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Sometimes you just need an incredibly violent, visceral and downright ugly action movie to pass the time with. You know the one. The one you need to watch when you had a bad day at work, and you just want to watch others have even a far worse day than you. One that leaves you feeling hopeless as there is no redeeming value in sight and by the time the credits roll, there is a massive body count with gallons and gallons of blood spilt onto the ground along with a few body parts and the viewer is left to seriously ponder the life choices of those involved in the feature and why it came to this.
Well, look no further folks because director Gareth Evans has got you covered and the prolific filmmaker who burst onto the scene with the action cinema instant classic The Raid: Redemption as well as its Godfather worthy follow up The Raid 2 is back after a long hiatus in adrenaline cinema to deliver what quite could be the most excessively violent and damaging action pic seen in a long time. I say this as it’s a bad thing, but it couldn’t be any further from and when the end credits do roll on this one, even the most serious hardcore action critic will have gotten their just rewards,
Tom Hardy, who is currently on a rampage in Guy Ritchie’s ultra-cool gangster epic Mobland on Paramount+ is in complete savage beast mode here as our wayward anti-hero who must carve out an insanely large gauntlet of corrupt officials, cops and Triad to complete a suicide rescue mission. Hardy is one of those actors that completely immerses himself into any role that he does, and I feel that his turn in director Gavin O’Connor’s MMA drama Warrior is one of this generation’s finest performances. Hardy is a corrupt cop but one that the audience will relate to as he has done bad things but he’s feeling really bad about all of it and he wants to stop it all and walk away. Oh, and there’s also the fact that he is an estranged father who hasn’t seen his daughter in forever because of the job and all of his nefarious dealings.
Hardy is perfectly cast as the lone maverick cop of the movie, and his morally grey and Shakespearian tragic hero is the stuff of legends as he still dodges bullets and bad guys in order to do the right thing. More times than not, the main character in a crime opus like this one would be an assassin or gangster with the reproable conscience, but this time Evans decides to take a page out of classic cop flicks like Serpico or Heat, turning his character of Walker into the classic maverick cop, who is in a network of fellow police detectives who go about ripping off the bad guys and stealing a fortune in drugs and money as they work for their high level boss who just happens to be a megalomanic businessman who is as dirty as they come but also has his sights set on the mayor’s office. Sounds about right. This time, the said megalomanic businessman is Lawrence Beaumont and he is played with scene stealing efficiency by the one and only Forest Whitaker, who is definitely having the time of his life playing the antagonist who might just have a change of heart in the end. Make no mistake though as Hardy’s Walker is having a crisis of faith that has alienated himself from the rest of his department, including a former colleague played with steely eyed efficiency by the always ready Timothy Olyphant. Walker does have one ally (if you can call her that) in Jessie Mei Li who plays Officer Cheung as she is forced to partner with him on this eventful Christmas Eve night when all is about to go very bad very quickly.
If I must be honest here, there is nothing original here in the premise as all of this is just an excuse to let the bullets and blood fly in the film’s final act (and boy does it, but we’ll get to that later) as the extended and senses assaulting action sequences deliver what they are supposed to. Literally, the last forty-five minutes of the movie is absolute carnage and blunt force trauma to the head stunt design but, again, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Walker’s night goes spiraling fast as he is forced to execute a rescue mission involving Whitaker’s son who has had the bad judgement of trying to execute a drug deal with the Triads that leads to all out gunfire as mysterious assailants crash the party. When the dust settles, the son of a notorious crime boss is dead, and the son is prime suspect number one in the killing leading to everyone and their mother wanting to get their hands on him and is unfortunate girlfriend. Throw in Olyphant’s crooked cops and his desire to silence Walker and we have the makings for a bullet riddled (and boy do I mean riddled) finale that is the stuff of legends.
It’s unfortunate really that The Raid films are such a masterclass in action filmmaking as this also leads to the fact that Evans will be judged now and in the future with those films as well as other action cinema filmmakers, but fans have to disassociated themselves with those movies to a certain point and if you can come to the conclusion that not every film will reach the stratospheric heights of certain classics, then you might just enjoy other movies like Havoc just as much.
