Walker (played by Tom Hardy) shows up to investigate a gang hit. When he’s shown the surveillance footage, he sees the face of Charlie (Justin Cornwell), the son of real estate mogul and mayoral candidate Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker). Having done some nefarious dealings for the would-be mayor before, Walker alerts the corrupt politician how his estranged son is involved with some really bad people. Fearing for his son’s life, Beaumont makes a deal with him: help his son survive and Walker is no longer indebted to him. Reluctantly, Walker agrees so he and his rookie partner Ellie (Jessie Mei Li) start to pick up the trail. He tracks down Charlie’s girlfriend, Mia (Quelin Sepulveda), through a passport forgery business which leads them to a compromised night club, which leads them to gang members wanting revenge, which leads them to some crooked cops trying to cover their tracks, which leads them to an explosive battle where all surviving characters come together for a revealing climax at Walker’s family cabin.
Sometimes it’s not hard to see why movies go directly to streaming. HAVOC is one of those movies.
While there are interesting ways to kill people, seemingly non-stop action and some pretty solid performances, this would’ve been largely forgotten if it were released into theaters. That said, it’s a good option if you like the action genre and have a free night to Netflix and chill.
The best element is how electric Hardy and Whitaker are when on screen together. Their verbal sparring over Charlie’s disappearance, for example, is like two heavyweight fighters going at it in a passionate exchange just before the bell rings. Problem is, they only share the screen a couple of times and that’s a complete waste of potential.
There are interesting directorial choices that make it fun and the action sequences are relentless and cool — think “a poor man’s JOHN WICK” — but, at the end of the day, HAVOC has way too many characters for the audience to keep track of and a disappointing lack of range from an otherwise talented Hardy. It can be a fun watch under the right circumstances but, all in all, HAVOC is serviceable, not special.
JKG SCORE: 5.5
Untitled Film Project 