It’s pretty safe to say that Havoc is as violent as The Raid or its subsequent sequel, but that doesn’t mean that this one is trying to be those others. Havoc is its own beast and a different one at that and it is pretty evident that Evans is paying the highest form of respect to the glory days of Chinese action cinema, and the heroic bloodshed genre of films contributed by such prolific directors such as John Woo. I’m pretty sure that if you follow me or any action blog for that matter then I do not have to go into what exactly the subgenre of heroic bloodshed is, but I will just in case. This is the title for the style of films that came out in the late 80’s and early 90’s orchestrated by Woo and Lam where the bullets flew like they were free. There was also the flawed hero or anti-hero which was played so many times by icons like Chow Yun-Fat who weren’t exactly model citizens but at the end of the day did the right thing and took on massive armies with enough automatic weapons and firepower to channel a small war. Anytime a hero or villain for that matter was hit by bullets, they simply winced in pain and kept going like some inhuman energizer bunny and it would seem that it would take dozens of rounds to bring them down and when that happened, it happened spectacularly in the most dramatic way possible with enough slo-mo to make Zack Snyder squeal with delight. Throughout the years since, there have been many action films that looked to duplicate the success of that rousing era but here Evans looks to polish off his masterpiece of riddled bullets and buckets of blood and in his execution, he succeeds to varying degrees. Simply put, you’ll be hard pressed to find an action flick that is so trigger happy as this one is and fans of heroic bloodshed will be rewarded with the last 45 minutes.
Visually, Evans treats Havoc like his own graphic novel with vibrant colors and a city landscape that is taken right out of the panels of a Frank Miller novel. The unnamed city is its own character that radiates the hopelessness of its characters and there are several shots within the running time where you can pause the film and showcase how it would look on the pages of a book you purchased at a comic book shop. Even the muzzle flashes of the guns have a distinct and vibrant flair with tints of orange and yellow that lights up the dark, dingy night embracing the aesthetics of this ballet of bullets and bloodshed and if this wasn’t a carnage fueled hell ride then it might just come off as beautiful but here it’s a bright and engrossing reminder of the countless casualties erupting onscreen.
Matt Flannery who is the film’s DP encompasses a dark, dank, dingy and unforgiving look to the proceedings that separates this one from other actioners that have a more polished sheen to them like the John Wick films. This is on the other end of the spectrum and the sound effects are their own characters as well as every time a weapon is fired; you’d think you were watching a Sam Peckinpah or Walter Hill film. It’s loud, engrossing and teeth shattering and it’s a solid reason as to why this film should have played on IMAX screens as home viewing just doesn’t do the justice it deserves. It’s like each gun or automatic weapon has its own distinct sound so the audience knows who is firing at that particular time when all the bombastic action is on the screen.
We have to talk about Tom Hardy of course. Hardy can play this type of damaged character in his sleep and here Evans makes him earn his paycheck by throwing him into the meat grinder for over half of the film’s running time. however, it’s as if Hardy is basking it all in and is asking Evans to give him somemore please as he looks completely at home in all the filth, sweat, dirt and blood. I know that fans are used to seeing Evans work with the likes of Iko Uwais and his polished and beautiful looking but deadly art of Penkak Silat but here he uses Hardy as a battering ram and the action is like blunt force trauma to the head and body. It’s important to note that hardy is playing a simple cop who knows how to fight but will do it the ugliest way possible with brawler like action design. Hardy has no problem slamming someone’s face into the floor or delivering a drop kick that would make the late, great Rowdy Roddy Piper smile, and he uses everything, and the kitchen sink to get the job done and kill the enemy with as much extreme prejudice as possible and there is a lot of the enemy to go around here.
I also love Hardy’s approach here as just like in a lot of films; he communicates through his expressions. He doesn’t have to say a word and you know what he is thinking and what is going on. A true testament to this is the last shot of the film. I won’t spoil anything but the last thing you see is hardy and the shot is haunting and poignant all at the same time. Just like Jason Statham, hardy is a true-blue collar action star who doesn’t mind getting as dirty as possible and sacrifice his body for the sake of art.
The rest of the supporting cast do a fine job with the material given them but at the same time, I do wish that there was more characteristic and fleshing out of certain major players namely Timothy Olyphant’s super crooked cop Vincent. Olyphant is a master craftsman at his game but here he is more one note and comes off as a one-sided antagonist. Don’t get me wrong, he’s solid as always but he is given little screentime amidst all the chaos and it would have been more impactful at the end if there was more setup between him and Hardy’s Walker.
Jessie Mei Li is solid as well as honest rookie cop Ellie who is thrust into this night of violent chaos when she is partnered with Walker. Li plays Ellie as a fresh faced and earnest officer who transforms into something harder edged by the end when she is thrown into the blender and must decide if she is going to do the right thing or look away.
Justin Cornwell plays Beaumont’s son Charlie who at the center of all this said havoc and his girlfriend Mia played by Quelin Sepulveda actually have a lot to do here. Yes, they are victims of their own doing, but they prove that they are much more than just mice in a cage and actually get in on the action when it hits. Sunny Pang, who has collaborated with Evans in the past, is solid as a member of the Triads who is disheartened about being looked over for running things. While he doesn’t get overly physical this time around, he still gets in on the blood spilling.
Then there is Forest Whittaker. What can you say about this Oscar caliber actor that hasn’t been said already. Whittaker is always on his game and even though he is given limited screentime as well, he makes the most of it with an onion layered performance as the seedy businessman who is only in it for his own gain but slowly starts to waiver before the finale.
The next part of the review is the dissection of the set pieces and the action design. For those that came to see a nonstop barrage of violent action, you’ll have to wait till the halfway point as Evans carefully sets up his plan and puts it into motion. There is an opening car and truck chase at the beginning and while that scene is shot like a video game, it still has some solid visuals and stunt work. After that, it’s Hardy navigating all this chaos he’s been dealt with but one the 45-minute mark hits, it’s full-on pedal to the metal and it never lets up till the last shot of the film.
The real first salvo of action erupts in a nightclub and it’s here where Evans lets loose and the actors and stunt pros break out into full on take ’em down mode. We’ve seen action sequences in night clubs before but here Evans packs on the visceral damage and while it’s ugly and savage, it is perfectly executed for this type of movie and Evans use of handheld camera trickery enhances the nonsensical mayhem that is displayed and even though there’s a lot of movement, the action design still pops off the screen. Hardy is the very definition of beat mode here and his moves and skill set is of the whatever variety as he uses everything and anything to get the collective job done.
The finale resonates at Walker’s old family cabin deep in the woods and it is here where Evans and crew really lets loose with their homage to heroic bloodshed. The way it’s shot, executed and displayed just screams old school bloody ballet to the point where I thought I was going to see white doves fly through the screen in perfect moments. Endless streams of gunfire light up the dark and dank night and bodies literally drop onto one another with uproarious effect. Evans even uses the patented heroic bloodshed slo-mo to full effect but never really lets it get out of hand but just enough to put an exclamation point on all the barbaric killing. I’m not going to lie as I felt if Evans had some of his goons wear white to fully showcase the overzealous blood spray like at the end of Woo’s The Killer, that would have been the icing on the blood soaked and drenched cake. No worries here folks however as we see all the glorious red spray every single time someone gets shredded with rounds and let me tell you, there’s a lot of shredding going on.
What makes this climax even more outrageous is that Hardy uses just about any object he can muster to subdue his assailants, and we get several gnarly kills from bladed weaponry, hooks, window glass, wood and I think I saw someone meet their end via but it’s all in good old school action fun.
Overall, I asked the question of if the long wait for Havoc was worth it and the answer is of course. Is it perfect? Again, no movie is perfect and that is all in the eye of the beholder. Viewers of cinema can say a movie is picture perfect but at the end of the day, it’s an opinion but here even with the nitpicks of characterization flaws and clumsy dialogue, Evans really owns the film and makes it his own while paying the ultimate respect to some of his favorite action filmmakers and movies. He really knows what to do with the genre and this is the closest thing we will get to the heyday of Hiong Kong cinema when safety wasn’t an issue and the action and subsequent shot was all that was important. This is stripped down, bare bones, catastrophic, mind-numbing gore, violence and action design in its most primitive form. This is the preverbal kitchen sink and then some and it works on all cylinders and should please even the most hardcore action fan.
Tom Hardy proves that he owns his roles here once again and even though he’s seriously flawed, you want him to succeed and here there are no good guys to celebrate here but just varying degrees of bad and worse. It’s an ugly and unapologetic world that Evans has created and he makes no qualms for what it is. This is a night of pure chaos seen through the eyes of Hardy’s Walker and it is poignant that it all transpires on what should be the most peaceful of nights in the year. The rest of the cast do justice with the material they are given and even though some are given less to do when they should have been given way more, it’s still great to see them do their thing when they are on screen.
Havoc is as advertised. It’s an homage to Hong Kong heroic bloodshed. A cue taken from the bloody bullet ballets of the 80’s. A savage depiction of the worse of men and humanity. A clear cut decent into hell that ends with no redeeming value in sight. If you love action films and most importantly, horror level violent action films that are unforgiving and unflinching then you should love this too. Afterall, when you ramp this one up on your Netflix que, you know exactly what you are getting and Gareth Evans, Tom Hardy and cast and crew throw all of their blood, sweat and tears at you to entertain. You’re either going to love this film or hate it and I for one am for the first one. Now can we have The Raid 3 please and thank you.
VERDICT: 4 Out of 5 Stars
Gareth Evans is back and back big time with his gloriously hyper-kinetic and hyper-gory ode to the classic bullet ballets of the past. A blunt force trauma experience that never overstays its welcome and delivers exactly what we came to see.
